Help me get wheels for my Transporter! :)

Firstly you wanna read this:

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=596&am p;PN=1

Gives you most if not all of the info you'll need. If you've already read it and still dont get it, dont be embarassed ask again....

Welcome to the Yard BTW, though be warned you have to get a big round in when you first go into the Arms Save askin again later i'll have a pint a Grolsch and a apple juice for the mrs pls

Hi Davy Gravy,

where abouts in the UK are you? If you`re not to clued up with the spanners, you`ll probably need either some help from someone who has the tackle and the knowledge to use it, or you will be paying for a pro garage to do the work at upwards of £30-£50 an hour in labour.

Baxters Garage in Huddersfield would be the best place for the work (if it`s near enough for you) he has the knowledge, the stuff you`ll need to buy and also is mainly T3 specialist, so knows what he`s looking at

Basically for a wheel to fit your van, the wheel stud holes need to be 5 x 112 mm Pitch Circle Diameter (PCD) which is the diameter in millimeters a circle would be if you drew it over the top of the 5 stud centres. That`s the most important bit, nothing else will do. Also, the hole in the centre of the wheel needs to be 66mm to clear the front hub grease caps, so may the front alloys may need machining to suit.

Next is the offset of the wheel rim, which is known as the ET, which is measured in millimetres again. It is the measurement of the CENTRE of the wheel well (where the tyre fits) to the flat face of the wheel rim where it bolts up against the brake drum or hub. Not an easy thing to measure, but you need to be looking for a rim with an ET of around 25mm to 45mm, any more or less will be a problem without some messing about etc.

Next is the rim diameter, standard is 14 inches. The tyre size also affects the fitting problems as well, if you go for a 16 inch diameter wheel, then the tyre needs to be roughly the same OVERALL diameter as the original 14 inch tyres. The original 14 inch diameter tyres have a sidewall that is approx. the same height as the width of the tyre, which is why they look like balloon tyres. When you go for a 16 inch diameter tyre it will obviously be a lot taller due to the increased size, so to get the OVERALL height similar to the original 14" tyre, the 16 inch tyre will need a smaller sidewall, this is where the "aspect ratio" part of the tyre matters. If the 16" tyre is 215 millimeters WIDE, then if it had an aspect ratio of 100%  it would have sidewalls that were 215 mm tall, so would be huge. What you need is a 215mm tyre with an aspect ratio of about 60%, which means the sidewall height is 60% of the width, so the sidewalls would be a lot smaller. This is the reason that alloy wheels generally are a bigger diameter but with narrow sidewalls, and the reason they look cool

So, you need to be looking for alloys that are around 16" diameter, rim width of aound 7 inches (sometimes listed as 7J ) with an ET of around 40mm, and a PCD of 112mm. Tyres to suit those rims will be 215/60 x 16 and those tyres will be approx. 5% overall taller than the original VW wheels, which is a useful addition, as it slightly gears the van up, lowering the revs for the same speed, and also your speedo will read just bout spot-on, as they usually read slow from the factory.

To fit these wheels you will need an extended length wheel stud kit front and rear, and probably about 15mm spacers front and rear to move the wheels out in the arches a bit so they don`t rub on the suspension. It`s a bit of a suck-it-and-see job to find out the optimum spacers etc when actually fitting the things.

NOTE: lowered vans will also raise issues when doing any of the above work.

Mercedes rims are the cheapest option usually, as they come up regularly on Ebay etc, the central hole is OK on clearance, they are usually Ok on the ET offset, but the stud holes are usually slightly small and need drilling out to fit the VW size wheel studs. Also, tyres need to be the correct load rating for the van as do the alloys really. Tyres need to be minimum load rating of 97 according to the VW manual, due to the weight of the things!

 Thanks alot for the help Joker club! I have used your info and managed to track down a set that I think will do the job! I just need to negotiate on the price now ;) when its done I'll post a Pic up :)

 Thanks again

 Dave gravy