Oklahoma Vw Cruisers

I like the way some of the aftermarket aluminum wheel look on beetles. I particularly like the five spoke or BRM wheels with the 5x205 bolt pattern (which is what I have). My question is are there manufactures to stay away from and it seems that they are all wider than the stock wheels. I am concerned about clearance issues. any suggestions?

Stock ride height or slammed? I'm running 17x7's on my beetle with drop spindles and the only ill effect is a loss of turning radius. Stock height with 15" brms either the 5 or 5.5" should fit fine as long as you don't put gigantic tires on them.

Err what?
You said you already have BRMs so you tell us.....

vdubjim wrote:Err what?
You said you already have BRMs so you tell us.....

"ditto"

I guess I didn't say it correctly, my beetle has tired looking stock wheels on it.

OK I see it now, what I meant to say is my bug has 5x205 bolt pattern.

Ahhhh OK.

All aftermarket wheels made today, are designed to fit bugs/busses.
The fronts on a dropped spindles car you'll need to run shorter tires or rub.the order in which I like, 175/55, 155/60, 165/50, 165/45, 145/80, 135/80.

Where do you buy tires, I haven't been able to find anything but 165/80/15 locally.

Discount tire or eBay. Those last few locals will tell you they don't exist.....they do.

Jim, the Bentley manual says the original tire dia. is 25.6 in.. Your favorite tire size is smaller, how much does this affect speedometer reading and engine RPM at highway speeds? Is the smaller required to prevent tire rubbing?
,

Robwalk
go to the Tech Help of our forum
I posted a Tire Calculator site....
you can load in your stock tire and the other tires for
comparison....it will give you the speedometer correction
difference
you can play with this calculator.....and compare different
tires sizes for the diameter, side wall height, tread width...and so forth

5Mph-ish.

Yes you'll rub the headlight bucket, lip and inner fender well.

Jim, thanks for the help, the tire/rim calculator is neat. My bug has 165R15 tires on it now, I am guessing that 165R15 and 165/80/15 are the same. It seems that 165R15 is an outdated size. I don't have any interference with tires and headlight buckets or fenders. Did have a problem rubbing of suspension on drivers side, but fixed it by centering the steering box. I purchased a set of BRMS from Craigslist, fronts are 15x5 with et14 and rears are 15x6.5 with et12, I probably would not have ordered that wide for the rear had I purchased them new, but I got a good price on these wheels. I am wanting to keep the OD of the tire/wheel near stock so that speedo is close and I don't need a lower overall gear ratio in the rear. by the calculator 155-80-15 should work in front and I think 205-65-15 or 195-65-15 in the rear (still doing some measuring and head scratching). I am finding it hard to support the swing axle with wheel off in the same position as it would be supporting the weight of the car. Do you have any thoughts on this project?

I havent uses robs tire calc, just the one i have stickied, might look at both.

I like 195.
/65 was stock for newer vw so you can get em used cheap.
Also that width, 205 might be good as long as it doesn't rub the spring plate or upper bump stop your good.

My oval had 155 up front, really didn't like the look, but its just pref.
Might look in thesamba gallery or forum and see if anyone has similar so you can get an idea first.

I used the one Jim sticky-ed the one Rob posted won't let me enter 165/80/15 as the stock size. Ever order tires from the Tire rack?

ya might have to call em, its an odd size to them. 175/55 and 155/60 are on there, tires from the smart car.