Tough Lightweight Tiny Tires - Lifted Fit

My wife and I own a paid off 2012 Honda Fit with 90k on it. It's been a reliable people hauler, and my wife loves the tiny size of the car. It fits in our small garage with room to spare. 

The only downside is that it's a bit low for Arizona and Utah road trips. On numerous occasions we've had to hike back forest roads to trailheads that a Subaru would have no issues with. It got us thinking "why don't we just buy a Subaru?" Well for starters, this car is paid off and my wife would hate to trade it for pennies. 

I recently learned that 2nd Gen Honda Insight springs are direct drop in for the Fit's spring perchs and shocks, and should net a 1-1.5" lift. Nothing crazy, in fact, speaking with the Honda Factory Rally Team, they actually lifted their cars to similar height (35mm with 185/65R15 tires), which combined with slightly lower offset wheels resulted in no increase in tippiness. Combine that with a skid plate and we should be good.

The only part of this equation I haven't figured out yet is the tires: with only 117hp on tap, fighting against elevation asthma, turning even the stock tire is a chore for this little car. Ideally, I'd like to find a tough tire slightly taller than the stock 175/65R15. I found a 185/75R14 is fairly common, and would add a nice cushion to really lightweight wheels. Any other ideas?

In for lifted Fit content

I'm not looking for just an old tire. I want something that'll be durable offroad, but have good driving characteristics on the highway.

Perhaps a second set of off-road tires (General Grabber, etc.) specifically for your trips?  That wouldn't mess with the car's daily driver road manners yet get you fire road capability.

Can you not use the tires that they use on the crosstrek. They get used on the lifted miata's occasionally and they are down on power as well. They are supposed to be lighter for fuel economy. 

In reply to pheller :

I put General Altima’s Arctic tires on my Daughter’s Fit & they survive highway miles well. We also have them on our van & one of the boy’s cars, and they wear better on pavement then most snow tires. I’ve never used them for any real off-roading, but I think they’d work well for you. 

165 15 is still available, but more from restoration places.  Beetle, 140 Volvo and various other Euros used them in the 70's.   185/70 15 was a thing in the old days, but I think they are dead meat now.  195/65 15 is pretty widely available these days, and would gain you a bit of height. 

A lot of it depends on how much height you can gain before scrubbing fenders and spring seats.  I put a set of studded 185/70 14's on my B13 Sentra, and had to dent the spring seats on the rear struts to clear.

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I just ran a rallycross event in my BRZ on Altimax Arctics and they were good. These and the Winterforce are common in summertime rallycross. I also find the Altimax tires hold up to warm weather use than other snow tires I've used.

Do you have the base or sport model? My '13 Fit sport would definitely benefit from a lift if going off pavement. The base front bumper seems to have less overhang. For winter here in Chicagoland I went down in wheel diameter and up in sidewall (down to 15s with a 65 sidewall) It still drives fine on the highway, but if I combined a lift with the taller sidewall of the general altimax arctics... I imagine it would feel really sketchy. Even with just the softer and taller sidewall it's more mushy than I would like when making a quick lane change or attacking off ramps.

In order to maintain good braking performance when on pavement I think I would keep the stock width. For wheels I went with Konig helium. That wheel/tire combo is lighter than stock. After 4 winters the wheels look barely used. 

so, first you want to go out and pick up a set of 14x7et19 Enkei RPF-1's...

because 8.6#s per wheel, and RPF-1's look great on Fits.

sorry, don't have much to offer tire-wise
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I can second General snows go well in all conditions.  I traded my summer wheels and tires away and been rocking my snows year round

Tough and lightweight are competing traits in a tire. You CAN find non-DOT rally tires in the size you're looking for but that's rather extreme. Maxxis has a 20% sale right now but that's still almost $150/tire . I think the snows are a good idea. Anything you can find that is built for serious off road work is going to weigh quite a bit for a tire of that size and it'll be a noticeable hit on a 1.5L Fit. 

I like the idea on also adding lighter wheels. 

What about ATV tires?

I thought to net a lighter combo with more height you should increase wheel diameter and stay with the same aspect ratio.  Check on stock width 16s with more offset and get snows.

Someone beat me to it but I was also going to suggest looking at what Subaru puts on their cars. Our crosstrek came with Yokohama geolanders. I have yet to go off of the pavement but on road manners are good. If you already attacking trails in your fit and getting reasonably far I assume you know what you’re doing and the limits of your car. A basic tire upgrade and the lift should get a little farther. Maybe throw a come-along in the back just in case. Post pictures please! I’ve been day dreaming of doing this to my Mazdaspeed3. 

yes! 

When changing tire sizes, keep in mind that you only get half of the diameter.

It's called "rolling radius"

So it is difficult to get any significant change in height .

I have nothing to contribute other than to say I now want a lifted Fit.

Time to start hunting for a cheap manual Sport.

Yokohama make the Geolander G015 in a 205/70/15 with a 26.3" diameter and a 215/70/16 with a diameter of 27.9" .  Not sure about they would fit, but the tire will take whatever you want to throw at it.  I have had them on my Outback (225/65/17) for a year now and frequently take it on the dirt/gravel/rock roads around here.

I’ve never seen them for sale anywhere but we used to mount tiny 14” Goodyear Wranglers on postal vans.

Walmart now sells Nokian WRG3 in many sizes. I recommend them. 

Order and enjoy

The tire size you mentioned would give about 1/2" raise but how will that affect the already low power.

Mathematically ~3% addition in gearing