Winter Tyres and Steel Rims combo

D

Dinnae Ken

Member
Hi all,

I've just recently acquired my 1st A2 and totally loving driving the wee car.

I'm now looking to switch to winter tyres and at the same time plan to buy a dedicated set of steel rims for them, for ease of swaping over.

I have looked on this site and read advice on the matter ref best sizes for winter tires and rims.

An advised option being 185/60R15 tyres accompanied with 6Jx15 ET29 steel rims.

Is there anyone else running a similar combo and if so what make of tyre did you go for. I have seen the Goodyear UltraGrip 9+ 185/60 R15 84T winter tyre for £88 each and wonder if they would be a good pick.

All advice and suggestions welcome.
 
They are more according to manufacturers specs, but the ones with ET29 will work same, only will stick 9 mm out
 
Dinnae Ken said:
Would these rims be a better shout:

www.mytyres.co.uk

ALCAR 8380. Only £ 51.10

ALCAR 8380 6.0x15 Offset: 38. Rim type : STEEL. Bolt pattern : 5/100.
www.mytyres.co.uk www.mytyres.co.uk
Click to expand...

The Alcar 8380 6Jx15 ET38 steel rim matches the specification of the Pepperpots, ie. same diameter (15"), same width (6"), and same offset (38mm).

If you are going to use the 185/60R15 tyre size, you might also want to consider using the standard 5Jx15 ET28 or 5.5Jx15 ET34 steel rims. They might still be available to order new from VAG dealers.

One of the benefits of using a narrower rim (ie. 5J or 5.5J) for the 185/60R15 tyre size is improved ride comfort. This is because when a tyre is fitted to a narrower rim, the sidewalls flex more easily.

Improving ride comfort by fitting tyres to narrower rims was when known in the car industry even back in the 1970's, when British Leyland fitted the 185/70R14 tyre size to a narrow 4.5J rim.

As you can see in the photo below, the steel rims look well protected from kerbing damage because the tyres' sidewalls bulge out so much. Even though the Princess fitted it's 185/70R14 tyre size to 4.5J rims, the lower profile 185/60R15 tyre size has a minimum rim width of 5J as you can see in the below chart.

ETRTO approved rim widths
185/70 4.5-5.5-6.0
185/60 5.0-5.5-6.5

185/70R14 tyres fitted to surprisingly narrow 4.5J rims
Austin/Morris/Wolseley 1800/2200 (until September 1975) Princess (thereafter)
1666644345826.png

en.wikipedia.org

Princess (car) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

5Jx15 ET28 5/100 57.1 steel rim 8Z0601027A
38Z0601027ASteel rim5 JX15H2 ET28
5/100		4PR-CK0From €330.98
8Z0601027A 03Crally black

5.5Jx15 ET34 5/100 57.1 steel rim 8Z0601027
28Z0601027Steel rim5,5JX15H2 ET34
5/100		4PR-C3VFrom €330.98
8Z0601027 03Crally black

 
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Dinnae Ken said:
Hi all,

I've just recently acquired my 1st A2 and totally loving driving the wee car.

I'm now looking to switch to winter tyres and at the same time plan to buy a dedicated set of steel rims for them, for ease of swaping over.

I have looked on this site and read advice on the matter ref best sizes for winter tires and rims.

An advised option being 185/60R15 tyres accompanied with 6Jx15 ET29 steel rims.

Is there anyone else running a similar combo and if so what make of tyre did you go for. I have seen the Goodyear UltraGrip 9+ 185/60 R15 84T winter tyre for £88 each and wonder if they would be a good pick.

All advice and suggestions welcome.
Click to expand...
Some tyres in market place

Thread 'Like new 4 x 15 inch winter tyres £80' https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/like-new-4-x-15-inch-winter-tyres-£80.50436/
 
carlston said:
As you can see in the photo below, the steel rims look well protected from kerbing damage because the tyres' sidewalls bulge out so much. Even though the Princess fitted it's 185/70R14 tyre size to 4.5J rims, the lower profile 185/60R15 tyre size has a minimum rim width of 5J as you can see in the below chart.

