Manx Club

Just ordered a Manx body so will have 12 to 14 weeks to prepare. I am looking for a late model pan ‘68 to ‘75 and am wondering how tall of a rear tire I can use without contacting the fiberglass and doing any damage.

Welcome t9 the Manx Club. One thing you will notice this site does not get a lot of traffic. Most have switched to using Facebook. If you not a Facebook person, The Samba is another great site that about VWs with a section for Dune Buggies.

As to your question, if you plan on using a stock transaxle with say a 1600cc engine, then a approximately a 28 in tall tire will work. Yes you can go taller, but 4th gear will not really be usable. You can have a transaxle shop replace both 3rd and 4th to close ratio gears to be able to pull a taller tire.
With a 1969 and later chassis the spring plate stick out further because of longer torsion bars, which limit tire size to less than 30inches or you hit.
There are many different things you can do to change things to use lager tires. To much info to try and write here. I would suggest looking at Facebook and The Samba seeing some of the pictures in the threads have what people have done.

Thx for your reply jsturtlrbuggy ! My concern is just with the fiberglass. All the other problems you mentioned can be resolved but in the end you are stuck with the body unless you want a body lift and I do not.

I have seen a 33-10.50-15 tire fit and not hit, but it all depends on wheel width, inset, and offset of wheel. And If using wheel adapters they have to be figured into the offset of wheel.
It really to bad that the new owners of Meyers Manx dropped making Bruce’s favorite, The Kick Out as it had wider rear fenders and a opening front hood with storage.

Thanks justurtle, again my concern is with the fiberglass and what size tire will hit the fiberglass when the rear (and front) suspension bottoms.
It looks like with the long torsion bars a 30'' tire will fit. I am not considering anything larger than that. I want a larger tire to gain clearance for the lower IRS shock mounts as they look to be the lowest thing on the underside. I am going to switch to the shorter torsion bars and adjustable spring blades.