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COMPUTER SAY NO!
I swapped the 205/50s to the back of the Picasso last Friday in anticipation of a trip down to our static caravan at Burnham on Sea that same evening. A swift run round the block to try it out and settle the suspension was a complete disaster, 1/2 a mile in I got fault warnings for ABS and Stability control, a non functioning speedo and, weirdest of all, an engine management light! Switching off and restarting the engine rebooted the system (except the EML which must always be cancelled using a diagnostic) but another 1/2 mile returned the fault codes and speedo failure.
The car obviously objects to my mismatched tyre choices, GRRRR! I really HATE nanny state and cars that think they are smarter than me!
I suspect that having two or more tyres of significantly different external circumference on the vehicle, has confused the ABS and/or traction-control system into "thinking" that a wheel is slipping or is locked; given that on average all of the wheels should be rotating at the same rpm, except when negotiating a bend. This kind of thing, is one of many reasons I have vowed never to have a modern vehicle, which I interpret as being any vehicle designed & manufactured since the early-1990s.
205/50 R15 – overall external circumference = 1841•0 mm (
0•28% larger than 155/82 R13)
185/60 R15 – overall external circumference = 1894•3 mm (
3•18% larger than 155/82 R13)
185/65 R15 – overall external circumference = 1952•5 mm (
6•35% larger than 155/82 R13)
According to various retailers of space-saver spare-wheel kits for modern cars, a ± 3% deviation in tyre external circumference would be acceptable, but this doesn't seem to be the case with the Picasso, where the external circumference of the 205/50 R15 tyres differs from that of the 185/65 R15 tyres by circa 6%!
https://www.amcarparts.co.uk/space-save ... etail.html
https://www.amcarparts.co.uk/product/sp ... el/citroen
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So, at short notice, I swapped all the holiday stuff for SWMBO and myself including luggage, food, her wheelchair, a full tank of fuel (and SWMBO herself) and a precautionary quantity of tools and fluids into the Dolomega for what would be, to date, it's longest non stop run of 127 miles. A low hanging clamp on the exhaust downpipe didn't like the speed bumps on the caravan site, but, even in this heavily loaded condition, I got no graunching from the rear arches, which, I think, vindicates my choice of the 6 spoke MGF rims.
SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed !?!?!
I'm surprised at you for having a drooping exhaust system on your Triumph Dolomite "Dolomega"! Apart from from its attachment to the exhaust manifold, my Triumph Toledo's 1982 Cheeseman stainless-steel exhaust system, is only supported in three places, but I would like to add some additional vibration-isolation supports for greater security.
The longest journey I ever made in the 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300 "HL Special", was a one-day round trip of about
250 miles in 1989, from Canvey Island, Essex to the Tarmac Topblock factory in Alfreton, Derbyshire. During 1990~91, when I was at RMCS - Royal Military College of Science, in Shrivenham, near Swindon, Wiltshire, I used to drive the
2 x 127 mile round-trip to go home for the weekends.
The longest recorded total distance (as indicated by the odometer & trip-counter) travelled in that car (with 175 SR13 tyres) was
415 miles, without refilling or partially refilling my
10.5 Imperial gallon petrol tank; corresponding to
39.5 mpg. I was only 4~5 miles from home when the Toledo's engine died from fuel starvation, but fortunately I had 1.09 Imperial gallons of petrol in my Paddy Hopkirk "Explosafe" 5-litre petrol can in the boot.
If I had had a Triumph Dolomite 1300's
12.5 Imperial gallon petrol tank, I might have managed nearly
495 miles without refuelling; which is further than travelling between Canvey Island or South Benfleet, Essex, England and my childhood home in Dundee, Tayside (originally in Angus before Tayside was created), Scotland!
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Keep in mind, that on average, 185/60 R15 tyres will have a circa 5 mm greater installed section-width than 185/55 R15 tyres, that are mounted on the same wheels. Also keep in mind, that the installed section-width of tyres, mounted on wheels of “standard” or “measuring” width, can vary considerably between different tyre manufacturers & brands, so a tyre of 185 mm nominal section-width, might conceivably be 185 ± 5 mm.
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I expect there to be noticeable variation in installed section-width of the same sized tyre, of different manufacturers’ brands, on the same sized wheel.
