Skip to content
Aussieveedubbers

Fitting 17 inch wheels to Beetle

0 likes
Share Share on Facebook Share on X Share on Reddit
Log in to reply

Chop Top VW Slammed & Awesome Dubber

91 posts · joined May 2010 ·

#795877
Hi Everyone,

Has anybody fitted 17 inch wheels to a beetle.

I wanna fit 205 x 40 x 17 tyres on 17 x 7.5 wheels

The car will be droped 2.5 inch using drop spidles on the front
The front beam is standard.

Could anybody tell me if that would be ok or do i need to stick to 15 inch wheels.

thanlks

bugzla Custom Title Time!

1,164 posts · joined Jun 2007 ·

#795910
i was running 225 all round on 17 x 7 verde dimonds

vwo60 Veteran Volks Folk

2,036 posts · joined Feb 2007 ·

#795928
hi,
you do not say what car you have, if it is a trailing arm front end you will have trouble running a 7" wheel under standard mudguards on the front as it will hit the trailing arm when you turn the wheels, the photo's show my cab fitted with a 7" front and a 8.5" rear,the fronts look good but have to many fittment problem, i could only fit a set of 16" x 6" on the front with a 195, 55 tyre, on the back is a 7" x 16" with 225, 55 tyre all under the guards with no issues

3 attachments · Log in to view

1303Steve Scirocco Rare

8,650 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#796002
Hi

7.5 is a tad wide for the front if you want to turn corners and under the current RTA rules you can only run over 7 inches wide if the car weighs in at over 1000 kgs.

Steve

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#796029
good thing mine now weighs 1004kgs 😂

1303Steve Scirocco Rare

8,650 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#796042
Joel wrote:good thing mine now weighs 1004kgs 😂

Hi Joel

Unfortunately as you car was made after 72 you come under different regs, you can only go 1.5 inches wider than the widest optional wheel = 7 inch.

Steve

Brian Officially Full-On Dubber

263 posts · joined Jun 2007 ·

#796048
it goes on the unmodified weight
all bugs are under 900kg

1303Steve Scirocco Rare

8,650 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#796093
Hi Brian

No its finished weight of the car.

Steve

1 attachment · Log in to view

jhp1 Wolfsburg Wizard

575 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#796659
You can fit 17x7.5s under the front depending on offset 205s will work until you go stupid low

You may need to run a narrowed beam, what years your car?

As to it being legal no 😀

cam070 Custom Title Time!

1,332 posts · joined Jul 2009 ·

#796701
vwo60 wrote:hi,
you do not say what car you have, if it is a trailing arm front end you will have trouble running a 7" wheel under standard mudguards on the front as it will hit the trailing arm when you turn the wheels, the photo's show my cab fitted with a 7" front and a 8.5" rear,the fronts look good but have to many fittment problem, i could only fit a set of 16" x 6" on the front with a 195, 55 tyre, on the back is a 7" x 16" with 225, 55 tyre all under the guards with no issues
Can i ask what offset whhels you are running? ie the 7's as that's what i'd like to run on my bug.

Chop Top VW Slammed & Awesome Dubber

91 posts · joined May 2010 ·

#796709
i have a 68 chassie with a 64 body, 5 x 130 i think the offset is about 40

cam070 Custom Title Time!

1,332 posts · joined Jul 2009 ·

#796731
Chop Top VW wrote:i have a 68 chassie with a 64 body, 5 x 130 i think the offset is about 40
Are you also saying you are running 17x7's?

Chop Top VW Slammed & Awesome Dubber

91 posts · joined May 2010 ·

#796790
no, im asking if it can be done 😊

vwo60 Veteran Volks Folk

2,036 posts · joined Feb 2007 ·

#797004
Hi,my experence tells me that you cannot run a seven inch rim on the front under a standard guard on a trailing arm front end, the sevens on the convertable hit the shock and the trailing arm and had hardly any turning radius, if you narrow the beam you will have all the problems that having incorrect geometry will bring to the front end of the car, i have 7" x !7" on my 60 beetle but they required the use of wider guards to get the to fit to the car, track on the front is only 18mm over standard

1 attachment · Log in to view

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#797033
7" will work on a balljoint front end with a 40offset but if you want a turning circle better than a bus you'll need to narrow the front end about 2" and run some spacers

