8 replies to this topic

[Charlie_chica81]

Hello, Looking for a bit of advice....

 

I have just bought myself some 5x12" minilites and in the process of doing a brake conversion to discs, can I get away with no wheel arches? or will they stick out too far?... I'd like to get the body coloured ones if I do and get them added sooner rather than later, before it goes to paint.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Charlotte

[Yoda]

you will get a little tyre poke at the front, Its not an MOT failure, but may be frowned upon by  member of the traffic constabulary. In my experience it has never been noted or mentioned, but maybe i am lucky!  You may also find that with the small amount of poke you see, some lip trim round the arches will be enough.

 

If you really dont want to use arches, I used old door seal and cut off the rubber leaving just the trim that goes round the door frame and pushed this onto the metal arch edge and along the side trim. You may just be able to see it in the pic in my signature below.

[Yoda]

Here you go, cant remember if this is with 4.5 rims or the 5's i put on for MOT next day.

 

 

EDIT. Just looked back at my build thread and it looks like these were the smaller wheels, so maybe you will need the small standard arches. Someone will be along soon to confirm.

Edited by Yoda, 02 October 2013 - 12:35 PM.

[Deathrow]

It depends on the offset of the wheel but off hand I can't think of a 12x5 wheel which won't protrude when fitted with disc brakes up front and spacered drums at the rear.

Get yourself some arches .

[rally515]

Think the legal ammount you can have sticking out the side of the car is around 1.25 inches ...although...if like my old mans range rover you have rock sliders/sill step you can get away with alot more legaly ;)

[AVV IT]

From what I understand, if tread can be seen protruding from above, then it's illegal, or at least that's the method that plod seem to use to ascertain legal anyway. I've seen many archless cars at shows, but I've yet to see one with the 8.4" brake setup running anything larger than standard 3.5" steel rims, that could be deemed legal using that method.

Of course it's all dependent upon the offset of the particular wheels in question, and if your rims had a big enough +ve offset to tuck it all under the car, then you could no doubt get away with it, but then surely you'd also struggle to get 5" rims to actually fit under there enough, without scrubbing against the dampers or rear radius arms?

[craig 1010cc]

Think the legal ammount you can have sticking out the side of the car is around 1.25 inches ...although...if like my old mans range rover you have rock sliders/sill step you can get away with alot more legaly ;)

 

Nope, no tread visable when viewed from above.

 

I assume you are using 165 tyres? With 145's and some negative camber you might be able to tuck them under enough, but realistically your going to need some arches

[Charlie_chica81]

Thank you for all your replies!

 

Consensus of opinion seems to be that I need arches then, I was pretty sure that was going to be the answer... Yet another thing to add to my ever expanding shopping list!

 

You have been most helpful

 

Thanks again

 

Charlotte x

[rally515]

 

Think the legal ammount you can have sticking out the side of the car is around 1.25 inches ...although...if like my old mans range rover you have rock sliders/sill step you can get away with alot more legaly ;)

 

Nope, no tread visable when viewed from above.

 

I assume you are using 165 tyres? With 145's and some negative camber you might be able to tuck them under enough, but realistically your going to need some arches

 

 

 

This is information from the highways agency when we were pulled up by a young know it all employee and his older colleague corrected him saying with there being a step it's judged by that not the arch, this isnt a mini by the way so the tyre is abit bigger than 165