Just revived my 68 bug thats been in storage over here in Ireland and got it taxed and on the road yesterday. I restored it back in 1995 when cal-look was the thing and its currently on 195/50-15 tyres which wreck the gearing.

What tyres would you suggest I should run on the back, its running stock height (Irish roads aren't that great for a lowered car)





Cheers

Steve

I have a 69 with empi 8's and lowered. I have 195 X 65 X 15 on the rear and 175 X 65 X 15 on the front

205/65 15 is what i use to run. its the closest you can get to the stock 185/100s

I've got 185/65 on the front and 205/60 on the rear with Empi 8's. Lowering it this week so we'll see how that goes.

Paulc1964au, how much did you lower the front of yours? I'm a bit concerned that I'm going to go too low and have to pull the struts out and adjust them again. They're the Empi type and I've gone to about half way. Yours looks good and with 175/65's do you have any tyre/wheel rubbing issues?

P.S. Apologies Matara for hijacking your post.

Hi Steve

The stock radial tyre is 155SR15, its 25.1 inches tall or about 635 mm tall. You need to stick with that size or a little larger in overall height to keep your gearing OK.

Steve

Steve! more beetles in the collection! when are you back in town?

why put bandaids on the problem of rubbing front wheels by fitting a narrowed beam which is illegal, all you have to is fit a set of wheels with the right offset

Hi

Actually if you narrow your beam by a set amount, your new track is the stock track minus the narrowing amount, welding a suspension component is another grey area as well as drop spindles.

Steve

The beetle is over here in Ireland, so the laws are not as tough, but I'm really concerned about the rear tyre size. Its only running a 1300TP, so I want to get the biggest tyre I can under it, so it has better legs on the open road. At present it has 195/50-15's on the rear which is way too small. I will be using stock spindles and stock disk brakes up front, and I think I can go a bit bigger than 195/50-15.

Benny, I've had this car since 1994! Its been in my dads garage for most of the time, only coming out once in a while. I will be over here until Feb next year.

Cheers

Steve

Hi Paul1964au
Sorry to disagree with you , if you narrow the beam to fit a wheel that has the wrong offset and it maintains the standard track it is loading up your suspension, it is the relationship between the center line of your wheel and a line drawn through the king pin / ball joints, that determine your scrub radius, when you narrow the beam 50MM and arrive at the same track as standard you are technicly 50MM over track, the relationship to the rest of the suspension has been change well and truely outside the legall limit, a increase in bump steer, tramlining under brakes, increased wear in the front end including the inner trailing arm bushes, kin pins, link pins along with a increase in effort to turn the steering wheel, I have a set of 16 x 6 rims on the front of my convertable with 195 50 16 tyres and have no rubbing issues other that a slight reduction in the turning circle.

After searching the forum, I still haven't really seen a definitive answer to the question...

'Has anyone in QLD had a 2.5" dropped spindle and 2" narrowed front beam on a beetle successfully mod plated?'

I'm considering getting this done to my daily driver, but I want to do it legally and without any possibility of getting my insurance rejected if I need to claim.

it is my understanding that any decrease in track is illegal, as for the dropped spindles it will depend on your engineer, you could have one tested and determin its failure point. it has been done on this forum already.