Morris Minor Owners Club

I am refurbishing my wheels and need 5 new tyres.
Bull Motif say their tyres are tubeless but are Minor wheels okay for tubeless tyres?

Yes should seat no problem, especailly if the rims are newly painted up.

Never had any problems with tubeless tyres on my Series MM or Traveller

Officially the answer is NO, but it's not simple.

Tubeless tyres - these are not designed to suit having tubes inside (fairly obvious so far). Mostly this is due to the inner surface of the tyre having a 'print' which can rub the tube leading to wear on the tube.
This (in theory) is a problem, however many people have run tubes in modern tyres without an issue. If you avoid re-using old inner tubes then that probably helps.

The minor wheel rims are NOT designed for tubeless tyres. for tubeless tyres you should have a 'tubeless' rim. Tubeless rims have a raised lip which prevents the tyre parting company with the rim if/when it is under pressure/damaged/kerbed heavily. I'm not aware of good suitable radials being made in 'tube-type' specification.

On paper this leaves nearly all of us in a hole - except for the fact that running a modern tyre on a good condition Minor rim tubeless is pretty unlikely to give a problem. Equally running a modern tyre on a minor rim with a new tube is unlikely to give a problem (although many tyre fitters don't know how to handle tubes any more!!).

Most important rule is to make sure tyres are regularly inspected for wear and damage and are never run under-inflated.

Regarding tubes vs no tubes - it has to be your own decision.

i seem to remeber some where a peice in a morris minor manual, that tubeless were ok, but may be wrong lol

Ray is absolutely right on this: the relevant British Standard (BS AU 50) is quite clear that ordinary, non-humped rims "should not be used for tubeless radial tyres, unless a tube is fitted". Note that tubeless crossplies are OK - hence the handbook reference.

On the other hand...

I've had several problems with Range Rovers where tubes had been fitted to radial tyres which had worn through on the ribbing inside tyres. On another classic, which I've put back on the road today after well over 30 years under restoration (only the last 8 by me), I went for the tubeless radial compromise, on the grounds that a tyre is only likely to be displaced from its bead seating if you've lost it and hit something hard, but a puncture - from whatever cause - is far more often dangerous with a tubed than tubeless tyre. I'd tried to get information on the real risk of de-beading from tyre makers, but they all seem to employ kids who know nothing about rim profiles.

Kevin

Yes I was a bit worried as the Minor rims do not have the lip commonly found on modern rims to locate the bead. I also dont think there is much flat area around the valve hole and would worry about the tubeless valve seating properly. Thanks for your answers everone.

I have seen one Minor supplier making modified wheels , (cannot find the supplier now I might be needing some )

Interesting car- is it a Standard in 1956 with 15" wheels http://www.britishpathe.com/video/dunlo ... query/KERB . Of course it is not stated that the tyre/s are crossplies , being 1956 the destinction needed with radial tyres was not a consideration when Pathe covered the story.

I've used non tubed for years no problem on "normal" moggie wheels ,also tubed tyres go down much quicker than tube less

Some early wheels may not be completely airtight at the riveted joint of rim to centre. I haven't had a problem with tubeless tyres coming away from the bead seat - but I do use sensible 30+ pressures, although just a couple of weeks ago I had a flat (fortunately in the garage - not on the road) due to the tube seemingly having been rubbed (perhaps by the bladder ribbing - perhaps by a little bit of grit) on the only wheel I have with a tube inside the (previously leaky) tubeless tyre. Easily fixed with a patch. Have you seen the price of tubes these days ....!!!!!!!!!!

whyperion wrote:I have seen one Minor supplier making modified wheels , (cannot find the supplier now I might be needing some )

Interesting car- is it a Standard in 1956 with 15" wheels http://www.britishpathe.com/video/dunlo ... query/KERB . Of course it is not stated that the tyre/s are crossplies , being 1956 the destinction needed with radial tyres was not a consideration when Pathe covered the story.

I still have Dunlop crossplies fitted, nearly 60 years on. I drive the car hard and on dry roads struggle to lose grip. I haven't had a problem with them deflating, but the two which were on before used to lose a lot of pressure regularly. I think that was down to them being old/cheap crap tyres.

I did quite some research on this and concluded that at least for my case (late 1970 car, complete restoration) the best option was to go tubeless. As long as tyre pressures are monitored and kept in range good new tubeless tyres should be safer than tubed tubeless tyres.

In my case I sandblasted and then powdercoated the wheels to get them as airtight as possible; main point is to have a nice clean surface where the wheel meets the tyre as well as around the valve, and also to avoid leaks from the rivets.