Couple thoughts
I’m sure plenty of people have put 305/40/22’s on 9” wheels over the years, but that is truly too wide of a tire. For one, the tire manufactures list a 10” as the minimum width for that tire. A pretty wifey accepted rule of thumb is, for optimal performance, you want to get your tread width (not section width) close to the width of the wheel. 305 tires look to all have 10.6-ish tread width. That translates to .8” of tread rolling over into the sidewall on each side. 15% of your tread will be used as your sidewall. Not optimal, not too mention the aesthetic would look very bulgy and bad
Now 305/40’s are shorter than 285/45’s (31.7 vs 32.1). The shorter tire will give you more drop, but simultaneously increasing fender gap. It’s not much, but the difference between the two sizes listed above would give you almost a 1/4” drop/lift AND fender gap increase/reduction. I’m not going to speak for what kind of aesthetic you want/should have, but IMO when you have too tall of a tire stuffed, it counters the work of lowering because the proportions get thrown off. You may have more fender gap but at least you’ll look lower with a shorter tire.
Some tire options for a 9” wide:
- 285/45 (32.1” OD & 9.7” tread width)
- 285/40 (31” OD & 9.9” tread width) realistically it’s too wide, but it’s a popular size with good options.
- 275/45 (31.7” OD & 9.4” tread width)
- 255/45 (31” OD & 8.9” tread width) only one tire option though and it’s $$$.
- 275/40 (30.7” OD & 9.4-9.7” tread width) idk why the tread width varies so much between manufactures on this size.
If it was my project with that drop, I’d run either 275/45/22 or 275/40/22. 275/45 is the best compromise of OD, tread width and tire options. 275/45 is roughly the same OD as the oem 275/55/20 that I assume is what’s on the ltz’s. Aesthetically, it won’t change your proportions you currently have. 275/40 would be a great choice if you can live with more fender gap and want to be low low. Thanks to the German super SUV’s, that size has a bunch of max performance summer and other high performance all-seasons if you drive hard and want serious grip. Alternatively, I’d try to get a 22x10 and run 285/40’s, but tbss’ are a great looking wheel so I get it lol
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