• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Which Rim Width ?

Share this page

JimLaney

JimLaney

Senior Member
Offline
I have 13 wheel rims (all 13") that came on and with the two Sprite MKIII basket cases I bought last fall.

I was taking the tires off the rims and heading out to get the rims blasted and primed when I noticed that 4 of my rims are 5" wide with all the rest being 3.5" wide. These 4 wider rims have the same pattern as 5 of the other nine. If I remember correctly what I recently read, the original pattern included circular holes around the edge. The next style dropped the circular holes and incorporated slots (I have 4 of this style as well).

I have held back the 5" rims thinking that they may pose a problem for the suspension. Does anybody know anything about a "stock" 5" wide wheel?

If I can run the 5" rims without interfering with the suspension, what size tire should I use? 175/13?
 
Last edited:
Stock BE and MkII rim width is 3.5", spoked Rostyles measure 4.5". In a SWA car limited by rear fenders. 155/80/13 and perhaps you can go a max of 165/80/13. A 155/80/13 matches stock height. I just put a set of 175/70/13 on my BE. Could have gone to a 185/70/13 but the rims I bought are only 5" wide. Sometimes if you roll the lips of the rear fender you can get by with a little more tire but 155's work well. Tire pressures around 22f 24r work well.
 
Thanks to both of you for your help and guidance. The rims that are 5" wide do not look to be home made. The seams and the pressing look manufactured so perhaps they are from another vehicle using the same hubs and wheel size...?
 
It's not possible to assess what you have without seeing some pictures.


JimLaney said:
Thanks to both of you for your help and guidance. The rims that are 5" wide do not look to be home made. The seams and the pressing look manufactured so perhaps they are from another vehicle using the same hubs and wheel size...?
Click to expand...
 
The set that came on my Bugeye are Sprite center with Corvair Rims. Lot's of things done creatively in the 60's. another Sprite I had came with some 13" wheels turned backwards on the front to enable wider track width for Auto Crossing. Again as Gerard said no 5" wheels came standard on Spridgets. Send Pics, send Pics.
 
The key to using wider rims is the offset not the actual rim width. The stock rims do not have enough offset with wider tires to prevent inside tire rub on the spring and or trailing arm.
I run 165/70 13. with the 4.5 inch Rosti wheels I needed a lot of spacers to get the clearance. I switched over to a set of 5 inch Cosmics, left over from before rules changed allowing 6 inch rims in FP, with a different offset and I am able to clear the same tires with out any spacers.
Take your 5 inch rims and try them without tires on both the back and front. if you have decent clearance I would run the wider rims The tire will bulge out a little so take that into account.
 
I tried the empty 5" rims on the front since I thought the issue was front suspension and steering. They looked like they had enough clearance but hard to be sure without mounted tires. I'll post some photos this weekend to see if anybody can tell more about them. If they are cut and rewelded, somebody did a bang up job of it!
 
Jim if you have clearance issues Winners Circle has wheel spacers, & longer studs . I found with my 8 spoke John Browne Wheels from UK. I needed to add a 1/4” spacer F&R .20 offset IIRC, was not comfortable with amount of threads left after that so went with longer wheel studs on F & R on my Bugeye.

Studs punch right out with a 5 lb persuader and used stock hubs turned backwards to pull new rear wheel studs into place.
 
Back
Top