There are three different drums.

1) Standard, no spacer.
2) 13" wheel moke w/o disk brakes - about 1/2 inch.
3) Mini Cooper S, Clubman S/LS/SS/GT Rover etc - about 1 inch.

If you have the 1" type spacer drum already, you should not have an issue. But you will need flares, maybe some guard trimming and 175/50R13 tyres. I think you can get 195/40R13 now, but they will be too wide for 5.5" Sunraysias.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

So you rekon 175/50R13 is the go?

What do the numbers and letter each represent? I had a general idea, but not too informed.

What makes this tyre 195/40R13 too wide?

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The first number (175) is the width of the tread in mm.
The second number (50) the aspect ratio. It is the height of the sidewall as a percentage of the width of the tread. So on a 175/50 the sidewall height is 50% of 175, which is (gets calculator) is 87.5mm.
R indicates radial tyre (can be SR, ZR etc dependant on speed rating of the tyre)
13 indicates the diameter in inches of rim the tyre fits. Most rims are still in inches, except a few weird BMW and Jaguars which have metric rims.

Tyre widths normally go up in tens (145, 155, 165, 175 etc...) and aspect ratios in fives. (40, 45, 50, 55, 60 etc).

Basically the wider the tyre, the lower the aspect ratio you need to keep the same rolling diameter. Going from a 10" rim to a 13" rim means you need an even LOWER aspect ratio to compensate for the larger rims.

Some common tyre sizes and diameters for Minis
(pulled from http://www.miata.net/cgi-bin/tirescgi )
145/80R10 486mm
165/70R10 485mm
145/70R12 508mm
165/60R12 503mm
175/50R13 505mm

So you can see that 175/50R13 is about 4% taller than stock. Not a huge amount to worry about. Your speedo may be out, but Mini speedos were never that accurate anyway!

EDIT: A sunraysia is 5.5" wide. There is a max width that you can put on a rim before it becomes dangerous, becuase the sidewalls are squashed inwards to fit the tyre on the rim. From memory a 5.5 rim can take a 155 to 195, so you may be able to fit them. The few Minis I have seen with a 195 have been running 7" rims.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

195 - tread width in mm
/40 - tire wall height as a percentage of the width (i.e. 40% of 195 = 78mm)
R - radial
13 - 13"

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Too many cars, and too little time.

thanks for the help fellas, much appretiated

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Powder coating the wheels makes them look great. It is a thick coating that smooths over the odd nick and pit.

BUT, my sunraysias have been powder coated and have developed some cracking of the coating where the wheel dish meets the rim. They are only welded part of the way around and the parts where there is no weld flex considerably under load (I run A032R tyres!). The flexing cracks the coating, then water gets in and leads to small rusty lines that look ugly.

I would consider a more flexible coating next time.

M

how about this!

bahahaha

looked kinda funny with the moke 70 series tyres, but with low profiles woulda been OK - sitting out at the back cos they wouldn't clear the trailing arms as stated before... I did this last year when I had a moke for a couple of weeks

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Mini monster truck!

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Twista.... you`re not listening to me,,,they won`t fit without "EXTRA" spacers on the "Allready 1" wide spaced drums

get it???

They don`t fit on the back without "BIG" spacers ontop of wide drums

will i say it again?

they won`t fit

sorry

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

All right , all right, no need to get hasty about this!

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Will they fit onna starlet (Tongue firmly in cheek...)

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

"...sure mate, you got roof racks??...."


MrBob is still in recovery from that episode I reckon

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

This does not make sense?
- Big wheeler Mokes had a max of 1" spacer drums from the factory, and they cleared the trailing arms. Correct?
- I have a big wheeler Moke with 13 x 5.5 hotwires and 185/60 tyres. I did some experimenting when I was building it. With standard Mini drums, the hotwires fitted and cleared everything. With Moke 1/2" drums, they filled the rear guards nicely. With 1" spacer drums, the tread stuck approx. 1/2" out of the guards either side.
- The same rims and tyres fitted my Mini Van on the rear with 1" spacer drums, but clearance at the trailing arm bracket was an issue due to the tyre diameter. With smaller diameter tyres they would have fitted, but required wider flares.

The only reason I can see that Sunraysias would not fit is if they had a drastically (like 1") greater inwards offset (ie: less dish) than my Hotwires. I don't have any Sunraysias here to compare. But since there are at least two types of factory Sunraysias and one type of aftermarket, there is probably three different offsets anyway.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

OK my Sunraysias are from a 78 Claifornian W/O discs as standard. These do fit over standard disc brakes. They measure:
13" x 5.5"
164 mm total rim width (5.5" between inside of bead faces plus the rim material)
113 mm from the inside rim to the mounting surface.
Therefore, 31 mm offset inwards.

For comparison:
Contessa 10" x 5"
150 mm total rim width
92 mm from the inside rim to the mounting surface
Therfore 17 mm offset inwards.

The 78 cali had 1" spacer drums standard, not 1/2"
The Moke 13" trailing arms are different to a Mini. They are longer.

M.

Ah yes, that was the reason, now I remember.

How much longer are the trailing arms anyway??? Wasnt it only an inch or so?

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs