Tires for 78 Midget w/Rostyles?

[RickB]

I have 155 80R 13's now, but would like something wider and better for road use - a more comfortable driving tire would be nice. I am pretty sure 165 70R 13's will work - anything wider without scraping the wheel wells??

 

[tweety]

I'm pretty sure I have 165's. I'll check when I get home, they work, but just barely. Turning with the wheel locked left or right causes rubbing. Also going over a bump or dip too fast is trouble.

 

[RickB]

I am having some trouble locating 165 70 13's at my local tire places.
I tried Discount Tire, Les Schwab and Sears.

What about 165x80x13's?

 

[tweety]

I checked, and I do have 165 r13's on my '79. I got them a little over a year ago. In the 13" rim size you're stuck with an 80 aspect height.

Also, take not of the dot date on whatever tire you buy. From what I understand, there's not much of a demand for 13" tires anymore. Much of the stock out there has been sitting on a shelf for a couple of years. Basically, you can get stuck with a tire that has half of it's life eaten up before you even buy it.

 

[2091351]

Bridgestone makes a 165/65

 

[RickB]

There's a couple places here with 165x80x13's.
I'll check them out. Gotta be better than the 155's I'm running now.

How do I check date codes?

 

[lbc_newbie]

Rick, since you're local, I got Falkens from Discount Tire...

https://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/searchTiresBySize.do?r=WASINT|pc|98296&cs=185&ar=70&rd=13

 

[RickB]

Thanks Ed, you run 185/70R-13's on your Midget?
How does that work?

 

[tweety]

U.S. DOT Tire Identification Number
This begins with the letters "DOT" and indicates that the tire meets all federal standards. The next two numbers or letters are the plant code where it was manufactured, and the last four numbers represent the week and year the tire was built. For example, the numbers 3197 means the 31st week of 1997. The other numbers are marketing codes used at the manufacturer's discretion. This information is used to contact consumers if a tire defect requires a recall.

regarding tire age:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=138

 

[RickB]

Thanks Tweety!

I see some 175x70x13 Fisk tires there - but I wonder if they will be too wide for my wheels & wells.

 

[RickB]

What are the thoughts about 185x70x13's?
There are several available in this size, but I don't know how well they would work in my SWA Midget.

 

[lbc_newbie]

Sorry, Rick... I'm not near the car and can't recall the exact size of mine. I'll get home and let you know shortly.

 

[tweety]

https://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

This little program allows you to compare the size of one tire against another. What's really cool is that you can view the difference from side or the end so you can tell the width as well.


All I can tell you is that there is only about a half an inch between my side wall and the fender in my swa '79 midget. Again, I'm running 165 8 13's

 

[RickB]

I like the comparison charts, nice calc - thanks!

So if I could get 185 80R13's on there to replace my 155 80R13's I'd rev lower at the same speed by 8.3% - wow! Those would likely be way too tall though.

 

[lbc_newbie]

Rick, I have the Falken 185/70 R13 and they fit real nice.

 

[RickB]

What about on hard turns? I suppose your car is at the factory set height still?
Mine is lowered, so tire rubbing is more of an issue.

Anyway, thanks one and all - I just got a set of 165x80x13's installed at the local Les Schwab place. It's nice to do business locally and they are close so I can take it in for rotating often and flat repairs are always free.

 

[tweety]

what's the tire pressure on those new 165's?

 

[RickB]

I will have to check it tomorrow!

 

[RickB]

Haven't checked pressure yet - I'm sure they are over inflated, that's SOP for Les Schwab.

It's officially top down all the time weather here in the NW. They say it should top 100F next week and the lows will be around 70F.

This morning I drove to work with the top down for the first time this year (intentionally - I'm not counting the time the top blew off the Sprite on the way in). :wink:

 

[bthompson]

Well, now I'm curious...I've read lots of discussion on how <span style="font-style: italic">wide </span>a tire we can use. How <span style="font-style: italic">tall </span>can we go and still fit? My de-bumpered 1500 sits high enough that it looks like I could put a truck tire in there.

Lowering the revs by ~8% sounds mighty attractive to me. And tires are a lot cheaper than a 5-speed.