Re: Another post on wheel/tires...

Sep 17, 2003 5 Replies

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MN AirHead 22 years ago

On one of our bajas I have wider tires on front/backs...

It runs and drives fine... have steel adapters to Chevy 14" rims.

It does lug slightly when I turn tight.

On our dune buggy ... have much fattter meats.. they're fine also.

It does change the ride and response a bit.

wheels with +20 MM offset on my car. (Empi 8 spoke). Will this wheel
>fit with a wider tire, such as 185? I don't really want to go wider
>than 185-195 to avoid making the steering too hard. So basically,
>will a 185 width tire work with a 5.5X15 wheel that has +20 MM offset?
> (assuming the tire is not too tall)

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Douglas 22 years ago

I have 14'' rims with P205's on them, with no handling issues.

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Tim Rogers 22 years ago

.............I have 185/65-15's on the front and 205/65-15's on the rear of my '77 bug. The wheels are 5 1/2" wide but I don't remember what the offset is. It handles great and the steering is actually easier than it was back when I had some Sears 165's on it. There are no clearance problems even when there are four people in it. As for 'balance', I feel that with 60% of the weight on the rear wheels that the larger footprint of the 205's gives a more balanced cornering set-up than what you get with equal size tires all around.

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Tim Rogers 22 years ago

...................OK, I've taken some measurements. 5.5" = 140mm, mating surface between wheel and brake drum is about 40mm in from the outer mating surface between the rim and the tire. No offset would be 70mm so maybe they're +30mm? If someone knows whether this the right way to determine this.........LMK.

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Tim Rogers 22 years ago

.......................BTW.........I have noticed on a few other bugs that the eight spoke EMPI style wheels seem to have a little less fender clearance with 185/65's than my 185's & 205's on my OEM style Brazilian steel wheels (I bought them about five years ago from Bill & Steve's)

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dragenwagen 22 years ago

thats a 195/65/15 on the back 135's on the front. wheels 15 x 5.5 inch wide, offset unknown.

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should look fine with out any problems for clearance, so long as you dont lower the front end too much, because they will rub the fender

**************************************************************** dragenwagen 1966 Type I

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