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Date:         Fri, 25 May 2007 01:08:35 -0400
Reply-To:     Phil Zimmerman <philzimm1@OBERON.ARK.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Phil Zimmerman <philzimm1@OBERON.ARK.COM>
Subject:      Re: What size tire for 16" rim?

From: Kevin Dawson <Calwolfie@AOL.COM> Subject: What size tire for 16" rim? Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi Everyone,

I know you all dread tire questions but.... I just got some real nice Mercedes rims that are 16" X 7" with a 37mm off set and I think they will look great. I the question I have is what tires to use. I've seen you discuss 14" and 15" but not really 16." So I would welcome any thoughts you might have. This would be for a 87' Westy with normal height springs and we don't plan on off roading. ----------

Hi Kevin

All good responses from Dennis, Jack, Jordan and George, which cover a wide range of applications. FWIW, I love tire threads.... I am sick!

I have personally run both 205:65R16 (Nokian CQ) and 215:65R16 (Nokian WR) sizes. Installed on 6.5" wide rims. I have an AT Westie, with the 27" diameter 215:65R16's the loss in acceleration was significantly felt. Kinda relative with a stock WBX engine though. The WR's were great all- around performers. Tread life was acceptable at 85,000Km.

The CQ's are a full snow tire. Real grippy on anything slick. Became a bit noisy and less stable on dry pavement as they wore down. At ~50,000Km the tread is almost to the wear-bars. Expensive tires but their grip on anything slick was phenomenal.

In a perfect world, I prefer the 205:65 size to the 215:65 size because of the acceleration hit one suffers with the larger diameter 215 size tire. I would be interested in hearing of folks experience with the 225:60 size. As I do a significant amount of driving on gravel roads, I have resisted dropping down to a 60 series profile. But, for Highway Cruising I would think the 60 series would track exceptionally well, similar to my experience with the Nokian WR's in 215:65R16 size. The ride will be "firm" I suspect.

What am I driving on now? Don't ask! The last 8 weeks has been totally frustrating with OUT of Stock notices at all Warehouses in Western Canada for any suitable load rated tire in a 205:65R16 size. In hindsight, the cheap but informative kind, perhaps think long and hard when sizing up to a 16" wheel. Availability of tires in the smaller 195/205/215:70/65/60 sizes are rather limited. From my resent experience, with 15" rims I would have had a virtual-flood of tire choices. Thinking down the road, so to speak, with engine transplants. The larger 16" rim may payoff with the ability to run a larger diameter tire to change the gearing without the exorbitant costly changes to transmission or differential gearing.

Regards Phil Z. Campbell River, BC BusFusion & Labrador Bound this summer (on new tires I hope) --------------------------------------------------


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