I expect there to be noticeable variation in installed section-width of the same sized tyre, of the same manufacturer’s brand, on wheels of different sizes.
It's good that your Triumph Dolomite "Dolomega" has still yet to experience any noticeable wheel & tyre rubbing or interference with the wheel-arches or suspension components, despite being heavily laden for your impromtu, recent, 127 mile trip to the static caravan.
Were you still using the original Chinese
Linglong 185/55 R15 tyres on the 6J x 15 inch MG-F six-spoke alloy wheels (28 mm wheel-offset), or had you already substituted a pair of new Toyo Proxes 185/60 R15 tyres?
Would there have been any noticeable wheel & tyre rubbing or interference, had you
NOT previously cut or ground away part of the rear-wheel arches, in an attempt to accommodate the John Brown fake "Minilite" style 5.5 x 14 inch wheels (22 mm wheel-offset) & 185/60 R14 tyres?
Given that the following 5.5 x 15 inch & 6 x 15 inch MG alloy wheels, are probably few of the readily-available wheels, of 4 x 3.75 inch (i.e. 4 x 95.25 mm) PCD and 56~57 mm centre-bore, with a potentially suitable wheel-offset, I suspect that a significant number of Triumph Toledo & Dolomite owners, would wish to know whether these wheels can be used with various tyre options, without needing to modify the wheel arches.
5.5J x 13 inch (
35 mm offset | Max Load = ???) - Triumph Dolomite Sprint
MG 2000 Maestro - 5.5J x 15 inch (
31 mm offset | Max. Load =
400 kg or
415 kg)
MG 2000 Maestro Turbo - 6J x 15 inch (28 mm offset!?! | Max Load = ???)
MG 2000 Montego - 6J x 15 inch (
28 mm offset | Max. Load =
425 kg)
MG 2000 Montego Turbo - 6J x 15 inch (28 mm offset!?! | Max Load = ???)
MG-F & MG-TF - 6J x 15 inch (
28 mm offset | Max Load = ???)
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There are several single 6 spoke MGF alloy rims for sale on ebay currently, prices ranging upward from about £40 each (plus collection cost) so I could complete a set of 5, but I really can't be bothered, The MGF steel spare is close enough for me.
I keep my spare face up, both to better support the thin boot board and also for access to the valve to check the tyre pressure more easily. The 185/65 tyre makes the board sit that 1/2" higher than the tank but there is still plenty of room around it to get in a tow strap, original car jack and toolkit, my 3m set of industrial jump leads and some other odds and ends like a spare fuel pump, bulb and fuse kits and the ubiquitous tin of Finilec. I suppose I SHOULD get a spare fanbelt, but the one on the engine is brand new and loss of the fanbelt isn't a major catastrophe as it only drives the alternator.
I would have thought that 6J x 15 inch MG-F alloy wheels would be much cheaper than
£40 each, or has there been a massive increase in asking prices since the COVID-19 pandemic started!?! It's only been 4~5 years since I bought my five + two 5.5 x 15 inch MG Maestro wheels, the most expensive of which, were less than
£20 each, plus less than £7.50 each in courier fees.
When we were planning our first independent touring holiday in 1975, we investigated hiring one of the AA's overseas touring emergency spares kits (almost essential for obsolete vehicles, even in Great Britain), which listed the following items:
Top & bottom radiator hoses
Heater hoses
Fan-belt
Spark plugs
Contact-breaker points
Condenser
Rotor arm
Distributor cap
HT Leads
Ignition coil
Fuel pump
Bulbs
Fuses
Shraeder valve-cores
My Toledo's V-belt drives both the water pump and the alternator. What drives your water pump if not a V-belt? How far do you think you could drive (day and/or night) on reserve battery charge, if the alternator was no longer functioning?
Whilst on our motor-caravan touring holiday in Sweden (obligatory daytime use of dipped headlamps), during the summer of 1982, our 1973 VW 1600 Type 2 sustained dynamo voltage-regulator failure without warning (no ignition warning light illumination, despite serviceable bulb). Only after stopping on a steep uphill gradient to investigate an engine misfire, did I discover that the battery was "flat" and the starter-motor couldn't turn over the engine to restart.
