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I have a stock 2014 E550 with the OEM 18” AMG rims and I was wondering if they are staggered or not. I called my local MB dealer and they weren’t sure. When I called the tire place that installed them they got totally confused when I said it had AMG rims on it. They think I took rims off an E63 and put them on my car. My rims are the standard factory 18” AMG, so can I rotate my tires ie: left front on the right rear and the right front on the left rear? You know the criss-cross way of rotating?
Pleaae let let me know as I have an appointment at 4:00pm eastern time to drop the car off at the tire shop.
What do the tires say? My 18” AMG wheels are mounted with the same size tires and rotatable. My E63 AMG wheels have different size tires and are staggered, so not rotatable. Pretty easy to just look at the sidewall.
Yeah, all you need to do is look at the sidewall on your tires. There's no need to call your dealership. If the numbers on the sidewall (ie 245/40/18) are the same on all your tires then they are NOT staggered, which means you can rotate them without any issues.
Staggered tires means that you have larger rear tires than fronts. So look at the size of the fronts and compare them with the rears. If they are the same size, then not staggered and you can rotate then front to back.
Now whether you can rotate side to side depends on if they are directional or not. This is a good link to the basics of directional tires: https://www.tirebuyer.com/education/directional-tires
If the tires are not directional, you can rotate side to side and front to back. If they are directional, then its only front to back.
Ok I think I understand the whole stagger thing now. Like I said, I think I was getting it mixed up with “offset”
My 1985 Mustang GT had the Goodyear Gatorbacks on it and I remember those were directional. I don’t believe the Sumitomo HTR A/S PO2 tires I have are directional.
That's the exact same wheel/tire size I used on mine years ago........and I rotated religiously........so yes by all means. If you ever consider some HRE's; I'm your guy!
Ok I think I understand the whole stagger thing now. Like I said, I think I was getting it mixed up with “offset”
My 1985 Mustang GT had the Goodyear Gatorbacks on it and I remember those were directional. I don’t believe the Sumitomo HTR A/S PO2 tires I have are directional.
You are correct in your assumption of different offsets in a staggered setup. I believe the standard 18" AMG wheels are 48ET all around. My OEM E63 AMG staggered wheels do have a different offset from front to rear and you do not want to mount them in the wrong wheel arch.
Goodyear Gatorbacks….. good stuff.
Staggered rims are indeed different offsets. The offsets withh be stamped on the insides of the rims. You will have two markings per rim One will have a number and then a J after it, this is the rim width, the other will have ET with a number after it, this is your offset. If these numbers are the same on all 4 wheels and the tyre sizes are the same they are not staggered. If they are different on each axle they are staggered.
People who do not understand this and think it is only the tyre size that matters can cause people all sorts of issues.
No AMG unfortunately, and we'll just leave it as that
Not necessarily. Newer E63 cars have 4Matic and they came with staggered wheels. My wife’s W205 C300 is also 4Matic and it came stock with staggered wheels. The key is to ensure that the overall rolling diameters of all wheels are effectively identical, because that will mean minimal/zero rotational differences between wheels when traveling in a straight line (most conditions), and thus not overloading the differentials.
Does the wider rear contact patch with staggered wheels allow our V8 Mercedes to put down more power? What about the added rotational weight of wider and heavier rims? Thoughts?
Does the wider rear contact patch with staggered wheels allow our V8 Mercedes to put down more power? What about the added rotational weight of wider and heavier rims? Thoughts?
I've always gone aftermarket to help with style as well and un sprung weight......OEm wheels are HEAVY........also why I have 305 on my cls for that power
Does the wider rear contact patch with staggered wheels allow our V8 Mercedes to put down more power? What about the added rotational weight of wider and heavier rims? Thoughts?
Of course more rubber adds grip to control the delivery of HP. Unsprung weight discussions can go on ad nauseum. These are not race cars, however. Carbon fiber wheels are making inroads with Porsche, Ferrari, and Ford, with the GT350, and GT due to strength and light weight. The world's largest manufacturer of carbon fiber wheels, Carbon Revolution is upping it's production from 10,000 units per year to 150,000 units. That is quite an increase based on world demand.
And now the topic is derailed!
Does the wider rear contact patch with staggered wheels allow our V8 Mercedes to put down more power? What about the added rotational weight of wider and heavier rims? Thoughts?
No, it is purely a "looks" thing for what it actually works well.
For the tire to lose grip on the road under the 550 engine, that I also have, it would need to be ridiculously narrower. Friction force between tire and road does not really depend on the width of the tire as the formula for the fiction force simply is "F=c x Fn" where c is the friction coefficient between the tire and road and Fn is the force between them two surfaces. If the narrower and wider tires are made of the same rubber material with the same properties it does not matter how wide the tire is. Wider tires provide longer run times as there simply is more rubber to wear off. Racing car tires are soft so they have good grip but they wear fast and to battle this the tires are made wide.
If the tire is too narrow it can break apart under the power/force from our big engines but the tires we can use under our cars are way wider for that.
“If the narrower and wider tires are made of the same rubber material with the same properties it does not matter how wide the tire is. Wider tires provide longer run times as there simply is more rubber to wear off.”
“If the narrower and wider tires are made of the same rubber material with the same properties it does not matter how wide the tire is. Wider tires provide longer run times as there simply is more rubber to wear off.”
What??? Neither point makes sense.
Explain why not?
Friction force is just a simple calculation of multiplying friction coefficient with the force between the surfaces.
Need for wider tires comes from the strength of the rubber to handle the force. If too narrow the rubber will break apart under the force.
This same goes with tire diameter as with bigger diameter the tire has bigger area against road so it does not break as easy as smaller tire.
Then another topic is to talk about the mechanical grip against the pavement, which has everything to do with the softness or hardness of the rubber.
Totally agree with you on a physics formula but the real world has variations in pavement, dirt, gravel, lateral movement, etc. A 10” wide tire would optimize chance of maximum grip as opposed to a 5” tire. Right?
Point 2 implies that a wider tire lasts longer because there is more rubber to wear off. That would be true if tread depth was more in the wider tire which typically isn’t true. Sorry if I read your point wrong.
Totally agree with you on a physics formula but the real world has variations in pavement, dirt, gravel, lateral movement, etc. A 10” wide tire would optimize chance of maximum grip as opposed to a 5” tire. Right?
Point 2 implies that a wider tire lasts longer because there is more rubber to wear off. That would be true if tread depth was more in the wider tire which typically isn’t true. Sorry if I read your point wrong.
Wider tire has more to wear as it is wider against the road surface, not because thread depth.
