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14" or 15" wheels?

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glenroy Casual Dubber

25 posts · joined Dec 2011 ·

#880194
I haqve original 15" rims on my '70 beetle. I scored a set of wider rims and they are only 14". Could I put the wider 14" rims on the '70 beetle and what sort of problems would I experience if any? Both are 4 lugs.
TIA everyone.

barls Administrator Causer of Chaos and Mayhem

9,473 posts · joined Jun 2004 ·

#880196
it makes them quicker to accelerate but will make you rev higher at the same top speed compared to the 15’s.
plus they may not sit inside the guards which could be a problem
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Sides Veteran Volks Folk

2,220 posts · joined May 2007 ·

#880197
Like barls says, but also need to consider the tyres... I used to run 14 x 7's on the back of my 70, but because of the width and aspect ratio the overall diameter of the tyre was virtually the same as stock and didn't really affect gearing.

But yeah - depending on the width and offset clearance could be a prob... make sure you check it carefully.

How wide are we talkin ???
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11,654 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#880212
glenroy wrote:I haqve original 15" rims on my '70 beetle. I scored a set of wider rims and they are only 14". Could I put the wider 14" rims on the '70 beetle and what sort of problems would I experience if any? Both are 4 lugs.
TIA everyone.
Depends on the width of the rims and sizes of the tyres...

It sounds like You don't have any tyres on the rims?? Yet..

14 inch wheels were the go in the 60s to get a VW to accelerate faster by having smaller wheels and tyres..
tyres back then were like 155x14 or 165x14 so the tyres were smaller than the 15 inch items..

If they are offset wrong.... then the wheels and tyres will protrude out from the guards which makes them illegal..

but as Dave suggested, You can get lots of different tyre sizes now, so the diameter can be larger or smaller then the original tyres..

cheers

LEE
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---

vwo60 Veteran Volks Folk

2,036 posts · joined Feb 2007 ·

#880239
You should check up on ther availability of tyres for the 14" wheels, I think that there would be a better selection of 15" tyres.

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#880244
You just have to size the tyres right.
All the 70s and 80s 4 stud mags where all 14"

You wont get any 14s that are as tall as stock 165s but you can get reasonably close.

I ran with 185/70 14s for years, I wouldn't go any smaller than that.
Mates bug has 205/65s on 6" hotwires and they are slightly taller again.

Play around with a tyre calculator and see how the tyres compare to stock 165/80r15 tyres

This is a good one

http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp

hulbyw Insano Dub Head

819 posts · joined Sep 2009 ·

#880317
I had a set of 5"x 14" rims made up years ago and the only issue I had was 2 of them wouldn't clear the front calipers. Fortunately the other 2 would. Before you buy tyres I suggest you bolt up the rims to check clearance although they are probably wider than my 5's. Prior to that I had 6" x 14" and didn't have clearance issues.