Stretched tyres - Legality

[adamj29 133]

Can any of you help. I was pulled over by the police last night. A nice bloke to be fair, but informed me that they are clamping down on stretched tyres. He thought my tyres "Weren't right" and even though he was warning me this time, next time they pulled over I will be given 45 mins to get a different set of wheels on the car before they tow and impound it. As well as giving me three points per wheel, so I could lose my license. 

The tyres I have don't have a lot of stretch. And seem perfectly safe, my old rotas seemed to be far more stretches than these. The wheels are 10.5" wide with 255 /35 tyres  rear and 9.5" wide with 225 / 40 tyres.

I literally cannot fit wider tyres on my car due to the wide arches being extremely close to the wheels as they are. 

Is there anyway I could get some paperwork that proves they are safe, as I'm aware there is some tolerance when it comes to stretch tyres. 

[LarmiqGt 49]

Thats could be a kick in the teeth, I don't know the answer but thought it was only how far the wheel came out from the body of the car. I know that a number of old minis were being pulled as the wheels them selves were protruding too far from the body but i didn't think this was anything to do with tyres.

[LarmiqGt 49]

just a thought, is it something to do with Spray Suppression? seems to be a hit on the illegality side? I'm sure someone will jump in and correct me.

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

I'd be going down the route of getting it looked at by VOSA and if they deem it safe having them produce a cover note mate. Seems our local office is Llay, may be worth giving them a ring and seeing if they could inspect it for you.

DVSA Wrexham GVTS
Llay Road 
Llay
Wrexham
LI12 0TL

Telephone:01978 856 230

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

The other option is checking the recommended wheel widths for the tires you're using but this would still leave some judgement from the officer as to whether he agrees or not

[adamj29 133]

What is spray suppression? Well the law as I've read it states that as long as the tread is under the arch (which mine is) and aslong as the rim doesn't exceed the arch by over 35mm it's legal. 

[adamj29 133]

1 minute ago, jamie_gt86 said:

The other option is checking the recommended wheel widths for the tires you're using but this would still leave some judgement from the officer as to whether he agrees or not

I may pop along to vosa is Llay. They are right next to my work. I'll see what they say. But first I'll check with Yokohama. They might have some sway when it comes to me getting a cover note with VOSA. 

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

1 minute ago, adamj29 said:

I may pop along to vosa is Llay. They are right next to my work. I'll see what they say. But first I'll check with Yokohama. They might have some sway when it comes to me getting a cover note with VOSA. 

Sounds like a good plan, the only risk you have is VOSA not agreeing that it's safe, would be shooting yourself in the foot a bit

[nikndel 509]

I work with VOSA I will be suprised if they put their neck on the block for anything . You've unfortunately run into the wrong guy at the wrong time but as he said quote weren't right seems a bit of a shot in the dark.

[adamj29 133]

4 minutes ago, jamie_gt86 said:

Sounds like a good plan, the only risk you have is VOSA not agreeing that it's safe, would be shooting yourself in the foot a bit

I know that's what I'm scared about. I may just take a front and a rear wheel with me in the wife's car, as I don't want them commenting on the arches and camber set up.

Just now, nikndel said:

I work with VOSA I will be suprised if they put their neck on the block for anything . You've unfortunately run into the wrong guy at the wrong time but as he said quote weren't right seems a bit of a shot in the dark.

I know, he didn't really seem to know the legalities of it all, but wasn't shy in saying how I could lose my license and have my car impounded. I wish there was some black and white regulations, stating a certain percentage of stretch is acceptable. It just seems like its all left to the decision of the police officer, who don't know themselves!!! If they've had a bad day I'm screwed and if not I'm warned. Jesus..

[Tareim 343]

https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/stretched-tyres-an-mot-failure/

if you can see the bead it's an MOT failure according to the above

[Paul 442]

Adam can you take a picture straight on? I'm interested in how stretched it looks from along the car.

[smudge 1020]

It's a grey area, basically comes down to the opinion of the officer/MOT'er from my experience 

As above, as long as the beading isn't showing its generally OK. But some PC's will argue otherwise 

[LarmiqGt 49]

Depends if you want to argue with the officer that pulls you then. Not something i'd like to do especially if he/she is having a bad day!

[Lauren 2259]

Here's an easy way to help you sort it. This is a chart for Yokohama tyres and what are the minimum and maximum width wheels according to tyre width: 

https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires-101/basic-information/customizing/rim-wheel-width

I have an 8" rim with 215/45's which is well within spec on the GT, so I could print that out if I was worried about it. 

