You can comfortably fit a 26" tall tire past that lower strut plate, but that's about max. (26" over all diameter)

 

The hhr ss has 25.97" OD, I wonder if a narrower but taller tire would work. I was looking at maybe 215/55/17 where my ss has 225/45/18. The 25.7 245/45/17 fits just fine obviously as does my 245/40/18.

 

Don't think a 2XX/55/17 will be under 26"

My 225/50/ZR17 just barely fit with about 1/4 inch of room.

 

Ecl was running 215/55/17 on malibu rims.. & no clearance issue, according to him.. But the rims may have helped them clear the strut plates ? Cause that tire height is 26.3

That much taller will take a tad off the low end's grunt, but add it on the top end rolling.

 

I wonder if they were new tires, or were they on the wheels when he got them? Slight bit of wear can make a difference....... Also tire calculators are close, each manufacturer and tread design come out a little different. A rounded edge tread design may fit where a squared corner design won't......

 

Greybeard-

No his tires that came with da rims were pretty used.. So that may be the reason..

I know different brands do run slightly differently.

Like Sumitomo 225/50/17, is 26.1 tall, with 7.9 tread width
And say: Nitto 450 225/50/17 is 25.97 tall, with 7.6 tread width.

 

Even tires from the same manufacturer and batch number can vary in size, the first thing you do with racing tires is get out the tape measure and get the O.D. I've had two tires with sequential serial numbers that varied by 1/2" in O.D., that's a big differential for sure but you do see variances in street tires too.

 

Very true.. I remember having tires spun on the vehicle & trimmed to 'true them'....Tread went down, but smooth ride was achieved..

This was long before the Road-Force Tire Balancer..

 

Yup, tire truing, I remember it well. Back in my first year of college I worked part time at Sears in the Auto Center as a tire fitter, dang tire truing machine always left me looking like I'd just crawled out of a coal mine. And my parents thought I was goofy in the head when I started driving cabs after that, sure the hours were nuts (so were the fares), but I didn't look like Al Jolson in the Jazz Singer after work.

 

Too funny, but you know the drill very well obviously..Dirty job but it worked...

Even tho I have never trimmed tires, I did work nights thru school & afterwards as an apprentice in a Machine shop. So I have some experience truing things as well.