The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi all,

Looking for some recommendations for tyres and sizes for my 1850 on standard steels. I've always felt the 155 / 80 are a bit narrow.. 165? I don't want to go too mad, just add a tad more grip at a reasonable cost, want to keep the standard wheels if possible.

Any suggestions/experience?

Cheers

Iain

Are your wheels 4.5j or 5j? If the former, you're going to struggle to get wider tyres to fit nicely. Any branded modern tyre is going to be better than original equipment in terms of grip, noise etc. I run Dunlop Street Response 2s but I'm sure that other members will suggest alternatives.

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I have Falken 175/70 on my standard 4.5j steel wheeled 1850, no problems with them. Modern tyres, modern pressures, as recommended by Falken.
Search on here for tyre pressures, some good information.
Falken told me 26 all round, others with Sprints are slightly higher, consensus seems to be roughly 30 all round.

The 175/70 gives an overall wheel diameter 0.2" less than standard.

I've always run 155/80s on my cars, namely Uniroyal RainExperts, always found them to be great for the price. Especially in Scotland where rain is frequent to say the least

I did briefly run Sprint alloys with 175 tyres on my 1850HL but somewhat ironically that was the only time I've ever lost grip on a car to the extent I crashed... For narrow you should try a base spec Acclaim, 145/80 as standard, same as a Moggy Minor!

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1976 Triumph Dolomite 1850HL "Trevor, the Tenaciously Terrible Triumph" - Rotten as a pear and dissolving into a field in rural Aberdeenshire.
1977 Triumph Dolomite 1300 "Daisy, the Dilapidated Dolomite of Disaster" - Major resto, planned for completion 2021.
1983 Triumph Acclaim L "Angus, the Arguably Adequate Acclaim - On the road as a daily driver.

Thanks everyone, food for thought there !

Grip will be down to tyre quality more than width.
Buy a decent brand and they are almost guaranteed to be good.
Width is personal, if you want to play with how different sizes may work try this
https://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyre-size-calculator/

175/70 a tpuch wide on 4.5j rims, 165/70 better but will alter gearing. as will 165/80.

I would probably stick to the std width, though availability is getting harder...

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Clive Senior
Brighton

Since before my father bought our 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300, it was fitted with 175/80 R13 tyres on 5½ x 13 inch Cosmic alloy wheels, onto which I later substituted 185/70 R13 tyres.

I checked on the Oponeo mail-order website for tyres and there still seems to be reasonable choice at the moment re 155/80 R13, 175/80 R13, 175/70 R13 and 185/70 R13 tyres, but many of these are of brands with which I am unfamiliar:

155/80 R13 tyres

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... Vi_FnJkw==

124 products found


175/80 R13 Tyres for car

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... oOTcgkLg==

2 products found

175/80 R13 Tyres for van

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... I8OQyE6g==

18 products found


175/70 R13 tyres

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... 14TFplkaY=

139 products found


185/70 R13 tyres

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... TsNWmCWNk=

33 products found

Owing to the future availability and price of either 175/70 R13 or 185/70 R13 tyres, my next set of tyres will be either 185/65 R15, 185/60 R15 or 185/55 R15 sizes on 5½J x 15 inch MG Maestro alloy wheels.

185/65 R15

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... C9z4u7PWU=

394 products found


185/60 R15

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... M-QGOl17c=

321 products found


185/55 R15

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/t= ... 2dXp538CY=

221 products found

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Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering, for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=308177758

Upgraded 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300 (Toledo / Dolomite HL / Sprint hybrid)

Onetime member + magazine editor & technical editor of Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club

A few things.
Do not fit van tyres to your car, handling will be "interesting" in a bad way (T2000 owners can testify to this)

And the 185/65 tyres are substantially bigger than std tyres, by nearly 8% or nearly 2". That is way more than is sensible.....

I would politely suggest 195/50 15 as they are very close to the original diameter, and are a very common size. Although the sidewalls are a bit small....

Better still are 185/60 14 which are again almost exactly the same as original diameter, plenty of choice and very reasonably priced. (this is from somebody who has had 13, 14 and 15" wheels on their toledo, and done at least a full set of tyres in each size, rather than guessing)

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Clive Senior
Brighton