I advise caution about these Ronal wheels fellow listers.

The smallest ET that I have heard of being used typically with Vanagon is ET23 whereas the factory ETs are ET30 or ET34 range.

So, having access to a rim that has ET of 0 seems different from the factory ETs to a degree that seems large or borders on extreme. I would also be cautious about ET15.

The problem with an ET that is mismatched to the vehicles OEM specs is either that the tire will hit someplace, or more importantly that the wheel will not sit on the bearings the way the manufacturer intended, which can lead to premature bearing wear. Most articles I have read about wheels are very explicit about the importance of keeping to a factory ET in order to minimize bearing wear.

The main reason for selecting 16" wheels over 15" wheels is so that very large diameter tires can used, in my view. Such very large tires, however, easily hit the sliding door and other body panel parts and so a very small ET, such as ET15, may have a worse tendency to cause the tires to hit. You can read about some of the hitting problems in the large tires article referenced in my Vanagon SIG below.

I think we should keep looking until we find a 16" wheel in the range of ET25 to ET28 or so, which seems to be an ideal range. If these cannot be located, I am quite certain that there are ET23-ET25 wheels to be had, which I judge a safer bet than ET15.

At 11:08 AM 3/27/01 -0500, you wrote:

I am please to announce that Van-Again has, with the help of the good folks
at Ronal, found two of their rims that fit the Vanagon perfectly and that we
can sell at a reasonable price.

The first is the R-28 16x7.5 with a ET 15 offset. These are pictured here on
Ronals website http://www.ronalusa.com/wheels/wheels_html/r28.html.
These would sell for $220 each.

The other rim that is available is the R-36 16x7 with a ET 0 offset. These
are pictured at:
http://www.ronalusa.com/wheels/wheels_html/r36.html
These would sell for $210 each.

These are new, TUV approved, and made in Germany. I spoke to the folks at
Ronal about the offset and they said that because the wheels are much wider
than stock the offset is fine for the Vanagon application. They have also
test fitted them on the Vanagon and you can see what they look like mounted
at:
http://www.ronalusa.com/cars/cars_html/vw_vanagon.html

I also asked them about the load rating on both of these rims and they are
both designed to be used on much heavier, off-road vehicles than the Vanagon
(Chevy Tahoe) so there is no problem there either. Also they checked to see
if there was any interference with the wheel wells or sliding door and there
was none. They also ran 205/55/16 tires on the wheels , w. a rolling
diameter of 24.83", compared to the stock, 185/75/14 w. a RD of 24.85" so
speedomenter and odometer error can be avoided as well. I hope I have
answered any questions you may have. Please email or call me if you are
interested in purchasing a set of these rims or have any more questions.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-765-1583
Fax: (856)-327-2242