wheel size

[lalaw]

Hi,
I started to modify the wheels so that I can use wider tires.
I use a Volvo 245 wheel with the wheelcenter cut away and the Morris wheelcenter welded in.

What tires size would be good to use? 14r185 at the back and 165 at front?
Br Lars

[Onne]

As long as it doesn't rub anywhere.

Kingpins at the front, inner arch for clearance on full lock.

Also makes carrying spares at tad more difficult. You can only fit so much under the floor

[JimK]

I have a standard Minor wheel as a spare, in effect a sort of spacesaver.

Not that I have a boot floor anyway, but I thought I'd mention that you can use a narrow wheel as a spare.

[lalaw]

If you have 185 at the front will the steering be to heavy?
I have a good set of 5.20 14 tires on the car now so I just use one of them as spare.
Lars

[jonathon]

We use 195/55/15's at the front and 205/50/15's on the rear without any problem, admittedly we use the wider Escort axle, but they still fit inside the wings.
A good compromise on 14's woulsd be 175/55 or 60's on the front and 185/19555/60's on the rear.

[pauln]

Apologies jonathon for picking your brains again. I was curious about your choices of tyres. In years gone by specialists advised use of tyres of no more than 155 for a standard car and 165 for a tuned one both on standard profiles. The argument against modern low profiles being the made the ride unduely harsh. Since thing have moved on a bit I assume the low profiles you use are all part of a package of tyre,suspension and damper. Do the wide profiles add much to the weight of the steering (i was using a 155 tyre with a 12" steering wheel which was very positive but slightly heavy, my neighbour changed to a 13"). It certainly seems easier to find tyres at a reasonable price in the sizes you use. I must be falling behind the times as i am no longer keeping up with what is available to uprate a minor.

[JimK]

pauln, I have 175 tyres with a 13.5" steering wheel. It's weighty but I regard that as a plus. Parking is still fine - much harder, but not unbearably so.

I'm not convinced a Minor is heavy enough to press wider tyres onto the road sufficiently. Using softer compounds would help, but I don't want a huge amount of grip. What tyres do you fit, Jonathan? Are they standard multi-purpose compounds or something more specialised?

[jonathon]

The size of tyre has over the years followed the availability of suitable wheels (to an extent) Originaly minor wheels were retained when fitting the bigger 1275 and its derivatives, however with Fiat, Ford and Toyota axles wider wheels were being fitted, so, a 6" rim would easily accept upto a 205 section. It can be argued that 175's all around is a good compromise, but this depends on the diameter of the wheel. Most modern cars now run 15" rims as standard and the aftermarket alloys normally start at this size. Therefore fitting a 185/55/15 tyre makes more economic sence that trying to persevere with more expensive 13" or 14" rims. We normally run 185 fronts with 195 rears on the K series cars, but on some we have moved to 195 and 205's. The car copes very well with this set up ,the steering with either the standard steering wheel or aftermarket items, remains bearable , but when allied to our chassis kit the originals cars light ,accurate steering is retained. The tyres we normally use are Yokohama A539's or BF Goodrich, however my traveller will run a set of lightweight Minilight wheels with Yokohama A0048 soft track tyres for track days and fun road use and another set of Peugeot 205 1.9 Gti alloys with 195's all around. I must add that my traveller runs coil overs at the front and our 4 link and watts linkage. This set up on a 53 2door with 2.0L Fiat TC power worked extreamlywell with immense grip and flickability.