Date:         Thu, 31 Aug 2000 09:16:53 -0400
Reply-To:     Gary Stearns <gstearns@SPRINTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gary Stearns <gstearns@SPRINTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Wheels/Tires-My Story
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Hi-
I finally did it.  15" alloys and tires for our '88.  I really wanted to go with a larger diameter tire, but not a wider one.  The reason was that I wanted to bump the gear ratio a little for less rpm's at cruise.  

The size that I wanted was 205/70-15 on a 7" wide wheel.  I could not find this size in light truck tires, seems most 15" tires are the 245/75's etc. monster meats aimed at Range Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers.  I started the process by asking Discount Tire Direct http://www.discounttiredirect.com/ about the Mercedes Replica wheels that they sell.  Intitially they came back saying that they had done this on a Vanagon before, and in fact showed these wheels on their website as a Vanagon application.  When I pushed them for details, I heard from a manager that they had figured out that lugs nuts and studs would not work correctly.  Within a couple of hours the Vanagon app.disappeared from their website.  Heard again from them.  They could get a TSW (better than oem quality, made in South Africa!!)  5 hole Mercedes replica wheel that would work.  15x7,  5x113 bolt circle, 23 mm ET, correct strength rating to carry Vanagon loads.  I said OK.  Now for tires, this got interesting.  I learned that on passenger car tires the weight capacity is found in the tire sizing info ie: 205/70-15 95V.  The key is the "95".  Most car tires are either 92 or 93 (I think a key for these numbers is in the archives). D.T. said that the only tire that they could recommend to me in that size was a Michelin "Energy" MXV4.  The "V" rating was not suggested for speed capability (obviously), but because a V speed rating also means greater carcass strength. These tires are intended for the big Mercedes and BMW's that have to be as heavy as my Vanagon.  Made sense to me. Not particularly cheap at $105 ea.

The mounted wheels and tires arrived, and I began to install.  Had to take care of a couple of things.  The small bolts holding the rear brake drums had to go, and the speedo cable on the l/f hub had to be filed to shorten it a bit.  My oem nuts and studs (had original alloys before), fit the seats in the wheels perfectly.  They are a bit short though, and I will replace. What a transformation.  Ride quality is amazing, handling amazing, wind stability vastly improved.  The apparent gear ratio increase is exactly what I was looking for.  Cruising with fast traffic now keeps RPM's under 4k.  Went through a measured mile, and found that my formerly optimistic speedo is now spot on.  The wheels are very well made, similar in basic design to the originals, with gorgeous silver epoxy paint.  

A very satisfied customer.

Gary

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