Converting to wire wheels

[ibjean325]

RE Balancing the wire wheels. Proper equipment.

[SapphireBlue72]

Lou, I don't know why the imbalance was so bad. I don't make this stuff up.
After the guy balanced it with his spin machine it was no problem for years afterwards.
The Michelin survived and wore well. It was a 60 spoke factory wire wheel.

[lfmTR4]

My TR6 has KN Minitars, my 4A has wires. So I ask, why would a wire wheel losing a weight and going out of balance act different than a steel wheel under the same circumstance?

On the other hand, wires have come a long way since OEM. Just look at the 64 spoke Dunlop or Daytons that don’t require a tube.

[SapphireBlue72]

I was driving West across this country in my TR4 with wire wheels, and a wheel weight must have fallen off in New Mexico or Arizona.

The tire started bouncing and the steering wheel shaking. No spare.

It was destroying the tire tread- an almost new Michelin. I had to slow to 45 mph to control the car. On Interstates. It was pure misery for hours.

Finally, in Bakersfield, CA, I found a shop that had a balance machine that spun the wire wheel and tire as they were mounted on the hub.

I look at beautiful cars with wire wheels and am reminded of my wire wheel hell. Never again.

[ibjean325]

Yes good point about proper mounting and balancing. Find a shop that has the proper equipment-adapters to balance them. My local tire shop has a splined adapter to mount them to for properly balancing.

[baws]

Wire wheels look great but are high maintenance if you plan to do a fair amount of driving in any and all conditions. Hard to keep clean, prone to leaks and require a specialist tire shop for mounting etc.
But nothing says classic sports car better that true spoked wire wheels.
Always fancied a set of gloss black painted wires with chrome, eared knock offs for my 6.

[Toad]

Thanks. I agree, no spacers seems to be the way to go. Thanks for the info re. Hendrix too.

Toad

[ibjean325]

You asked about spacers or no spacers. I'd vote no spacers.
I think you'll be happy with the wires. Install the proper studs and mount your wires. What reason would you need to keep your car set up for both? NFI but Hendrix Wire Wheels has a good reputation and reconditioned my wire wheels and provided me with the proper size tires that fit perfectly with the car.

[Toad]

Yes, I will be selling or trading the ARW's. I am already in discussions with tr250 about a trade but if that doesn't work out, I'll let you know.

[UberXY]

Are you going to sell the ARWs?

[oppositelocksmith]

Site is https://the-roadster-factory.com/indexmain.php

[Toad]

Funny, I always get a "this site can't be reached" message whenever I try to find anything TRF related. Catalogs, classifieds, anything...it can't be reached. Even using links from evil Google searches won't bring up TRF links that work. This has been going on for at least a year. I figured they pulled the plug. Maybe I have been blacklisted by TRF???

Back on topic: I don't mind the idea of spacers, just don't want the wheels to stick out too far.

[phil73]

Odd...the link works fine for me and yes it was a link to a page in the TRF Glovebox Companion catalog

[phil73]

I always thought spacers increased the chances of wheel vibration. Am I wrong there?

[oppositelocksmith]

Roadster Factory is fine. Victoria British is the one that disappeared. They got bought by Moss Motors.