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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MG Y Type - Available tires

My YA currently has B.F. Goodrich Silvertowns in the standard 500/525 16 size. They are in OK shape and will keep her rolling for several years if necessary. BUT, is anything available for a tire upgrade on the standard wheel? A casual look at vintage tire ads shows that the 16" wheel size makes the selection mighty thin.
Paul Briggs

Paul you are right, there is minimal choice. I looked into it last year and settled on Dunlop C18s 525x16.You can use 550s but the problem is that they will not fit in the spare tyre compartment. There is a thread in the archives with the sugestion to leave the spare flat and carry a good tyre pump,but that is an extra hassle you don't need when you have a flat. In any event for the kind of driving I do the 525x16s are fine. Terry
Terry O'Brien

Paul and Terry

I know it is this side of the pond, but Vintage Tyre Supplies Limited will be able to sort you out. I do know that they export. If there is a problem there please contact me and I can buy the tyres for you and get them shipped to you if necessary.

There is a link on the Links page at http://www.mgytypes.org to their site.

Regards

Paul
Paul Barrow

In Canada Vintage Tyre has an agent( franchise?). Vintage Tyres Limited 255 Southwest Cove Road,
RR#1 Hubbards, Nova Scotia B0J 1T0 tel 902 228-2335. Got my C18s from them and a far better price delivered than British Wire Wheel from the US or trying to import them directly from the UK where you get slaughtered on carrige. I would think that they can also ship to the USA and beat BWW. Terry
Terry O'Brien

For Y-type MG tyres - try your Harley shop!
Harley sidecars run 16" tyres, a nearby dealer got me 5 Shinko MT90/16 tyres and tubes, flat profile for sidecar use, with a load rating of 850 lbs each(!), for $600 Australian delivered.
I have ridden a Harley on the tyres, good grip, and a traditional appearance. I did measure the section when I first priced them, I think it is 5.1 inches on a Y-type rim when inflated.
I cannot comment on longevity as yet, the car is not finished, but the guy with the harley has had 17,000 miles out of the front tyre so far.

Happy hunting,
Geoff Meller
Geoff Meller

Think of the possibilities! I could start hanging out with the bikers and tell them that the Y is really a Harley sidecar in disguise.:) Geoff, that IS an interesting suggestion, something I never would of thought of.
Paul Briggs

For those of you (probably just SE USA) looking for new tires, I'd love to buy your old ones. My YT is going to be a long-term project. The tires are totally rotted out and I just need something that holds air to ease rolling the car around the shop. I don't want to buy new ones because by the time I get this car ready to drive, they too will have deteriorated.

Thanks to anybody who can help!
Allen Bachelder

Am putting on the Dunlop C18s today. The guy at the tire shop strongly recomended that I also use new tubes. I already knew that a 5.10 x16 motorcycle tube works as I used one a couple of years ago, so spent most of the morning chasing around thrying to find four with rubber offset stems(they seem to prefer steel stems for cycles). I found them but here is what I was told at various cycle shops;nobody has ever heard of Shinko, Harley uses Dunlop and they havn't made side car tires since 1979. If this is true it looks like Shinko might be local to Aus. Alan my current Dunlop Gold Seal tires are pretty good, am replacing them becuase they are 25 years old and have hairline cracks on the sidewalls. They will however be fine for a city driven Austin A40 which is probably where they will end up. Too bad you are so distant. Terry
Terry O'Brien

Hi folks

Shinko tyres are made in Korea, but that does not help if there is not an importer. An email to the trade attache at the Korean embassy (USA) would (should) get you the importers details if any.

Alan who needs roller tyres - any Harley heritage, or FLH series will have tyres to fit your rims, that will keep them off the ground.
Good luck
Geoff
Geoff Meller

The tyres on my YT that is now in the UK were a make made in Thailand which I can't remember the name of. However, they were extremely authentic old fashioned cross ply style tyres that also fit in the spare wheel compartment as original.

Contact the guy I sold the car to in the UK. Brian Quarendon is his name: UK 014898935551. I am sure he won't mind popping out to the garage to find out. These would have been purchased in Australia.

Bet they cost very little if you can source them in Thailand.

Cheers

Jeremy
Jeremy

I just finished talking to a friendly gentleman at a place called Diamond Back Classics in South Carolina who have an ad in Hemmings mentioning the availability of 16 inch radials. At present their narrowest is 600 x 16, but he stated that they were in contact with someone in Europe to manufacture 550 x 16 radials for some crazy people like us. Wouldn't that be great! Anyone who is interested might give them a call and get on the request list, which might help push them to get it done. They are at 1-888-922-1642, www.widewhitewalltires.com for the site.
Paul Briggs

As well as the various good advice above, I can share that a volkswagen commercial (model forgotten!) uses 16" tyres. The plus point about this is that they make really good S&M (snow & mud) versions which we imported from Germany for the Monte Carlo Rally a few years bakc and which we have used on winter roads with the YA. I've been thinking of putting a pair on spare wheels for the YT so that the "Chilly Willy" runs may be less surprising! The agency was (again) Vintage Tires in UK
Andrew Coulson

This thread was discussed between 05/07/2002 and 02/08/2002

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