On the AE86 I have 7.5" rims with 195/50's which actually looks like the maximum width rim is 7"! Oops, though that's for a 14" rim not a 15. 

I see it doesn't list your sizes. But I'm sure you could maybe find another chart of contact Yokohama, some proof would help here. It's better to get it from the tyre manufacturer if you can. 

See this one: 

http://www.tyresizecalculator.com/charts/tire-width-for-a-wheel-rim-size-chart

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/tyre-size-for-rim-width_topic60146.html

By the looks of it, your front tyres are well out of spec and your rears are just outside of it. So you probably are pushing it with the boys in blue. So I would say as your sizes on the front fall out of spec you won't get any paperwork saying it's okay. 

 

 

[adamj29 133]

12 minutes ago, CanaryWundaboy said:

Adam can you take a picture straight on? I'm interested in how stretched it looks from along the car.

[LarmiqGt 49]

that doesn't look major to me

[Paul 442]

Hmm. With the law so open to interpretation you're at the mercy of plod. I would say that your Rotas were worse though.

[Jared 21]

I'd say wrong place wrong time and maybe the officer was just having an off day and had nothing better to do I used to run 215/40 on 18x9.5 et35 on my golf and never had any issues, the stretch on your tyres looks pretty minimal to some tyres I've seen stretched.

[smudge 1020]

57 minutes ago, adamj29 said:

My only issue with that is where it's been rubbing. Much more dangerous than the tiny amount of stretch 

[adamj29 133]

11 minutes ago, smudge said:

My only issue with that is where it's been rubbing. Much more dangerous than the tiny amount of stretch 

That rubbing was caused before I had the arches altered to have them fit properly. No more rubbing now. But yeah totally agree, plenty of other mods are more of an issue than the slight stretch, however many of which are legal. 

[adam 70]

I have more stretch on my wheels I haven't haven't ever been pulled maybe having the rb kit makes it stand out more?

[adamj29 133]

13 hours ago, adam said:

I have more stretch on my wheels I haven't haven't ever been pulled maybe having the rb kit makes it stand out more?

I agree, I think the combination of the wide arches, the camber and the chrome rim. They must be rubbing their hands together. 

I'm currently waiting on a reply off Yokohama, see what they advise.

[S18 RSG 429]

I was put off getting 9.5's as I didn't want to run a 225 tyre on that width, mainly because of pictures like this, which is a 225 on a 9.5J:

Although there doesn't seem to be any "law" forbidding it, I can certainly see why a Police officer could use his discretion to deem that unsafe, and with the RB kit basically giving them a perfect view of the bottom two thirds of the tyre, it's almost asking to be scrutinised. 

Coming from the VW scene, I've seen far worse than that. A buddy of mine ran 165/45/16s on an 8J BBS wheel on his Mk2 Golf GTI, and as far as I know he never got pulled. For reference, this is what that looked like:

I think you're either unlucky, or the law is about to change to stop that kinda thing. Extremes, like the second picture, are clearly dangerous, so it wouldn't surprise me if they introduced a law around it, and you may just find yourself on the wrong side of that law unfortunately.

[adamj29 133]

4 minutes ago, S18 RSG said:

I was put off getting 9.5's as I didn't want to run a 225 tyre on that width, mainly because of pictures like this, which is a 225 on a 9.5J:

Although there doesn't seem to be any "law" forbidding it, I can certainly see why a Police officer could use his discretion to deem that unsafe, and with the RB kit basically giving them a perfect view of the bottom two thirds of the tyre, it's almost asking to be scrutinised. 

Coming from the VW scene, I've seen far worse than that. A buddy of mine ran 165/45/16s on an 8J BBS wheel on his Mk2 Golf GTI, and as far as I know he never got pulled. For reference, this is what that looked like:

I think you're either unlucky, or the law is about to change to stop that kinda thing. Extremes, like the second picture, are clearly dangerous, so it wouldn't surprise me if they introduced a law around it, and you may just find yourself on the wrong side of that law unfortunately.

That is an insane fitment!! I think I had 225s on my 9.5J on my old set up, and I had no problems, and wasn't pulled over. So I agree, either I was unlucky or they are now clamping down on it. Rather fustrating as I've just spent a lot of time and money getting these wheels and tyre setup to fit with the arches. I'm not in the position to change the wheels, so I will need to have a good think on how I can get around this.