Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 14:46:01 -0400 From: jesse johnson <jjmojo@BLAZENET.NET> Subject: Are these rims any good for a Vanagon? Hey All, In the market for new tires and want to upgrade the rims on my carat.. i found these on ebay... would these handle the weight of the van? and what about the offset? I don't want to put anything on the van that would compromise safety or handling... Thought? thanks everyone, jesse 89 carat
Jesse, My understanding is that the Passat wheels are quite able to handle the additional weight of VW vans. These wheels were an option on European T4s and it seems it's a case of VW making one wheel that will handle anything in their range that the wheel will fit. I see you have a Carat, so the weight on the wheels is less of an issue than say a camper anyway... I have a set of quite similar alloy 17" Passat wheels on my '00 Double Cab. They look great and I have had no problems...and this truck sometimes carries a tonne in the back. I could not see on the ebay page what rim diameter they were, but if they are 17" like mine, there are load rated tyres available in this size. A 97 rating would be fine in your case. To keep the original tyre diameter I needed 235/17/45s...(the T3 will be slightly different). Obviously if the wheels are 15s or 16s, load rated tyres are easy to source. To fit the T3, the centres would have needed to be machined out slightly but otherwise the bolt pattern is certainly the same. Since the Passat wheels fit a T4 with no mods and a T4 standard wheel will fit a T3 with only the centres needing machining, there's a good chance these wheels will fit without problems. Otherwise, as Bob suggested it would only be a matter of obtaining spacers. Cheers Steve O NSW Australia '92 Transporter WBX Kombi '00 Transporter Double Cab '03 Transporter Double Cab (work truck) '78 Landrover Series 3 Soft top (ex-Aust.Army) |
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