Date:         Sun, 1 Nov 1998 20:56:17 -0800
Reply-To:     Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Subject:      Re: Wheels, once and for all, Bill in Lake Tahoe.
Comments: To: Modl6971@AOL.COM, vanagon@VANAGON.COM
In-Reply-To:  <5d753ab3.363d32c0@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>Hey Bill, everyone attacking me now, (not you). I still have tons of
clearance
>and no problems with snow accumulations or scraping problems. The odd
thing is
>that I have a very smooth highway traveler with no wind gusts problems
either.
>
I am running 215/75 15 on my Doublecab, and I like the looks, and the
handling.
I don't really like the loss in power, but the syncro rev'ed way to high
before
for highway driving, IMNSHO.  As to clearance, there appears to be no trouble
on the front, but my rears are real close to the trailing arm.  They won't
ever rub, the way the trailing arm moves with the wheel, but there is not much
room for tire chains.  I know you folks all love your snow tires, but there
are
times around here where they require tire chains, even on four-wheel-drive
vehicles.  I thought about going to 235's, but there is no way I'd be able to
"chain up".

I understand that the 16"er option had longer rear trailing arms to overcome
this problem.  It would be great to have a set.  They also apparently changed
the front fender lip, although it is difficult to see why this would be
needed.

If the wheels have less offset than stock (and therefore give a wider track)
there would be less interference with the rear trailing arm.

On another nore, I just completed a conversion from the dreaded dual carbs on
a 1972 Westy to Digijet EFI.  Amazingly, it fired up on the first crank.  The
owner is thrilled -- we went with some mild performance stuff -- headers,
heads,
etc. (although standard cam).  We did not convert to electronic ignition yet.
It all was pretty straightforward.

Malcolm H.