[Mini] Tire sizes

Mon Sep 16 20:21:28 MDT 2019

Hi John,

I'd be very interested to see what was done also!

Several years ago a mate and I built up a seriously rusty Mini Van for
outback charity rallies on the cheap.   We were investigating how we could
get big 12 inch tyres on it for more clearance.  In the end it was all too
hard.  We ran 145R10 light truck tyres with hi-lo's wound up as far as we
dared, a Moke sump guard and a custom made petrol tank guard.   By the time
we loaded up the spares, tools and clothes for two weeks on the road, the
sump guard was about 4 inches off the ground anyway!!

The van did five or six events with us before our wives ran out of patience
with us and we sold it.

Cheers,
Brett Nicholson (bnicho)
Greendale, Victoria, Australia.

On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 11:36 AM John Lieberman <jlieberman37 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> I'm positive about the tire size, Brett.  That's why I believe it must be
> the offset of the wheels that keeps the tires from fouling.  And, that's
> why I want to get it up on a lift so I can take a closer look at what was
> done to it before I got the car.
>
> The 165/70s are pretty easy to come by here in the US, but any other size
> I will have to import.  And that really drives up the cost.  Still, I'd
> really like to have 165/60s!!!
>
> JL
>
>
> On 9/16/2019 8:11 PM, Brett Nicholson wrote:
>
> Hi John,
>
> That's strange!  Are you sure of that size?  If they have a radical deep
> dish offset it may help.  Perhaps someone has ground back the bracket as
> well.  If that size is on there now, no reason not to use it again!
>
> My trailer has 155/70R12 tyres on alloys and the tyres won't fit the back
> of our standard Mk1 Austin.
>
> Aussie Mokes from late 1968 to 1982 have longer rear trailing arms to
> allow 13 inch wheels and 175R13 tyres to be fitted.  When bolted up to a
> Mini it pushes the wheel centre back three or four inches, so it would be
> very obvious if they have been fitted to your Mini!
>
> Cheers,
> Brett Nicholson (bnicho)
> Greendale, Victoria, Australia.
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 11:00 AM John Lieberman <jlieberman37 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>> That's strange, Brett, because this car has 165/70R12s on it right now
>> and they don't foul in any way.  Maybe it's because of the offset of the
>> wheels that they're mounted on.  I don't know what kind of wheels they are
>> because they have a Union Jack decal covering the center cap, but they look
>> a lot like Minilites.
>>
>> I need to get this thing up on a lift so I can get underneath it and take
>> a closer look at what has and hasn't been done to the suspension.  I'm at
>> least the 12th owner since this car was new in '81, according to the
>> paperwork I got when I bought it, so there's no telling what all has been
>> done to it by previous owners.
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>> On 9/16/2019 6:56 AM, Brett Nicholson wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> 165/70R12 will foul on the rear trailing arm bracket.
>>
>> All that will definitely fit and clear that bracket is 145/70R12,
>> 165/60R12 or 165/55R12.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Brett.
>>
>> On Mon, 16 Sep. 2019, 8:43 pm T.A.J.M. van den Bogaard, <
>> T.A.J.M.vdnBogaard at uvt.nl> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'd go for 165/60 because of experience on my old spi Cooper
>>> That came originally with 145/70 12's;  table beneath here also shows
>>> there's less difference to the original in that choice .. apart from that I
>>> think 165/60 is better available here in the Netherlands ;-)
>>>
>>> FWIW,
>>> Theo van den Bogaard
>>>
>>>
>>> https://tiresize.com/calculator/
>>> 165/60 vs 70
>>> 19.8 vs 21.1 dia
>>> 3.9 vs 4.5 sidewall
>>> 62.2 vs 66.2 circum
>>> 1019 vs 957 revs/mile
>>>
>>> 165/60
>>> 145/70
>>> 19.8 vs 20 dia
>>> 3.9 vs 4 sidewall
>>> 62.2 vs 62.8 circum
>>> 1019 vs 1009 revs/mile
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: Mini-list [mini-list-bounces at autox.team.net] on behalf of John
>>> Lieberman [jlieberman37 at comcast.net]
>>> Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 3:22 AM
>>> To: minilist at yahoogroups.com; mini-list at autox.team.net
>>> Subject: [Mini] Tire sizes
>>>
>>> I think I know the answer to this question before I ask it...but...
>>>
>>> The '81 Mini that I imported to the US from England earlier this year
>>> has 165/70R12 tires (or tyres!) on it.  One of them has a slow leak and
>>> another has a split around part of the sidewall.  So I'm looking into
>>> new tires all the way around.  I can get 165/70 Nankangs here in the US
>>> for less than $50 per tire.  But I'd really like to go with 165/60 Yoko
>>> A539s.  However, to do that, I would have to import them from across the
>>> pond and pay considerably more.
>>>
>>> If you had a choice between 165/70 and 165/60, which would you choose
>>> for a street-driven car and why?!?
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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