Wider wheels

[scrooge95]

Hello!
Now that Henry the traveller is back on the road, and I am rediscovering the joy of driving him, I was wondering about wider wheels as I believe the 8cwt minor van wheels are a direct swap with no detrimental effects on the speedo or fouling of the wheel arches.
I will probably end up using Henry for the bulk of my driving as my 21year old daily drive Volvo becomes uneconomic to keep fixing, and so I would like to make the ride as good as possible. At the moment I am feeling every bump in the road!
Any thoughts on this subject would be gratefully received.
Obviously a set of 5 wheels from ESM are a reasonable outlay especially having to them buy the tyres as well… but they are at least powder coated already. A second hand set would be cheaper if any are available, but would presumably need refurbishment costing in, plus possibly new tyres as well……

[philthehill]

A Minor 1000 with good serviceable standard suspension will drive without you feeling every bump.
Fitting wider wheels in my honest opinion will not improve the ride it may even make it worse.
Before doing anything make sure that what you have is serviceable especially the dampers and rubber bushes.

[Monty-4]

Refurbishment costs being what they are now I think you're better off buying new unless you plan to do it DIY. A friend of mine recently paid north of £350 to get five wheels painted.

If the ride is that bad you might be resting on your bump stops, need some bushes and/or have poor tyres on already!

[ManyMinors]

I must say I agree with Phil. Get everything working properly as standard to begin with. I ran my daily Minor on a set of genuine 8cwt van wheels with 165/80/14 tyres for a while. They didn't really improve things at all and I sold them (for a very good price) and reverted back to standard wheels & tyres which I've run happily ever since . The one thing that the wider wheels improved was the look. Wider wheels DO improve the looks of a Minor because they fill the arches a bit more but I have found that the drive - of a standard or relatively standard car - is best on skinny standard wheels shod with good quality 145/80/14 tyres.

[scrooge95]

Brilliant replies, thank you so much.
The current Tyres could well be a contributing factor to the slightly uncomfortable ride quality, as they very definitely pre-date my ownership. We have an MOT booked for two weeks time and I imagine the tyres will come up lacking somewhat in the advisories.
I was interested to know how you all felt about the wider wheels, apart from obviously the improvements in looks! If I have to replace tyres, I was exploring the vague idea of biting the bullet and buying new wheels at the same time.

The traveller has just undergone a more engine based restoration, but other things were looked at during this time… I would hope substandard suspension would have been addressed.
I suspect I shall, for the meantime, stick with the narrow, standard wheels, and just treat Henry to a set of new tyres.
Thank you for your input thus far… I am still interested in further opinions though.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Wider wheels were available on the van for those carrying the heaviest loads… nothing to do with ride or handling.

[scrooge95]

Wider wheels were available on the van for those carrying the heaviest loads… nothing to do with ride or handling.

For sure, I appreciate this. I was merely wondering if there were any additional benefits coincidentally as a result of using the wider wheels? For example, would replacement tyres, be cheaper and easier to source? Does the handling happened to improve? Additional non-intentional benefits.

[mowogg]

I found swapping from 155 to 145 on standard rims made a significant difference to thr ride.

I had a set of Nankang which admittedly were over 10byears old, but a set of Bridsgatones made a significant change.

I have never had Toyo tyres but I understand from others the side walls are a bit soft. You could try Increasing the air pressures to see if this helps?

[kevin s]

The one thing wider wheels will give you a wider choice of tyres. For instance a 185 / 60 14 is a similar diameter to the 145 / 80 and is a widely available in multiple makes at relatively reasonable prices.