Viscount Camper 1976 vin: C61296 NEED INFO

[Deleted]

My dad has a Viscount poptop 1976 similar to a sunwagon. The wheel rims are 14" but they are too big. What is the original rim size??

[youngdazza]

The originals would be 13" rims, and the tyres I'm guessing were originally 6.5x13. Sometimes the spare wheel still has the original rims and tyres on them so I suggest that you check the spare to find out what the original size was.

The problem is that you can’t get these old sized tyres anymore. Replacement tyres will either be fatter in width, or smaller in diameter. By fitting larger rims you can put modern tyres on the van and get a lot closer to the original diameter and width of the original tyres. Maybe this is why the 14” rims were fitted.

So when you say the 14” wheels are too big, in what way are they too big? Do the tyres rub on the sides of the wheel arch, or the top of it? Or do they simply look too big (and hence they don’t look original). If they only rub on one side of the wheel arch maybe the offset of the rim is incorrect.

Also, it may actually be sagging suspension that is causing the tyres to rub. That happened to me on my old Viscount Pop-top. New leaf springs fixed that.

Cheers

[Deleted]

Thanks The wheels are definitely are too big. With these 14" wheels, the corner stands do not touch the ground (6 inches too short).

[Deleted]

We have just found the very faded details of the pop top & it is actually an Explorer 87, 1976 Viscount

[youngdazza]

Oh wow thats quite amazing. What size are the tyres? The size is normally written on the side of the tyre - eg "185/75R14"

To fit such massive wheels I suspect they must have made some big suspension modifications to make them fit - At the very least they might have mounted the axles under the leaf springs.