Lowering

[silver_bullet]

hey all, im buying 18" rims for my vn and i am gunna drop it on its guts, i was just wondering if anyone knows how far you can go, like wats legall clearence and all cuz i wanna get right down there. and another thing has anyone with big rims had any problems with the clearence between the bottom of the spring hold and the tyre on the front of the car, i put my mates maloo 18"s on and there wasnt much clearence form the spring hold. any advice at all on lowering would be great, thanks.

[CSL]

100mm is legal in most states (i.e) 99mm and you''ll get bent over, but most people go below this, really your choice, some say lows are just on, some say ultra lows arnt low enough, really personal preference, just make sure you get shortend shocks

[defa]

i wouldn't worry if you go lower than 100mm.. mine is pretty low.. never even had a cop look twice.

[silver_bullet]

when yas say 100mm, where is that measured?

[bitch]

from the ground to the lowest part of your car

[sircruisealotVS]

do a little searching around the forum on lowing...PLENTY of info about it around.
keep in mind that when you lower your car and dont change anything other than the springs you can still run into troubles with the law even if you are over 10cm@ the lowest part of your car (usually the cat).
no part of the car is allowed to touch/scrub the wheels at any time.
the springs must be captive and not be moveable by hand when the suspension is relaxed (ie..if you can move the springs about when your car is jacked up or on a hoist)
you also need to have sufficient travel between the bump stop (so you cant be sitting on them, difficult with the front when your goin real low)
just thought id throw these few points into the mix...there's no point lowing it to a legal level if everything else is illegal about it

[-**wHiStLe**-]

4 inches off the ground to the lowest point of your car and 4 inches from the tyres to the wheel well.

[mouce]

Uh...not 4 inches. 100mm. There is a difference. Not much of a difference, but there is a difference.

[Blown V6 Hatch]

You all seem to be missing that the 18" rims are illegal too! So even if the lowering job is legal they can still have him for the 18" wheels.

[silver_bullet]

wats rong with 18"s i have never heard any problem with havin them???

[sircruisealotVS]

18" arent illegal,rolf...
you could put 20"s on it if you want...as long as the car is ok in all the areas i mentioned before your legally safe.
at worst you might need a engineers certificate in some states to prove its safe to drive...but its been done to death (18,19,20" rims on commodores) and by now most law enforcement realise this and wont bother you.

[g00gz]

This is a bit of a grey area if ya'll want to get technical about things. Legally you can't go over 2 inch's of the 'overall diameter of the wheel'.

One way of taking this is as you increase the size of your rim, you also decrease the profile of your tire, so if your going from a 15inch to a 17inch and decreasing your profile form a 65 to a 45 them really your not increasing the overall diameter of your wheel.

The other way of taking this (and this is what the pigs say) is that you cannot go over 2 inch's of the original size of the RIM itself. period.

In the end if the bacon wants to do you for it, they will as they are legally in their right.

I have been done for this, got defected, took it to the Department of transport to get the defect cleared with the same wheels on and they passed it. I discussed this with them and what i wrote above is what they told me.

[sircruisealotVS]

yeah, but the reason for that "2 inch rule" is because the car would not be safe with the original suspension set up using larger rims.
so you change the suspension (making sure you change all the things i mentioned a coupla posts back) and the new setup is safe.
they cant argue with that...and if they do, you get a engineers certificate and shove it in their face.

[Blown V6 Hatch]

This is straight from vic roads roadworthy books:
The width of any replacement rim must not be:
-More than 25mm greater than the widest wheel specified by the vehicle manufacturer for that model or series
The overall diameter of any replacement rim & tyre must not be
-More than 15mm greater than the largest diameter tyre specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

Sircruisealotvs i agree that 18,19,20 have all been done on a commodore, but all i was saying is that technically they could do you for having any bigger than 17" wheels on a commodore. 17" being the largest rim & tyre combo being offered on vn-vs commodores!

[silver_bullet]

well i aint in victoria so i aint worried bout there inbred laws, if i get done its my own fault but i know that 18" look way sic compared to 17", so im willing. and the cops up here do it to there own private cars so they cant do sh*t really. thanks for the info but, nice to no wat stupid laws sound like, but i am with sircruisealotVS that if u change ur suspension to suit those wheels then it should be safe and sound.

[pro_gmh]

Rim size information, Source: Transport SA

Vehicles manufactured on or after 1 January 1973 (ADR 24) are not permitted to increase or decrease the diameter of the wheel by more than 50 mm than the largest or smallest wheel listed on the tyre placard.

