Old Jag metric tyres

[Yugguy]

My Dad has an 87 Daimler with 220/65/R390 tyres on, I want to advise him on what imperial tyres he could fit but I can't find a tyre size converter anywhere that will go from metric to imperial.

Can anyone help?

[Phil Hopkins]

I may well be being incredibly ignorant here but I was under the impression you couldn't fit any metric tyres to imperial wheels (and vice versus)?

[Andrew Noakes]

You can't fit conventional tyres on metric rims. The TRX/TD rim was a different design which only worked with specially-designed tyres and to ensure that conventional tyres were never fitted to TRX rims they were metric sized, and they were sized between the usual diameters - a 390mm rim is about 15.5 inches.

TRXs are still available but they're very expensive. You'll probably find a set of secondhand alloys (maybe even new ones) with conventional tyres will be cheaper.

[Yugguy]

Ah, b*gger, I never thought of the actual wheel itself.

That sucks.

Cheers for the information.

[DrDeAtH]

the TRX tyres are only available from dunlop now... at £120ish a pop. but soon to be only made in the 'classic tyres' range, so expect the price to hike as well......

best thing to do is to buy an old set of imperial wheels.. plenty on fleaBay......

[groomi]

When I had my old XJ40, I needed to replace all four metric tyres in one go - each one was going to cost me £185. I ended up buying a set of beautifully refurbished 15" lattice sport alloys from a bloke in the JEC and fitting the appropriate Pirelli P4000s - all for about £10 less.

And it looked much better too.

[GavinPearson]

Pirelli made a metric tyre under their Courier brand some years ago.

There is an awful lot to be said for buying a set of later XJ40 or X300 / 308 and benefit from the huge advantages these bring in ride comfort with handling.

[job38]

Yup, what they said.

It was the same with my E34 535i Sport, 415mm all round, they looked gorgeous but cost £185 each.

Got a set of 4 16" second hand wheels from Germany, it also became apparent that the TRX were terrible for tram-lining and nasty in the wet.

[kend]

JEC are advertising new rims to take standard tyres for £85 a set.
Details in this months JEC Mag
Ken