I have a line on buying a spare new set of 3 piece Detroit Montreal five spoke rear wheels, four of them,from a guy who used to work at the Jaguar Factory and 'bought' a bunch of parts.

The intermediary ebay seller has told me that I can run a set of these on the fronts as well as the backs 'done it all the time'.

Update:

To clarify the source is saying that he runs the 255 tyre on the front
and the 285 tyre on the rear without any issues on rear sized wheels front and back.

So the question is can you safely run a rear wheel size with a normal front tire size?


I am not convinced that 285/30-20inch wheels are going to clear the wheel wells in the front when turning.

Any thoughts on this.

I plan to keep the car for the next ten years so figure it is good to have a second set of wheels.

The asking price is £300/$480 per wheel?

Is this a good or fair price for new wheels?

Thanks for any info or experiences you may have had with this issue.

jamjax

 

I may be wrong, but I don't believe anyone here runs tyres/wheels as wide as that on the front.

 

I have these wheels on my car and they are rear wheels only
255/35/20 on front

 

I think I read a post somewhere earlier about some tire size experimenting, and remember seeing that running anything wider than 255 on a stock 8'' wide with a 1'' spacer up front would rub - that's the equivalent of (255 + "25"=280). I'm running a 1'' spacer with 245's and have no rub fiy (equivalent of 270) So no, I wouldn't trust this, sounds like he just wants to make a sale.

 

JAMJAX
Dennis is correct I think the 285/30 may be too wide for the front I'm running the same wheels and the front is 255/30 the price is probably good if the trim rings aren't scared up, the trim ring runs around $200.00 a pc. plus labor I bought a set of Detroits on this side of the pond with New Michelins with 4000 miles on them for $2000.00 just to have a spare set

 

Didn't I read somewhere the Rev has quite wide tyres at the front? He is on 19s which might make a difference.

I would not run 285s on the front, the strain put on the steering and suspension would worry me.

But standard would be 285/30/20 rear and 255/35/20 front.... And just FYI BBS wheels are only 2 piece unless you count the trim which nobody does in the business

 

Thanks all.

To clarify the source is saying that he runs the 255 tyre on the front
and the 285 tyre on the rear without any issues on rear sized wheels front and back.

So the question is can you safely run a rear wheel size with a normal front tire size?

RCsign I have been meaning to ask you what year is that green TD next to your Silverstone?

My folks have a '49 TC, ' 52 YB, '55 TF, '60 MGA and a '68 MGB-GT in the barn...all running and in great shape.

cheers and as my Daddy always said "be smooth and fly low",

jamjax

 

You want to put a 255 tyre on a 285 wheel?

 

Thats tyre stretching, and a bad idea, I would not even contemplate this, stretching is liked by the VW crowd, not for me

 

Thanks everyone....I am going to go with XK Racer's and Pomosv's answer and pass on this "deal".

Course this raises the question of what size is the spare??

And can you use it on the front and back?

Seems like a profile on a spare that matched the front wheels would mess up the differential if it was put on one side of the rear?

Checking my handy dandy tire calculator at:

Tire size calculator

255/35-20 vs. 285/30-20

Gives a difference of 469 Revs per Mile for the rears and 464 Revs per Mile for the fronts...I would have thought those would be reversed with the fronts making more revolutions than the rears.

But there is a difference of about 1% in size that might affect the differential if you have two different profiles on the rears.

jamjax

 

I use a front as spare this will go on the back.or front....looks ok..

 

Does a front wheel & tyre fit in the hole provided in the boot? I have a ghastly red space saver that looks as if it came off a Citroën 2CV!

 

I had to use the red spare when I hit a "pothole", my front 20" Montreal fit in the spare location w/o any problem. The spare cover was flush with the floor, a rear wheel will probably stick above the floor.

 

Jam Jax
Actually it's a replica, but it's all electric. I drive it back and forth to work when the weather permits Here's a article on it. We built it about four years ago. I tried to make it look as authentic as possible. It's fun to drive and everybody stares when they don't here a engine.
OMG — MG TD EV Looks Sweet | Autopia | Wired.com

 

I agree..i would rather abandon my car than stick a space saver on..the tyre on the space saver is very tall(not the exact word but im sure you know i mean)but my wheel is low profile so it fits into the spare wheel bay..just

 

RC Sign;

You did a fabulous job on that EV-TD!!!

Sent it to my mother who is President of her MG car club and she sent it on all her club members...they are tickled pink about it.

cheers,

jamjax

 

I have 275s on the front. They don't rub at all. They do cause a little bit of tramlining, but it's not bad. But if I had to do it all over again, I'd put on 255s.

What's the stock tire size on the Detroit 20's?

 

255/35 front, 285/30 rear. By the way, these wheels are NLA and if like new, are worth more than the selling price. If you keep them a few years, they will be worth twice what you paid. Hard to double your money these days. I have seen pristine examples of rear Montreals sell for around $1000 each.

 

Well darn now I am confused again.

Rev. Sam are you running 285 rear wheels on the front with those 275 tires?

This guy has offered to let me drive his car in Cardiff to prove it is OK with 255 tires on 285 size rear wheels mounted on the front of his XKR.

Now he is saying he can get a set of four new rear Oyster colored 20" BBS Detroit Montreal size 285 Wheels for 300£/$480.

Has anyone seen a Zircon Blue XKR with Oyster colored wheels?

It doesn't sound like they would look good together.

He seems to think they are better quality than the silver 'painted' wheels.

Plus they are 100£ cheaper per wheel than the two rear silver wheels I was going to order from him and wait for two more silver fronts.

cheers,

jamjax

 

Oyster is a standard colour for Jag BBS wheels, it would look OK, and if they are correct so you would have 9J front and 10J rear I would go for those...
Still do not like the idea of a 255 on a 10J wheel, you will have zero rim protection, and that is one of the main problems you get with these type of wheels, curbing the stainless trim....