ETRTO approved rim widths
185/70 4.5-5.5-6.0
185/60 5.0-5.5-6.5

185/70R14 tyres fitted to surprisingly narrow 4.5J rims
Austin/Morris/Wolseley 1800/2200 (until September 1975) Princess (thereafter)
View attachment 100574
en.wikipedia.org

Princess (car) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Click to expand...

The ride height on that Princess doesn't look right - even by the standards of shonky BL 1970s engineering. Maybe someone over pressurised the hyrolastic spheres?

I took a ride in an old Jag XJ6 the other day. It had a ride quality that is completely missing from modern vehicles; yet didn't float or wallow in corners. I wonder how very smart engineers with huge resources have forgotten the lessons of 50 years ago and insist on producing 'sporty' vehicles that clatter down a typical British[Ugandan] B road.
 
BigBang said:
Were those tyres already radial? Also with this narrow rim/relatively wide tyre combo means less stable behavior in higher speeds...
Click to expand...

Low profile tyres such as 70 series, 65 series, 60 series, etc. are radial.

If there were stability problems fitting tyres to relatively narrow rims, I don't think Mercedes would have fitted 195/50R15 to relatively narrow 5.5J rims on their A-Class, or Toyota fitting 165/65R14 and 165/60R15 to relatively narrow 4.5J rims on their Aygo. The designers of the Princess weren't trying to build a GTI but a family car with limousine like comfort.

The latest VW Polo MK6 fits its 185/70R14 to a 5J rim. Still relatively narrow, but not as narrow as 4.5J. Maybe that's the sweet spot for that tyre size between steering precision and comfort.

As you can see in the chart below, a 175/60R15 tyre fitted to a 5.5J rim has the same width (183mm) as a 185/60R15 tyre fitted to a 5J rim (183mm). This means that a 185/60R15 tyre fitted to a 5J rim should fit in the spare wheel well. 175 and 185 are just the nominal widths. The actual width of a tyre depends on the rim width that it is fitted to.

Actual width of tyre
175/60R15 fitted to 5J rim 177mm
175/60R15 fitted to 5.5J rim 183mm
185/60R15 fitted to 5J rim 183mm
185/60R15 fitted to 5.5J rim 189mm
 
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Shoestring7 said:
The ride height on that Princess doesn't look right - even by the standards of shonky BL 1970s engineering. Maybe someone over pressurised the hyrolastic spheres?

I took a ride in an old Jag XJ6 the other day. It had a ride quality that is completely missing from modern vehicles; yet didn't float or wallow in corners. I wonder how very smart engineers with huge resources have forgotten the lessons of 50 years ago and insist on producing 'sporty' vehicles that clatter down a typical British[Ugandan] B road.
Click to expand...
Thread swerve alert:

I’ve had two Princesses and the photo shows the correct ride height, the ride is sublime when everything is working correctly and the spheres have both the correct amount of nitrogen and hydragas fluid / pressure.

They also were not shonkily engineered - I was amazed at how good they were by design for their time - smooth, quiet and refined, relatively economical due to their shape and their tall gearing designed for motorways. I would have another as a fun and interesting car for medium journeys. I know many were badly built (any that have survived this long won’t generally fall under that category however), but the design was good - other than the stupid decision not to equip it with a hatchback that would have broadened its appeal especially in Europe: This would have been a game-changer I think, assuming BL could have reorganised and rationalised it’s operations before the Princess’ launch as needed, without incurring labour disputes that affected build quality. A great “what if” in the automotive sector.

Anyway, back to the topic, BL specified very low tyre pressures (24 psi on the front I seem to recall) to allow the tyre sidewall to work with the suspension in tandem to give the occupants the best ride - I could never bring myself to drop them that low so used to run them at 30psi which gave an acceptable compromise. This goes against my tendency these days to run all cars in my fleet at the max / high load specified pressures by the maker - 36psi I believe on the A2.
 
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Agree about the concept (bar the hatchback only fixed with the re-launch), although equipping it with an engine that wasn't even state-of-the-art in the early 1950s when it was first launched didn't really help its case.

Ex-owner of a 'Landcrab' Morris 1800'S' here!
 
Thanks for all the advice and apologies for not replying earlier.

Having looked at the costs at a spare set of rims, which has gone up in price considerably. I just switched my tyress for a new set of Maxxis all weather. They are great. The car feels really good to drive now and ploughed through the snow with ease over the winter period.
 
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