Can someone help me understand van wheels & tyres pls!

Really as much for my own understanding as any possible changes to my van wheels.

Have a VW T5 campervan. When we got it, it had 19″alloys with 245 40 19 and 265 40 19 tyres on it. Been lowered 40mm.

Most of our trips are pretty rural along country lanes and single tracks, farmers fields etc and as the rear tyres needed replacing, it was cheaper to buy a newish set of standard wheels (17″ Devenports) with Conti 215 60 17 tyres.

Also, I assumed there’d be a noticeable shift in smoothness / comfort, and possibly better traction on mud/wet fields.

But, I reckon the 19″ alloys were as smooth (or maybe even smoother), can’t see any change on traction in a wet field. But fair to say, we find the van comfy anyways, so it’s not an issue.

So was I just misguided in my thinking?

And as lots of our trips involve v bumpy roads, is there any sense in changing rims / tyres to something more rugged / robust, and if so what should I be looking for?

Many thanks

Entirely up to you. I run 18″ VW Durban Alloys from an Amarok with Avon 235/55 AX7 tyres on my T6. Actually wish we had gone for 17″ rims with a higher tyre profile to compensate but I’m happy for now.

You can play around with online tools like https://www.willtheyfit.com/ to see the real differences.

If the original tyres were not commercial/8 ply and had an insufficient weight rating for the van, the sidewalls may have been softer and provided cushioning. Other than that, larger profile tyres such as your current ones will provide a better, more compliant ride.

I went from a road biased 225/65R16 to an all terrain (80% road:20% dirt…any more extreme would be too much of a compromise for safe road handling in my opinion) 225/75R16 which is a 20mm increase in sidewall height, and the improvement in ride was notable.

Note that the tyre pressure is usually slightly higher on narrower tyres so that also changes the ride. Our old T4 was 3.8 bar (55 psi) on 195 wide tyres. The high load, high pressure tyres can feel a bit harsh on bumps.
Also lowering springs will make the van roll less on bends but may be less smooth when cruising along roads. Standard ride height might be less bumpy, if less fashionable.
Vans are generally less smooth than cars irrespective.

When you asked originally I did recommend to avoid the Devonports with the commercial rated tyres (ie. anything with 215/65) and find a set fitted with 235/55 (factory fit on certain vans/cali’s).
Anything with commercial rated tyres will ride hard compared to a normal tyre hence why you aren’t really seeing much improvement over the 19’s.
I wouldn’t bother looking into heavier duty rims, those Devonports are ideal. I’d look at sticking a slightly oversize 225 or 235/65r17 all terrain style (don’t go too extreme, general grabber or something) on there if you want a bit more cushioning and grip on fields etc. Just be careful with clearance if going 235/65r17…

Probably what spooky says. It is common for people to fit car wheels/tyres to vans. The lower rated car tyres have much softer/more compliant side walls. Also recommended tyre pressure is often high to take the rated weight.

Regarding grip on wet grass, tyre tread/traction/compound is always a compromise between dry grip, wet grip, noise, wear rate, snow grip, off road grip etc. It just depends what you want.

Also to add the most comfiest wheel/tyre combo I’ve had on my van (and are back on now) are the 18″ sportlines with 255/45r18 (standard factory size). This is after having 2 sets of 20’s (tried both 265/40 and 275/35), 2 different sets/widths of 17’s and 16’s over last winter.

The lower rated car tyres have much softer/more compliant side walls. Also recommended tyre pressure is often high to take the rated weight.

Aren’t many campers very close to the maximum load weight for the vans they’re converted from loaded up in any case – ie you should be paying some attention to the load rating of the tyres you put on and make sure it’s high enough.

