Tires, Brakes and Suspension

Hello to All,

After years of struggling to find quality, original appearing tires for a 600 with its stock steel wheels and hubcaps, I'm willing to consider going over to the dark side and maybe getting some modern alloys and low(er)-profile tires.

For those that haven't seen these photos, have a look at:

Forums - International M-100 Group (clubexpress.com)

I'm still running into all sorts of problems, such as weight capacity of the wheels and a limited selection of size appropriate tires that will tolerate both the weight and speed of a 600.

Has anybody been down this road and learned anything interesting along the way?

I still haven't been able to accurately establish the bolt circle and offset of a stock 600 wheel, but I feel like I'm getting closer with the possibility of a wheel on the way to me.

As far as an alloy wheel goes, I like this option:

Straight-forward, simple, and chrome. It is supposed to be available in an 18x8 size, but it's unlikely to be available in the correct bolt circle/offset.

Hi Chris,

I know not those specific messurements for those wheels yet == I can't find those data == , but I know the 6 door 000411 had some under his car. It belonged as far as I know to : Dave Carapetyan ex Jeff Elghanayan. They might be able to tell some more ..

In addition I have to tell that the bold-holes are / must be wider 18mm in stead of the usual 16 mm for the 6.3 and other cars in that period .. Those bolds have the dimension : M14 x 1.5 and length 24 mm for a normal steel w100-wheel ..

I also believe that the width of those 8 " might be too wide to fitt for a 600 ....

Reconsidering my previous posting .... That wheel got additional drilled holes for the specific mount on the 600.

It might be easier to look for or fabricate an adapter-plate to overcome the differences in bolt-circles for the new wheels and the offset ....

Hello Paul,

According to my research there are about 12 different standard bolt circles used in the auto industry. Almost every passenger thing from Mercedes since the war is a 112 mm bolt circle but, as you correctly point out, the 600 uses a much larger circle with a 2 mm larger lug bolt.

Note that I said "almost". The exception to the Mercedes passenger rule is the G wagon which uses a 130 mm bolt circle. Whether Mercedes might have decided to use that for commonality I cannot yet say.

Luis is trying to get me a spare 600 wheel so I can measure out the particulars myself, but he's been very busy and I'll have to wait my turn.

Regarding an adapter plate, it seems that the load rating of a wheel is directly related to the size of the bolt circle. Using a wheel with a smaller bolt circle would reduce the load carrying ability of the wheel. The alloy wheels with the 112 mm bolt circle have a standard weight rating of just over 1500 pounds which would be fine for a 6.3 or 6.9 but would already be at their limit on a 600 just parked in the driveway.

Thanks for getting involved Paul! We will figure this out yet.

The factory made ONE 600 with a 6.8 ltr motor in october 1971 , which car was used for testimg the gearbox for the porsche 928..

THAT car came with extra large bolds !!!

See the picture : 1 is the bold for the 6.3 and 6.9

2 is for the 600 and 3 is that extra thick bold for porsche's gearbox-testing ..

ever thought of investigate which sizes Benz use for their light trucks ?? Vito, Sprinter or V-Class ???

There are wheels in 18, 19 and even 20" available for those models ...

Why is the speedindex a problem, when all over the country counts speedlimits ??? (just curious) ..