Utopia Texas

I noticed today my new to me 2008 SL550 has different sized tires on the front and rear. Is this for looks or performance? I assume rotating front to rear is a no-no! Thanks...

kbdixon

Yes they are different sizes, and as much for appearance as for performance. With most tires of these sizes they are also one direction which effectively rules out any rotation at all. On the sidewall of each tire there will be a rotational direction arrow indicating which way the tire should turn when going forward. I have never tried to rotate against these wishes and while I don't think you will immediately implode, I think that tire wear will suffer.
Good Luck with your purchase

Ghostty

All SL models come like that. And most other ones too, like SLK, CL, CLS, E, S, and so on. Not sure about the C class It's mostly because the MBs are still RWD cars So you don't get to spin your tires when you hit gas half way down. Otherwise for any V8 would be very easy to spin some small tires

All you can do is to see if you can rotate the tires left - right, assuming your tires don't have asymmetric thread. It's all on the tires, take a look and read

4thSL

Not all SLs - my 2003 SL500 came with 17 inch wheels all around with the same size tires.

Ghostty

Unusual Either someone swapped the wheels, or your edition was an exception. But the upgrade looks much better

stykshooter

On my SL 600, it has a sticker on your driver side door jam that might help

boostd

It's called a staggered setup. Some cars even do different wheel diameters.

Welwynnick

Its just for looks. It does nothing for performance IMHO.


Nick

4thSL

Original owner - came that way from the factory.

Shadow5501

As everyone has said, it's pretty common on a Benz. Some of the sedans can be had either way - staggered if you pick the sport trim, square if you choose luxury. I don't recall a late model SL without it.

So do you really live down in Utopia? Ever been to the Laurel Tree? It's a bucket list item that I've not made it to yet. cheers.

Utopia Texas

We have a weekend place near Utopia on the river. I live just West of Houston but get out to the Hill Country as much as possible. About 20 miles north of Utopia are some of the best roads in Texas for twists and turns. Some call the roads the Three Sisters and others the Twisted Sisters. Never been to the Laurel Tree but am familiar with the family. They were originally huge horse breeder family here in Brookshire, Texas and moved west to the Utopia area. I believe they own the golf course also which is a hoot. Cattle sometimes roam the fairways and you have to play over and around them!

Shadow5501

Sounds very nice. I am in DFW and have a weekend place in Fredericksburg. Am well familiar with the twisted sisters as I've been riding two wheeled vehicles (motorized and pedal powered) in the hill country for a good number of years. I'll wave when I see you on the road.

F1BHP

The staggered setup is used to balance the grip levels in corners. The smaller tyre at the front means the car will have less lateral grip and the car will understeer.

Understeer is much safer and the traction control can sort out any issues or mistakes made by the driver. If you want the car to handle better then increase the front tyre width.

The SL actually has close to a 50/50 weight distribution so is a good candidate for a square tyre setup however due to the geometry you can only go to a certain width tyre in the front before it will rub.

I have done a widebody conversion so I am running 325mm rear and 305mm front which is a little closer than the standard setup.

Welwynnick

I don't have an SL, and my car has a bigger offset, but otherwise I think I use similar wheels and tires. I spent a lot of time last year experimenting with different square and staggered configurations, and came to a very simple conclusion. The only reason Mercedes use staggered wheels is marketing. I never found any advantage whatsoever, and a square configuration was always superior in all respects. There were no compromises or trade-offs at all.

Just because you have 50/50 weight distribution and square wheels & tires doesn't mean the car will handle neutrally, ie: without understeer or oversteer. It depends on other things like roll center height and roll moment distribution. In conventional cars, roll moment is controlled by springs and sway bars, and in ABC cars, its controlled by the electronics. Roll center height is controlled by geometry.

Mercedes suspensions seem to be fundamentally set-up around square configurations, and if you change to staggered, that will only upset the handling balance. That's been my experience. In my current cars, I went from staggered back to square, and never looked back. They're now agile, balanced, responsive, stable and all the other good things a car should be. In addition, they ride comfortably and quietly, and I can swap my tires front and rear, left and right, as I please.

Mid-engine and rear-engine cars are presumably different, and I expect the suspensions are set-up to behave properly with wider rears. Mercedes don't seem to be like that, and work best square.

Everyone said it couldn't be done, but I now run 275/30/20x10 front and rear on mine, and I don't rub as long as I have the right offset (45mm on my cars). Its a long storey that I won't repeat; its all written up here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...els-tyres.html

Nick

F1BHP

I was saying the same thing. Square is a better setup. The staggered setup on a Mercedes is to create understeer which stops people crashing and killing themselves due to oversteer and spinning into a ditch.

On a Ferrari which has more weight over the rear of the car it makes sense to run a staggered setup with more rubber in the rear.