Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi hope someone can give me some advice.
I have just bought some 14 x 5.5 wheels I have telescopic shocks and discs fitted at front. I am after getting some good size rubber on my wheels, and was wandering what the biggest tyres I can fit, was hoping for 185 x 70 would this be possible.

Pretty sure that would be dodgy on a standard minor. Would probably be a clearance issue with the top trunnions and the car would drive horribly in any case. If you've done lots of modification you might get away with it but your insurers might not be happy if anything goes wrong.

A lot will depend on the offset of the wheels.

Yes, that makes sense..
My old saloon has 165s on van rims and just clears the top trunnion. When the time comes to replace I'll go back to smaller tyres. I always used to think more rubber on the road was a good idea but l've changed my mind.

The original tyre size was 5.20 x 14, which equates to 145/80R14 in radial ply speak.

For a 5.5" rim the minimum road use tyre width size is 165 and the maximum 185. To get a close equivalent rolling radius to 145/80R14, there are 3 options:

165/70R14
175/65R14
185/60R14

Fitting a 185 section tyre is certainly possible, but the clearances are very tight, especially with a 60 profile tyre that will be fairly 'square' shaped. Even if you run with only a little clearance at the top trunnion, a 185 section tyre can foul the rear wing return on full bump.

When we first fitted the 5.5" x 13" wheels 47 years ago, we fitted 165/80R13 tyres and had no problems with clearance. In the mid 2000's we went to 185/70R13 Yokohama A021R, which are quite a square profile and immediately had contact on full bump (it is also lowered by ~2"). Last year Yokohama decided to remove the 'E' mark, so have fitted Uniroyal Rain Expert 3, which are less of a square profile and miss the rear wing flange.

185/70R14 is too big in rolling radius by 4.5%, and I would think that clearance would be even more of a problem than with the 13" version of the same profile.