On Tue, 2 Sep 97, Stuart Brennan wrote:
"I am looking at minilite clones. They were made by
"Western", and are 13x5.5. They do not have a hub
cover, so the ugly hubs show through. There
was a CAT tech tip years ago, by Harry Elam, that
mentioned that Western had a near duplicate of the
LAT70 spinners, that looked like it could be adapted to
several types of wheels. I'm not sure I would want the
knockoff look, but I would want to cover the hubs. Any
ideas out there?"
Stu:
Don't knock the knockoff look. I have a set of ET slotted
mags (13X5.5), for which I lost one of the four center
hub covers. Since I was unable to find a replacement,
I purchased a set of "universal" spinners from J.C.
Whitney, of all places. They're not the best quality in
the world, and they don't have the look of the original
"LAT" spinners, (they have 3 swept-back wings rather
than two straight ones) but they do look good,
nevertheless. If you want the original spinner look, I
think you can get these from Sunbeam Specialties, but
at four times the cost.
You also said: "I have a very fresh set of 175-70
Dunlops on my current stock rims, and I would consider
swapping these to the Westerns."
I also have 175-70X13 Dunlops in front, and they touch
the bottom edge of the front quarter panel, below the
headlight, but only at large steering angles and only in
reverse! This goes to show what strange things the
Tiger's unique front suspension will do under load! In
the rear, I have plain 175X13s, and these touch the
outside lip of the fender, but only when I go over large
bumps or "whop-de-do's." With only these minor
annoyances, these seem to be the largest tires that will
fit without significant fenderwell modifications.
I hope this helps.
Mario
B 9471239
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