The overall diameter of a wheel and tyre fitted to a vehicle manufactured on or after 1 January 1973 (ADR 24) must not be more than 15 mm greater than the largest tyre size listed on the tyre placard and not more than 15 mm less than the smallest tyre size listed on the placard.

Passenger cars manufactured on or after 1/7/88 must also comply with ADR 18/.. that stipulates that the speedometer must indicate the actual vehicle speed, for all speeds above 40 kilometres per hour to an accuracy of plus or minus 10 percent.

Ground clearence information, Source: Transports SA

A motor vehicle or combination must have a ground clearance of:

For any point in the width of the vehicle which is within 1 metre fore and aft of any axle - 100 millimetres.

For the midpoint between the two axles - 0.033 times the distance (in millimetres) between the two axles.

For any other point – at least the distance that allows the vehicle or combination to pass over a peak in the road with a gradient on either side of 1:15, if the wheels of 1 axle of the vehicle or combination are on the slope on one side of the peak and the wheels of the next axle are on the slope on the other side.


Hope this was helpful the SA view of the board.
My source.. Transport SA
http://www.transport.sa.gov.au/pdfs/...bulletin_3.pdf
PDF Document including legal modifications to your car, ie: turbocharging, tubing, lowering, rims, much more!!

[defa]

i was told by a cop that ya can put on wheels that are 2 inches wider and 2 inches higher that what teh car came out on.. so say if same hsv came out with 18's you could put 20's on.. that was what i was told anyways..

[pro_gmh]

What state are you from? that what people have to know before you they get advice on road laws etc.

[greenfoam]

Isurance companies seem to only like to cover you if you are 1 inch over the biggest wheel on the tire placard. But I've also read you can legally run 17 inch wheels on the VS IRS cars but only 16 on the solid axle. I think if you are going to run a very big rim like 18 inches or more on a VN-VS it would be smart and wise to play a little money to a transport engineer so you have a bit of paper that says this is all good and legal, Even 17 inch wheels are a grey area, depending how you define wheel, how you define model and series etc , the rules are a bit scetchy

[PaRaDoX]

with the lowering, a good height is super lows on the fronts and ultras on the rear makes it look low without taking away from drivability much, and with the rims it will make the car sit a bit higher, the reason for lower springs on the back is, i have supers all round and it sits 1" too high at the rear with a full fuel tank and a full car load of people.. as for rim size, sure enough about the law, but cmon solong as u dont piss the copper off you've got nothing to worry about really.. unless you fit 22" chrome rims to your vn... ( i saw some on a 300zx, it was lowered but sat high lol.. looked stupid )

altho when you lower your car and increase the wheel width you migh have to worry about the tyres rubbing on the back guard, you migh have to bore it out a bit...

[pro_gmh]

The rear diff is pushed out towards the left(i think), An adjustable panhard rod will fix that.

[silver_bullet]

thats sounds liek a good idea, havin the back lower, the roads i drive on are pretty rough and the last thing i want is tire rub, i just dont want my car to be full of ppl and gear and not get outa my driveway. the level i sorta wanna have it at is, when i look at the front wheel i dont wanna see any part of the top of the tyre if u get wat i mean, like standing next to my car i want the side of the wheel arch to be almost level with the top of the tyre, anyone out there with some pics of their cars lowered???

[pro_gmh]

Google Image search

[BigDaz]

This is a bit of a grey area if ya'll want to get technical about things. Legally you can't go over 2 inch's of the 'overall diameter of the wheel'.

One way of taking this is as you increase the size of your rim, you also decrease the profile of your tire, so if your going from a 15inch to a 17inch and decreasing your profile form a 65 to a 45 them really your not increasing the overall diameter of your wheel.

The other way of taking this (and this is what the pigs say) is that you cannot go over 2 inch's of the original size of the RIM itself. period.

In the end if the bacon wants to do you for it, they will as they are legally in their right.

I have been done for this, got defected, took it to the Department of transport to get the defect cleared with the same wheels on and they passed it. I discussed this with them and what i wrote above is what they told me.

The rule now is u cant go over 25mm from ur biggest size on your wheel plauqe or wheel chart, w/e u call it. Look it up on the RTA site, its all there, 25mm Wheel AND tyre diameter and u cant go 15mm Wider than ur biggest size on your wheel chart, which is basically exactly what u wrote there I got my 18's cleared by using the info off the RTA site. The RTA phone support ppl didnt even know that, they just said "Nope if the wheels r 1 inch bigger than standard they wont pass" stubbern old Farts

[pro_gmh]

If the phone support ppl didnt know, how do you think your gonna explain this to a coppa? lol