Its time for new tires to go on my 17 inch lamina wheels. I am thinking of going to 235/55 or 255/50 size tires. Anyone running these sizes I would like to hear your comments.

 

255/45R17, better look and better ride.

 

There are trade offs to any choice: generally speaking, a wider tire should provide better traction for both wet and dry handling, depending on tread depth and pattern. A taller tire increases ride comfort, but can decrease performance handling characteristics. Because a wider tire increases traction, steering at parking lot speeds will require slightly greater effort. Wider tires often have more/wider water channels that help prevent hydroplaning, also.

It is the number, width, and depth of the channels in the tire that help displace water and prevent hydroplaning in a non-directional or asymmetric tread. "Directional" tires do help with water displacement so they're great if you get a lot of rainfall throughout the year, but may be worse than non-directional tires in picking up road variations like longitudinal ruts or grooving, creating momentary lateral forces that seek to steer the car for you (called "tramlining"). Tramlining is at the least a nuisance, and at the worst, can be a frightening experience (especially at speed, resulting in pucker factors up to and exceeding 126%).

As for sidewall height, a higher sidewall = quieter, more comfortable ride. Conversely, a lower sidewall (and/or higher pressure in the tire) = louder, stiffer ride, and is more subjective to tramlining.

What else? A tire with a longer mileage warranty utilizes harder rubber compounds, resulting in a trade off between ride comfort and longevity. If you don't drive the car very much, consider a lesser expensive, lesser-warrantied, softer rubber tire, as you run the risk of reaching the 6-10 years of life expectancy without getting the value out of the tires. Sadly, I just had to replace all four name-brand tires on my 1994 Nissan pickup truck that has only 52,000 miles on it. The tires had 9/32's of tread left and only 2,000 miles of driving, but were 8 years old and had dry-rotted to the extent that two of them literally collapsed just driving it to the gas station. Of course, I live in the desert, so your results may vary.

This is just my $.02. Online tire dealer websites are great for consumer reports about manufacturers and models. Do get the tires that make the most sense to you and the best ones you can get within your budget, remembering that all choices are a compromise of some kind and all consumer references are subjective. I really like my local tire dealer, who gives me 30 days to change my mind if I don't like the characteristics of a given tire. I have taken advantage of it, after learning that not all consumer recommendations are as accurate as they claim...

 

@Redline

we also have an issue with tires aging out here in the US Northeast. the sun is very destructive to parked tires. with motorhomes and other travel vehicles having expensive tires and not much mileage, we use tire covers to limit the damage. even with my cars i park them where the sun will not beat on the tires or use a cover that extends to the wheels.

 

^^ Same here with my trusty 1999 Dodge Ram pickup. It does less than 1,500 miles per year now and I keep it parked in the shade. Its June 2010 Firestone Destination LE tires have less than 12,000 miles on them but have aged well (no signs of cracking or dry-rotting) and continue to hold their pressures. The ride remains surprisingly comfortable....

 

Don't forget, when you alter the height dimension of the tire from the stock size the speedo will be off. You can use a gps app on your phone to find out what your ground speed is and adjust your driving to suit. Or bend over and take it to Jag to have the speedo recalibrated. I would opt for the free way.

 

Or you use this:

Speedo error calculator ? speedometer error as a result of tyre size change ? Speedometer calibration