I managed to restart the engine by rolling down hill in reverse and then gradually engaging the clutch once we were rolling at 10+ mph. By illegally switching off the dipped headlamps, I had enough reserve charge and battery voltage to operate the ignition system and limped to the next large town where there was a franchised VW workshop. Towing charges in Sweden would have been horrendously expensive. For the substitute 1911 cc, VW 17/1800 Type 4 style air-cooled engine, I have a spare alternator & remote voltage regulator, as well as two spare V-belts.
The wheel-centres of the Cosmic, Dolomite Sprint or MG 2000 Maestro wheels, are
NOT at the same level as the tyre sidewalls, so would
NOT provide any support for the shaped, hardboard wheel-cover. It is only the tyre side-walls which support the hardboard wheel-cover and any luggage above it, irrespective of which way up the wheel is put in the spare-wheel well!
If I place my 1000 mm long STANLEY aluminium builder's spirit-level across the sidewall of the tyres there is a
large gap between the underside of the spirit-level and the closest part of the wheel centres as follows:
Dolomite Sprint wheel (no centre-cap) & 185/70 R13 tyre -
30 mm gap
MG 2000 Maestro wheel & 185/55 R15 tyre -
23 mm gap
I cannot undertake a similar measurement (which I anticipate would probably be less than 30 mm, but still significantly large) on the Cosmic wheels & 185/70 R13 or 175 SR13 tyres, as I no longer have the Cosmic wheels, which I swopped for the Dolomite Sprint wheels in July 1996.
Recalling that the Dolomite boot is circa 6 inches or 150 mm longer than that of the Toledo, implies that there is much less space in the Toledo boot, adjacent to the spare wheel, below the hardboard spare-wheel cover, to provide storage for spares, tools and emergency equipment. Turning the spare-wheel up the other way in the boot, simply so that I can directly access the tyre-inflation Schräder valve, would be a heavy price for me to pay for wasted useful storage space, but fortunately there is a simple way of overcoming this, by using a pneumatic extension hose, which can be used to both check the tyre's inflation pressure and further inflate it if necessary, without disturbing the spare-wheel or placing the tyre-inflator in the boot!
Being quite well acquainted with 1960s & 1970s vintage, air-cooled VW Types 1, 2, 3 & 4, I was aware that they all had air-pressurised windscreen-washer reservoirs, which provided me with the necessary second-hand components to make a pneumatic extension hose.
The windscreen-washer reservoirs of the 1968~79 VW Type 2, are pressurised to circa 45 psi or 3 Bar, using a conventional tyre-inflator (e.g. bicycle-pump, foot-pump, stirrup-pump or electric-compressor) via a short-length rubber hose and short-stemmed Schräder-valve body (similar to that used for car tyres or inner-tubes).
The windscreen-washer reservoirs of the VW Types 1, 3 & 4, are pressurised by air from the nearby spare-wheel, via a relatively long rubber hose and a fitting with integral valve-core depressor, which screws onto the spare-wheel's Schräder-valve stem.
Using a long rubber hose & screw-on fitting with integral Schräder-valve-core depressor, from a VW Type 1, 3 or 4, in combination with a short-stemmed Schräder-valve body from a VW Type 2 or a wheel's defunct valve stem with the rubber stripped off, one can readily make a pneumatic extension hose like mine.
Not only can I use a pneumatic extension hose (I have more than one!) with my Triumph Toledo's spare-wheel, but also my 1973 VW Type 2's original windscreen-washer reservoir, plus the spare-wheel mounted on the front panel below the windscreen and the spare-wheel stored upright in the spare-wheel well above the rear engine compartment.
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Also an impending £220 bill for 4 new 185/60/15 Toyos for the Dolomega and another £110 for 2 more 185/65/15s to even up the Picasso makes a big hole in my pension! even when partially offset by the sale of the John Brown 14" fake minilites, which ought to make a couple of hundred with tyres. They WILL fit TR7, Spitfire, Herald, Vitesse, GT6 and Morris Minor without any problems so there IS a market to tap into. But I have to spend the money before I can make it back!
Sometime ago, I came across a reference to a Morris Minor being equipped with what looked like 6 x 15 inch MG-F wheels! A bill for tyres of £220 + £110 would make a large dent in my state retirement pension too; it being the only retirement pension I have.