On Fri, 2 Feb 2007 23:14:48 -0600 Henry Yap <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> A question from our local club, I thought I would post to the great > minds on the list..... Henry > > > > > > I sincerely hope that you can help me. I have a 1970 beetle that I have > renovated and I'm in the process of getting new rims and tires, but here > is my dilemma. > I can buy four aluminum rims 15x6 for the car or I can buy two rims 15x6 > for the front and 15x8 for the rear. I want the rear tires to be a > little wider and taller than the front tires. > I also have air shocks on the rear. Now my question is this can I buy a > wider tire and put it on the 15x6 for the rear and buy a lower tire for > the 15x6 for the front, or do I have to go with the 15x6 for the front > and 15x8 for the rear. > > The other question is with air shocks what size tires can I put on the > rear? > > > > Thank you for your time. Luiz AirBall the Rolling Basket case (my '69 whose pan is being donated to my Bradley) has 14"x6" rims wearing either 205 or 215/70R14 rubber all around. Light car, wide tires, wet roads. Somewhere in the distant VintagVW past I posted about my 360 degree adventures. Couple that with stiff air shocks used to raise the rear -- but causing excessive "bounce". Yuck. My lowered '66, however, has 15"x6" Centerlines all the way around with 195/60R15 on the back and 175/55R15 up front. Looks pretty good. Rides OK for a lowered (properly, fully adjustable front beam) car. Speedo is way the honk off but I'll eventually toss in a VDO programmable to fix that. Oh, if he's planning to lower the car -- please try to find an already lowered beetle for him to "test drive". It's not for everyone. Have you ever ridden on a bumpy road in an MG-B? That combination of wheel/tire size might look OK on a stock height car as well. Maybe go a little taller on the sidewall for the front. I'm thinking of going with a 155 up front because I want something a LITTLE narrower. I do want it stay driveable on the street and the 135 and 145 that some people use to enable them to drop the front to the pavement is just way too skinny for my taste. The stock 70's 165R15 (165/82R15) has a diameter of 25.7" so if he wants to keep the speedo correct he can just go with the stock size up front and a 195/75R15 on the rear. That would give the wide rear/narrow front look even though the fronts would actually be stock VW size. The 195/75 would only be about 1/2" taller (about 1" bigger diameter) though. I don't know if a 195/80 exists but that would be closer to a full inch taller (27.3" diameter). Use this to play with sizes: http://www.onlineconversion.com/tire_size_conversion.htm And if he gets "exotic" with the sizes be prepared for a pain in the rear search. Those 175/55 I have on front are a European size. I'm not real sure I'll be able to find a 155/55 or 155/60 or 165/55 if I want to go smaller and keep roughly the same diameter The math involved in tires fascinates me. I spent close to 4 months fiddling with the numbers then hunting down the tires for the '66. Actually GETTING the oddball sizes ended up being a matter of getting lucky and finding someone at my local Discount Tire who could figure out how to order the euro versions of the Continental tires that they already carry in US spec sizes. Gerald _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