Ive tried the 17x7et42 rims on my old 70 bug, fitment was perfect but like mentioned above they rub on the trailing arm with a stock width beam when on full lock

vwo60 Veteran Volks Folk

2,036 posts · joined Feb 2007 ·

#797343
Hi, narrowing the beam and running spacers to fit the wheels under the guards raise a whole lot of problems with the geometry of the front end, the scrub radius will be change substantiality, you will increase the bump steer and tramlining not to mention the increased wear on the trailing arm bushes/ball joints/wheel bearings as you will be hanging the wheel further out on the suspension, narrowing the beam will not improve the handling of the vehicle either, the engineer i spoke to said that narrowing the beam to fit the incorrect offset wheel to the car would be illeagal as it changes the wheels relationship to the suspension,it's not as simple as just fitting them under the guards, the scrub radius is probably the most important thing that is overlooked when fitting wider wheels to your car, if you want the car to track well and not wander under brakes try to keep the track diamention on your vehicle as close as posible to standard diamention without narrowing the beam, the scrub radius is were a line drawn through the ball joints/kingpin and disects the tyre were it contacts the road looking from the front of the vehicle

1 attachment · Log in to view

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#797359
Yet another good reason why I stick to my strut bugs

vwo60 Veteran Volks Folk

2,036 posts · joined Feb 2007 ·

#797366
This also applies to the strut bug

cam070 Custom Title Time!

1,332 posts · joined Jul 2009 ·

#797400
vwo60 wrote:Hi, narrowing the beam and running spacers to fit the wheels under the guards raise a whole lot of problems with the geometry of the front end, the scrub radius will be change substantiality, you will increase the bump steer and tramlining not to mention the increased wear on the trailing arm bushes/ball joints/wheel bearings as you will be hanging the wheel further out on the suspension, narrowing the beam will not improve the handling of the vehicle either, the engineer i spoke to said that narrowing the beam to fit the incorrect offset wheel to the car would be illeagal as it changes the wheels relationship to the suspension,it's not as simple as just fitting them under the guards, the scrub radius is probably the most important thing that is overlooked when fitting wider wheels to your car, if you want the car to track well and not wander under brakes try to keep the track diamention on your vehicle as close as posible to standard diamention without narrowing the beam, the scrub radius is were a line drawn through the ball joints/kingpin and disects the tyre were it contacts the road looking from the front of the vehicle
........seems like things just got more complicated. I was hoping to run 17x7's on my bj front end.

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#797402
Go check out germanlook where 100s of people already have

colonel mustard Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,829 posts · joined Feb 2009 ·

#797411
Joel wrote:Yet another good reason why I stick to my strut bugs
Heck yes. 🙂

bugzla Custom Title Time!

1,164 posts · joined Jun 2007 ·

#797564
here was mine 7 x 17 4x130 stud pattern ball joint front

1 attachment · Log in to view

Chop Top VW Slammed & Awesome Dubber

91 posts · joined May 2010 ·

#797571
hi bugzla,
did you modify to fit the wheels, how much was it lowered.

bugzla Custom Title Time!

1,164 posts · joined Jun 2007 ·

#797576
nope they were a straight fit, lowered by one adjuster all the way it was pretty rigid i would put 2 in if i still had the car..... as for the back readjusted the torsion bars a few notches and handled like a gocart

cam070 Custom Title Time!

1,332 posts · joined Jul 2009 ·

#797578
What offset were your wheels Bugzla? And are you saying you didn't have to narrow your front beam? Also, did you get any fouling/rubbing when on full lock?
And it must have been fun looking for 4x130 wheels. I thought they would have been like finding fairies!

bugzla Custom Title Time!

1,164 posts · joined Jun 2007 ·

#797601
still had a bit of rubbing on the inner cant really remember the correct offset sorry........ but the wheels where blank and drilled to suite, the hardest thing was covering the stud pattern and having enough meat on the outer of the stud circle but they fitted like a glove not bad considering

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#797626
Most of those Vault rims are all et40

bugzla Custom Title Time!

1,164 posts · joined Jun 2007 ·

#797627
they are a verde rim

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#797629
Vault/Verde same diff

Funny if you painted your old one black, added Tbars and changed the rims to Fuchs it would be an identical twin to my old rotary bug before I put it all back to original panels