Howdy All,

Happy days....I just picked up my new 76 Camper. It has standard rims and tyres but I want to change over to mags (?) and put on light truck tyres. What size mags should I be looking for and what sort of tyres should I consider???

Thanks

K

maybe get in touch with 'andy', u2u him.... hes the guru on this thing after travelling around australia in his kombi...

G'day Kombi-K,

Check out what is available for the Mercedes Vito van. The mags on my Desert Splitty are made for the Vito by Performance Wheels and are 15x7 called Silver Lotus. The measurement from bolt face to back of rim is 135mm which works well on a Kombi.
Tyres are 225/75x15 GY Wrangler ATs that are standard fitment to a lot of Jeeps and don't rub anywhere at standard height.

Whatever tyres you put on, make sure they are decent enough in the strength to handle the weight of a Kombi. As far as standard tyres are concerned, Kombi's are normally on 185/14's....but they need to have 8 ply's fitted (this is to do with the steel belts inside). Some people don't know and put on lesser ply (say 4 or 6) such as a standard car tyre. This can be dangerous as the added weight can easily make the tyre give in.

Its like travelling in a VW without a fire extinguisher.....you may not ever have problems, but on the day you do, you wish you had gone the extra yards....

Bridgestone RD-613s always served me well, not bad pricewise too. Unsure on the size of mag tyres to fit, but make sure the ply will cater for the Kombi. Some tyre dealers will even refuse to fit a lesser-ply tyre than what should be on there.

Nice One, Thanks Guys.

K

Kombi's don't weigh very much compared to your BA Falcon. The Falcon is in the range of 1600kg and the Kombi a mere 1200kg. Granted you can load a Kombi up wit 8 passengers, or a tonne of firewood, but ask yourself, what are you using it for????

Light truck tyres carry a larger weight and last longer. They are noiser and dont steer or handle as well as some lower profile performance tyres.

Performance tyres are quieter and grip better, but the ride may be a bit harder and they wear quicker and cost more.

Passenger car tyres sit in the middle of just about everything for performance, noise, wear and handling etc. Like what a common Commondore or Falcon would have.

You need to ascertain what you want from your tyres. What size rims you want to move up to. 16inch is not really that big in comparison to what is available and what was on the Bus originally.

Also low profile does not have to mean liquorice straps. 16inch 55 series 205's tyres are not wild by any means, and they fit on a Kombi.

Or you can use your 16inch rims to put Desert tyres on.

I got this off an original sticker (with vw part number) off my ’76 bus for an earlier post.

I added load index (LI) ratings as from http://vanagon.com/info/tires/codes.html 
===================================================
Rim: 5.5J
Tyre size and designation: 185 SR 14
Max Load Rating (Pounds): 1450 = 658kg ~= LI 94
Cold Inflation Pressure (PSI)
Upto 75% payload:
Front: 30
Rear: 37
Fully laden:
Front: 30
Rear: 40
====================================================
Rim: 5.5J
Tyre size and designation: 185 R 14 C
Max Load Rating (Pounds): 1543 used as singles = 700kg ~= LI 96
Cold Inflation Pressure (PSI)
Upto 75% payload:
Front: 30
Rear: 40
Fully laden:
Front: 30
Rear: 44