Alloys for an Auto!

[nilejackson]

I recently found the previous owner of Biff and he said that with all Autos putting alloys on is something that should be done but with great care.

I currently have 12" steelies on at the moment and because i have alot of Chrome i want some chrome mini lights. He advised me to keep 12" rather than overhaul the breaks to fit 10" but he said i should not go over 4.5" width on a 12". This was due to the wider the alloys the more stress on the points, which can ultimately cause the demise of the transmission.

I have been having a look and 12" with a 4.5" width seem pretty hard to find ( not found a single one yet ). I was also wondering what you guys have and what your suggestings are!

Thanks

Nile

[Admin/Founder 2]

Utter Rubbish Biffs previous Owner was panicking you can put any alloy wheels you want on Biff

Honestly Nile you are fine putting 10,s on your car
You will have to go for 7.5" discs and calipers to fit under 10,s

The only thing you may have to do is to either compensate for your speedo readings or possibly fit an earlier speedo from a model that had 10,s

You can fit any alloys you can fit to a manual to an auto though you may find the gearing not best suited if you were to go the other way to 13,s

[nilejackson]

I would like to put some 10s on but i think its to much effort to change the brakes. If i was to go with 12" how would the transmission handle with wide alloys? I just dont want to run the car into the ground!

[kalkat]

Going to 10" wheels would actually help acceleration ..... some people prefer 10s. It is after all the original wheels size.

Vanessa was originaly a 10" wheeled car, but I wanted to increase ground clearance to stop 'sump grinding' which had trashed one auto casing and caused another to leak I also wanted to fit disc brakes (drums where the standard fitment on 10" cars) and the cheapest and easiest route was the 8.4" settup from post '83/4 cars.

As regards possible damage caused by wheels over 4 1/2J ........... the previous owner is talking rollocks (a fitting on boats for the oars in case you're wondering ) the only downside is that rolling resistance may well have an effect on performance. I believe the 'Roverlites' are in fact 4 1/2J.... but many other makers offer a similar size, the major thing is that wide wheels will often need body modifications/arch extensions and can limit steering travel. Obviously you need toi work out what you want from your car, 4 1/2 to 5 inch wide rims are in all honesty perfecctly fine for an everyday car and you can fit decent tyres to both (A539 as a personal choice)......... if you want 7J, you'll struggle to find a road legal tyre.. and you will abbreviate the lifespan of your wheel bearings (there is also the possibility of the car not caring about which way round a corner it goes )



Emma

[nilejackson]

leaning more towards some standard chrome mini lights 12x5...

Thank that makes more sense

[Admin/Founder 2]

These are what we have on Boris
www.minispares-online.co.uk/?cat_id=1&sub_cat_id=180&prod_id=2695

And he handles fine
Ours are fitted with 165x12 A539 Yokos and Boris Handles Fabb

Ask Martin Mra Hes Driven Boris

You will see a difference the wider alloys and tires are much smoother over bumps

Though i find the skinny standard Steels are more suited to snowy weather so you may want to keep the standards for this time of year

[nilejackson]

Hey Jodie, i am looking at getting some similar,

www.minispares-online.co.uk/index.php?cat_id=1&sub_cat_id=180&prod_id=2498#prod_selector

Would you say with the 165xa539 tyres thats a reasonable price or should i get just the alloys from huddersfield spares?

Cheers. Ill buy these next month me thinks!

[Admin/Founder 2]

Hey Niles
Yahhh Go for it they will be fine As for getting your tires elsewhere its simply not worth the bother they will end up costing you more

Get the whole package 4 wheels with 4 tires fitted its the best solution

Only Advice i would give with those wheels is get a good layer of Polish on them from New and keep them clean regularly as with them being chrome they will need a little protection from the polish against corrosion.

So long as you look after them they will be fine and look Fab on Biff

[mowogdave]

I agree with the package route. Only once I got some tyres from a show. looked to be a good deal and save a few quid..... but then took me a while to get them fitted. The first 2 tyre fitting places made what sounded like excuses - too busy today etc. The ones that would fit them were charging quite a bit. I think there is probably no profit in fitting and maybe a fair mark-up fr them when they sell the tyres? Anyway, I always get tyres fitted now because it was just too much bother and probably cost me more in the long run! Or that was my experience anyway. I'm sure there are some fitters out there who are happy to do the job for a reasonable price but it was a bit of a faff for me.....

[sam09]

we went for the package option and pink shifty fitted them for us at Malvern show last year - thanks shifty.

What we did to save on the postage was we rang Huddersfield Spares who were at the show and we paid for them first then picked them up at the she show a few days later.

[julian0987]

one thing to bear in mind is that with 10" wheels it will reduce your top speed but increase acceleration!

[Admin/Founder 2]

Jan 6, 2010 16:42:07 GMT @julian0987 said:

one thing to bear in mind is that with 10" wheels it will reduce your top speed but increase acceleration!

i have two brochures one from 1983 10" wheel 1 litre minis and another from 1989 1litre minis with 12" Wheels and they both give the same top speed and fuel consumption

[minithirtyauto]

Thats interesting - the top speed are the same. I wonder if the minis fitted with 10 inch wheels had a different diff or something to adjust the final drive ratio so the top speed is the same as the minis with larger wheels? I don't know that much about it.

My first mini auto had 10 inch wheels and was very quick to accelerate the smaller wheels gave it slightly lower ride height to so it handled even better, I think minis also look better on 10 inch wheels! The only problem with it being even lower to the ground was I lived up a very muddy lane and the underside got dirty quicker!!!!!!

[mollymoke]

My understanding of the wheel size/ratio/speed/acceleration issue, is that with the old 10" the tires were a bigger profile, with 12" the profile is smaller, meaning there is little difference in rolling circumference, unless you go to 13" where even the 175/50 profile is larger than the 10/165/70. here is a good simple tire size website >http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp<
you add all different sizes in and it will give you the differences.

I have a Moke so 8.4" brakes and I want ground CLEARANCE! But being an auto I also want lower ratio for acceleration

Regarding the original worry about wear and tear, we often run 13/7" rims on Minis with 175/50/13 tires or 185/70/13 on the Mokes, no real problem with bearings so far, mind you all my cars have had new front ends when I got the as I wanted disk brakes..... But 5 years with the Moke with no problems.

Here are some nice Chrome wheels sorry they are Australian $ and shipping may be a lot!

www.minisport.com.au/prod792.htm

Cheerio

[bnicho]

I echo Mollymoke's comments. My Moke has been running 185/60R13 on 13 x 5.5 rims for over 10,000 miles without any issues.

Molly, we have found out that a lower diff ratio does exist - a 3.48:1 which with the 15% increase from the drop gears works out as the equivalent of a 4.0:1 - ideal for a Moke. But I've managed to locate only one so far so I'm keeping it.

Cheers,

[mollymoke]

Ok so I know this is a Moke (A+ auto don't worry!) and this thread started with a Mini called Biff.
Just wanted to show you these new wheels, they are Supertrax 7/13", shipped UK to Aus in 10 days!

And yes I know, poor Molly will get a rust and paint job soon!







There is a bit more info here if you like:
www.moke.com.au/Forum/index.php?topic=5344.msg57234#msg57234