C5 MKI maximum possible tire size

[Richard_Hannay]

I hope I am not judged too harshly for this, but I am planning on taking my car on a few *light* offroad adventures. Nothing crazy, just safari car nonsense. I also do not wish to make any permanent modifications to my car, nothing I cannot unbolt and I don't wish to cut anything considering I quite like my bodywork.

I want to ask what is the largest tire I could possibly go with without rubbing since I am planning to put either A/T or M/T tires on (mostly for the puncture resistance tbh)
I now have 195/65 r15 tires (the smallest available) and I am thinking of installing 205/70 r15 on a set of new (used) 15in rims. I don't think these tires would rub, but I am not very good at measuring such things and I don't want to make any purchases that I may regret. If these tires do fit, do you thing I could get away with 195/80 r15 or would that be a bridge too far?

TL:DR
I am wondering what is the biggest tire size I could fit without any rubbing issues

Any feedback is apreciated and thanks for all your help in advance

[GiveMeABreak]

This would put your tyres well over the 3% diameter, so not recommended at all.

As for width, your tyres would go from 7.68 inches to 8.07 inches.

[xantia_v6]

When considering up-sizing the tyres on my XM, I used the calculator at https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/ I thought that I could go a size larger than the largest the factory fitted (the car os rather short-geared on the autoroute). Measuring the gap around the standard tyres with a tape measure was inconclusive. I had a spare rim with no tyre mounted, so I cut out blocks of 30mm thick polystyrene with the profile of each trye I was considering and taped them to the rim mounted on the car. Spinning the rim then made it easy to accurately check the clearance. With a hydraulic Citroen it is easy to do this with the suspension fully compressed.

[Richard_Hannay]

keep in mind that the c5 comes with 205/65 r15 from factory, so 205/70 r15 is actually quite close, 3.2%