Thread: Tyre sizes still a bit confused

No serious rubbing issues with any of those sizes. The 265's may just rub the plastic inner lining of the rear wheel well, but only at max articulation and isn't something to worry about.

Legally I can't advise on Victoria - RMP should be able to give you some idea. In WA they're legal.

Cheers,

Gordon

Tyre fitters really make me angry sometimes because they are almost always wrong. Apologies to the good ones out there (and there are some great shops), but if I had a dollar for every time someone comes up with "but my tyre shop said..." and the tyre shop was wrong then I'd have a Sport TDV8 in my garage. Half of them don't understand offset, this 5% rule get bandied about, and many don't understand that modern radials can now be rotated onto any wheel, tyres get set to max-inflation or placard level with no accounting for load, tyre type etc. It wouldn't be so bad but most of them advertise as being experts in the field.

Rant off.

Anyway. The regulations are not all that hard to comprehend. They are clearly stated in VSI 8 and VSI 26 available from vicroads.vic.gov.au. VSI 8 says:

"The overall diameter of any replacement rim and tyre must not be:

- more than 15mm greater than the largest diameter tyre specified by the vehicle manufacturer for that model or vehicle series"

pretty clear.

Doesn't hurt to print the regs out and show it to them. Worked for me last time I had to argue the proposed offset was illegal.

So the 245/75/17s and the 265/70/17s are both illegall on a D3 in Victoria?

Apparently so ...

Robert, when (if ever) is Victoria contemplating mandating the NCOP regs on vehicle modifications? I seem to remember that is was Victoria that pushed for 'nationwide' rulings in the first place. Under NCOP, you'd be allowed 50mm oversize for an off-road capable vehicle, (15mm for a std car).

Cheers,

Gordon

DJ

Multiply out the overall diameter of those tyres against the stock sizes and see if there is more than 15mm difference.

GGH

I know, I know....Victoria hasn't adopted it yet and nobody seems to know what's happening, least of all Vicroads. The fact each state sees fit to have different road regulations is one of the banes of my life and you can see why many people in the industry simply give up and adopt a "she'll be right" attitude or a "if it fits, it's all good" principle.

Why on this green earth we permit 50mm in WA and 15mm in NSW and Vic, not to mention various other differences I do not know. Australia is over-governed in some ways. NCOP is I believe agreed, but agreed is not the same as passed into law.

Google VSB14. or AAAA VSB14. Some smaller pieces have been rolled out in all states, as have changes to make road rules more uniform. I think the main reason this code has not been introduced nationally( at this point ) , is the different state beauracracies don't want to relinquish any control.

The AAAA and several of the 4WD interest groups are lobbying to have some changes made to the draft code. The principle focus at this stage is to allow a 50mm lift and a tyre change without an engineering sign off. There has been some testing with the Queensland Dept. of Transport, which I think revolved around swerve or ' moose ' testing of std. and 50mm modified 4wd's. The reports coming back, are that the 2 out of 6 std vehicles failed the test. All the modified ( 6 again I believe ) vehicles passed, but some degradation of braking performance was noted. Still within ADR's I think. Not unexpected with larger diameter tyres.
The expectation is that Australia will have uniform vehicle modification regulations when this code is introduced. There is talk some states may take the opportunity to introduce tougher vehicle inspection regulations.
W.A. is a prime candidate.

Yeah I have had a look Vicroads Vehicle standards and VSB14. So, the NCOP VSB14 is not applicable to Victoria. And Vic roads says no bigger than 15mm than the max manufactures size for passenger cars and 4wds. Ridiculous that it should be different for each state. I wonder if there is a larger size than the standard 235/70/17 that Landrover recommend? Every day I see a modded 4wd that must be illegal.
Anyway it looks to me that I am restricted to the 245/70/17 KM2s if I am going to abide the law.
Also, thinking of fitting bead locks. Are they OK on road and legal?

Land Rover recommend only what's on the placard and on their rims. What is legal, what fits, and what they recommend are not necessarily the same.

Internal beadlocks are ok, external are definitely not. I doubt you'd need them anyway and even if you did fit them that would be a modification to the rim which would I think render it illegal, but check that.

Yes, there are thousands of illegal vehicles out there. If you know the regs you can spot defects on pretty much any non-standard vehicle.