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Wheels with metric tire size?


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these are michelin TRX tires and the correspondingly-sized wheels; as the wikipedia article states, it's a special size with no standard size equivalent. these wheels are also available in 15x6 size, i have them on my car.

the only place in the north america that i know of that sells TRX tires is coker tire. they're not cheap, it's probably cheaper to get the 15x6 wheels and new 195/60-15 or 205/60-15 tires. the TRX wheel/tire combo performed excellently for its time, but modern tires in standard sizes are better and cheaper. so you should only keep the TRX setup if you're really into authenticity.

if those wheels and tires are original to the car, and you decide to swap, you should hang onto the TRX wheels in case you ever sell the car. they have almost no resale value by themselves (mainly because of the high price of the replacement tires), and some future buyer might appreciate having them.

as an aside, ford put TRX on the 1979 mustang turbo; that's probably how most americans and canadians would have heard about TRX.

andré

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well, at the time, they were not irreplaceable -- you could go to any tire store that sold michelins and they either had them or could order them. TRX didn't catch on, though...i'm guessing that most people decided that the benefits weren't worth the additional expense and hassle of being locked-in to michelin for replacement tires. i don't think anybody else made TRX tires, don't know if michelin didn't license the technology, or if they charged too much to the other tire makers, or if the other tire companies decided that the market wasn't there...

if you look on this forum, there's a thread somewhere in which a european member took TRX wheels, cut them up and used the centers with modular rims (giving him 16-inch wheels)....don't have time to look for it right now...it's interesting, though probably not something that most people would do...rabin, you probably remember it, it was the one where the valve stems ended up on this inside of the wheels....

andré

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I have also set of 390mm wheels on the garret but for P-604 which fit to P-505 and the tires are to expensive. I will go to the workshop where they repair damaged rims and do the aluminum welding and tell them to weld 8 milimeters more of aluminum material, machining them and I will have 16" rims. It is much cheaper then buying every few years new set of expensive 390mm tires. I was thinking also to machine 390mm down to 15" but then the material would be weakened so that would be not good solution, so it is better to weld and go up or if you care to much for your money get 15" rims.

P-505 Dangel 4x4 had 16" rims.

BMW had till middle '90 on some models metric tires. They have the same problem.

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I would never circumference weld the bead area on a cast aluminum wheel even if pre-heated then tempered afterwards. I'm not concerned about your safety, but the safety of the poor kid that might lose his life mounting the tires. If anybody needs wheels I have spares that I would consider parting with if makes us all a bit safer.

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I have never heard that someone had destruction on welded rim at high speed lets say 250-300km/h, never!

Just give me some example and proof and I am not going to weld my rims to 16".

I am just hearing rumours, it could hapen this and that... but no proof or example.

Proof First!

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It won't happen at high speed, but under high lateral load or when mounting tires. I don't have an example of this failure and I'm glad I've never heard of one. Cast aluminum is a dirty metal to weld so it can be hard to get it clean enough for a good bond. Generally structural cast aluminum should be replaced instead of welded since its prone to cracking at the weld. Bottom line, I would only weld a rim in this fashion if I was doing the welding, tire mounting, and driving. Still I would only drive it on a track, but hey I'm a certified welder what do I know.

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