Legal Rolling Diameter - Queensland

[saa3011]

Hi all,

I know it's been asked before, but does anyone have an update on when the Qld regs will be changed to incorporate the Australian Code of Practice for Light Vehicle Mods?

At present 15mm increase in OD is all that is legal (15mm NSW, 50mm Vic and I think 50mm WA).

Having researched Mickey Thompson themselves have confirmed they have no legal muddies for a Patrol, and Cooper appears the same (although they seem to have one A/T).

Doesn't matter what rim size, or tyre width - I would like to get some muddies and use on the Qld registered Patrol, but not until legal (too much insurance risk).

Cheers

[Bigrig]

VSB15 is going through parliament at the moment and it allows for a 50mm increase over OEM to bring it into line with other State based legislation.

[saa3011]

Thanks Bigrig,

I've sent the following to QLD Transport - will post their response when (if) I receive one.

Good Morning

The issue of rolling diameter of tyres on light vehicles has been ongoing for some time.

Can you please provide an update, and anticipated timeframe for the following note;

Note: The National Code of Practice – Light Vehicle Construction and Modification has been finalised by the Australian Motor Vehicle Certification Board and will soon replace the Queensland Code of Practice: Light Motor Vehicles.

This note is located on the following page;

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Safety/Vehicle-standards-and-modifications/Vehicle-modifications/Light-vehicle-modifications.aspx

I would appreciate advice as to what "soon" means, and what process the Code of Practice is going through within the Queensland Government/Parliament in order to put this Code into effect.

Thank you

[Bigrig]

Good on you mate. Light modifications guideline specifically relates to VSB14 I believe ...

Only persistent and consistent communication from multiple members of the public (and I mean thousands upon thousands) it appears is the way to get any traction on these discussions ...

[benno]

I'm interested in whats happening in this neck of the woods myself!!!!

Cheers Tony

[gilly81]

I sent Qld Transport an email recently to see if I could get a date as to when the National Code of Practice - VSB14, would be put into place up here as it was time for new tyres and I really wanted 33's..

From what I can gather this VSB14 has been "about to be implemented" since 2010.

Their response was very vague - basically saying VSB14 is currently under review and if it does pass through, it's likely that that NOT ALL standards will pass through. No dates or even mention that it could be soon.

I bought a new set of 31's on Friday.

[ozzymalone]

Sorry for the hijack but does this mean 285 75 16r (i think thats 33's in old language) are illegal on a gu patrol? I'm confuddled

[nissannewby]

I believe they are Legal on a GU but illegal on a GQ

[scotty83]

I believe they are Legal on a GU but illegal on a GQ

Don't think this is true for the GU either as I believe the standard OEM tyre size is a 275/65/R17 (785 OD).
That would make the 285/75/R16 (833 OD +48)
The 265/75/R16 All Terrain (803 OD) +18
The 265/75/R16 Mud terrain (813 OD) +28
* based on Cooper Tyre sizes. Varies slightly between brands and tread depth.

Theoretically even the 265/75/R16 would be illegal (greater than +15) if the cops pulled you over in the first few thousand Kms. Most Cops though doesn't seem to pull you over for anything smaller than a 35".

However as always it is your insurance company that will sting you. They are not required to pay out on vehicles found to be "defective" or "un-roadworthy". So you may find yourself up for the expenses of all parties involved.
I have heard of some people being stung even when they didn't think they were at fault as the insurance company could prove the mods reduced the vehicle ability to stop/avoid the incident.

Just check it out before you go ahead with purchases. Tyre placard is in the glove box.

Happy to be corrected with other figures if people have them.

[nissannewby]

275/65/r17 is 31.1 inches
285/75/r16 is 32.8 inches so 1.7 inches differences
So yes illegal in some states but ok in others by the OP. I run 285/75/r16 on my gu and havent had any issues with the authorities but i may look into this as well for insurance purposes cheers.

