hello

one of my mates got stoped the other night by police and they said his wheels were illegal be cause the whole wheel was not covered by the arch, so he now has to get it changed take it to a garage then prove to dvla that its been sorted.

i thiught the tyre tread had to be covered by the arch and the wheel had to be within 30mm of the arch.

any help on this would be great, some info i could print off and hand in to police station so we all dont get hassled.

any help appriecated

cheers dan

none of the wheel can exceed the arch mate but tbh it depends what copper pulls you over

its a grey area, anything protruding the arch could be deemed as unsafe and potentially dangerous, and no tread should sit outside the arch, as the water spray can be deemed dangerous to other users.

simple way to sort it, is to get some jdm arches on

if its just the wheel then a simple DIY flaring should sort it perhaps?

how do these coppers expect anyone to get stance!

the motor vehicle regulations act of 1996 states in section 18 paragraph 2 subsection D that the front face of a wheel on the vertical plane may protrude from the wheel arch/mudguard a maximum of 30mm but the tyre tread must be covered

however the road traffic act states that the wheels must be designed to fit that vehicle without the need for spacers/adapter

but adapters are TUV approved which is more strict than our mot/vosa inspections so i cannot see how it can be deemed unsafe

i have 30mm of poke and quite a large amount of stretch (251/35/18 on a 9.5") on mine at the rear and have been followed more than once by the old bill and never been stopped

Back to top of the page up there ^

just found this.

this is what i thought was the law and atill is

dan

here you go

http://www.opsi.gov....963013_en_7.htm

just to clear up exactly where it is stated it is in section 18 EXTERNAL PROJECTIONS

and column 5 EXEMPTIONS AND MODIFICATIONS

note D

but i carnt find section 18 external projections haha

dan

Why do people always quote TUV approved? doesnt make it any less illegal in the UK. Its like saying german pressed plates are legal in germany.

why not just borrow some skinny wheels, get it looked at and then put the wide ones back on ....... if the police are taking the piss and wasting your time then they can not expect you to take them seriously.

My bmw E21 has 4" group 2 arches and stil have about 2" of poke from them :)....... oh and i run 11J on the rear with 7" of dish...... mmmmmm wide

its 5mm either side it can stick out

Sadly it is one of those down to the individual coppers discretion, if the police wanted to they will just do you under "Unfit for purpose" in regards to stretch and wheel's.

BUT you can have 2.5" of rim sticking out with the tread fully covered by the arches, most cops misinterpret the wording and believe it means the whole tread, tyre and rim must be under the arch, sadly like most road sub-laws (ie. yellow headlights) they need to be educated.

There was a court case regarding all of this a few years back. Think the thread was on ED38.