[saa3011]

Regarding legal OD I can confirm (for Queensland only) that 285/75R16 is not legal - that is the size of MTZs I want to put on my Patrol.

I had an interesting conversation with QT yesterday morning.

The proposal to adopt the National Code of Practice (VSB14) has been signed off by the Director General of QT and is now finalising a submission to the Minister (as a part of the LNP Government’s commitment to reducing red tape).

QT expect that the submission for change in regulation will be considered and agreed to by the Minister for Transport (after he consults other relevant Ministers (Small Business, Industry, Innovation etc etc) in the “next few weeks”, and then will take 5 weeks for Governor’s assent.

Following that, QT will advise the industry and allow the industry to prepare for it’s introduction over a 4 week period and all will be in place.

They are hoping to have it all finalised by September/October this year.

In short, QT have supported it's introduction in full and have recommended that to the new LNP Government.

As far a current tyre size, these links from Cooper and MT are helpful - the column on the right shows the over/under comparison with the Patrol placard size. Anything more than 15mm (on the Cooper page), or more than 804mm OD (on the MT page) in Qld is not legal.

http://www.coopertires.com.au/index.php?page=tyres

http://www.mickeythompsontires.com.au/index.php?page=MTZ

Cheers

[1nertia]

I can't say anything about QLD regs, but from my tire fitting days, they guys selling 22" rims to country boys in their tough as nail hiluxs, you are allowed to go 15% bigger in tyre and rim size. Now if that's the case, my 35's on my GQ patrol are "legal", as they are an 11% increase from standard.

Realistically speaking, I think the actual rule is, you can go up to 15% bigger in profile without affecting the speedo - that being the reason it's illegal in the first place, not a matter of safety so much as the fact that if you get pulled over for going a little fast, you can claim ignorance thanks to your 40 inch tyres. So for example if we have a stock LandCruiser (I'm going LC since they use metric sizes, easier to work with), 80 series, they run 285/75R16. So lets be simple about this, keep the rim size the same, and just change the profile to give a very rough idea. Legal increases would be:

285/80R16
285/85R16
285/90R16

Those last two tyres don't exist to the best of my knowledge, I've made them up for simplicities sake.
Realistically speaking, you don't often set a tyre with anything bigger than a 75 profile, and before we go too far, I might just explain what these mean, since it's always handy to have the meanings of tyre sizes on a tyre related thread

Again, working with the 285/75R16 tyres, and we won't get into load speed ratings, though that is important, we're just dealing with size.

285 is the effect width of the tyre, this size is in mm, so 28.5cm
75 is the profile of the tyre, or in other words the size of the sidewall. The 75 means that it is 75% of 285mm.
16 is pretty self explanatory, that's your rim size.

Realistically speaking, if you're in NSW and running a pretty stock Patrol, 33/10.5 or 12.5R 15 or equivalent is a safe and legal tyre modification to your car without changing the speedo settings.
But if you get pulled up with bigger tyres, most police actually don't know the real laws regarding tyre changes, so you could probably get away with it. if you use the original "15% tyre and rim" rules.

I know I've got way off topic here, but realistically speaking, I'm from NSW, and I found this thread very interesting and informing, so I figure others may as well, so might as well help out. Sorry for any confusing things in this post, it's a very rough edit, and I will go through it and change it if I come across more information. Or if it's way off topic, get a mod to delete it and ban me :D

Pretty much for safety reasons, I will say that to anyone running 35 inch tyres or bigger : Don't drive in the city.

[saa3011]

Hi All,

Continuing this thread, not sure if Qlder's are aware but VSB14 came into effect on 1 November 2012. It's now legal for 50mm OD increase.

[threedogs]

Running 285's on the OE mags and 305's on 16x8 steel rims. would have put 315s on as person fitting said was not a problem just wouldn't fit on my 4x4 because of lift.
Anyone rang or emailed their state 4x4 body to find an answer. Lmao you expect one from a pollie no offence mean't.