I just put non-van tyres with a lower weight rating on our Caddy Maxi with the idea of improving the ride (but still checked they’d be enough for anything we were going to do with it)

Smaller wheels with taller sidewalls certianly help with ride comfort, but in my experience, the extra weight overwhelms the standard dampers and causes a certain amount of “shake n’ shimy” on certain road (or off road) surfaces.

here’s my T32 LWB 4motion on it’s “let’s orrfff road” rubber:

245/65/R17 BF’s TO2’s on Twin Monotube Projekt AT’s, no rubbing on std springs / ride height, not too much noisier on the road (a little bit, but a T6 is not exactly a quiet van anyway) but the fuel economy has taken a dive. Lovely off road (esp with the 4motion + diff lock) and, imo, looks the dogs (lol)

The tall tough sidewall and small wheel certainly never gives me cause to worry on either unmade roads or tall kerbs. Primary ride is better than on the original sport line 18’s, although theres a bit more lean in the bends (not too bad, and againa T6 isn’t any kind of sports car) but secondary ride is certainly worse over high frequency corrigations etc. Plan is to move to a better damper package to control the additional tyre mass (they are VERY heavy!) and idealy to height adjustable air springs to get a lower on-road height, a taller off road height, and the ability to self level when parked up on sloped terrain

Somewhere (door pillar, under bonnet, fuel filler flap?) you’ll find a type approval label with tyre and wheel details. If you vary that then you’ll need to notify your insurer, if you haven’t already, same with suspension mods.
Having got that out of the way, you need to make sure that the tyre weight rating suits the axle weight; 245/40R19 will have an additional two (or three) figure code, say, 98 and a letter, say, V
that means 750kg per tyre, max 149mph. The speed rating can be critical because lower speed rated tyres aren’t tested at the higher pressures that a van might need
Wet, muddy grass is a horrible surface for most road tyres and suitable tyres will be compromised on-road. Unless it’s a regular problem you’ll be better carrying a towrope.

Assuming you’re just on lowering springs, i cant see how that 19” tyre size with that driving could be anything other than painfully crashy – devonports and sensible tyres should be quite an improvement over anything other than a perfect road surface. What tyres are they – vancontacts? What suspension?

Michelin cross climates for me, 255/45/18 summer and 215/65/16 commercial agilis for winter – wet grass and mud is a nightmare on anything other than proper off road tyres but the cross climates to a pretty good job. The 16’s get a little bit wandery at speed, especially in the wet.

If you’re not after looks the commercial ones are much more aggressive on tread for getting off muddy campsites, surprisingly more so than a regular van tyre. They do a 215/60/17c which would work with your wheels, personally for a camper i think its about the best wheel and tyre combo you can get if you want usability.

Thanks all, v helpful.

Liking the maxtorque look! Current tyres are vancontacts – suspension – unsure, think original bar being lowered a little?

By the sounds of it, my current tyres/wheels probably sound like they’re about right, unless we decide to do significantly more off-road stuff and go for AT tyres. May look at Agilis tyre for these wheels – see how we go now it’s getting wetter.

I’ve run 4 or 5 different suspension setups on my T5 as well as a similar number of different wheel setups. Current suspension setup has been run with 17s, 18s and 19s and the best ride was definitely the 17s with the best compromise of looks and ride being the 18s as you’d expect.

If you’re not noticing any different between a 60 and a 40 profile tyre, I suggest the suspension is checked as there should be a discernible difference.

Fairly sure 235/55/17 is also an approved size for 17″ Davenports, although it’s been 5+ years since I owned a T5. We swapped from the original 215/65R16 steels to 17″ T32 steels with 235/55/17 103s, using ‘SUV’ XL tyres. They definitely didn’t last as long but the trade off was improvement in ride comfort compared to the 16″ commercial tyres. We initially had -40mm H&R springs but soon replace with Bilstein B14 coilovers. It was a nice combo.

Having put Michelin Cross Climates on my current van (Citroen Relay) I’m converted. They’re chunky enough that the wheels now look big enough for the van and they work well including in wet fields and snow.
A lot better than the all terrain’s I put on my old T5 and I wouldn’t go for ATs again they were not as good at anything (apart from mud) as the standard van tyres I took off, very much form over function.

My T5 was also lowered -40mm on H&R springs which everyone raves about at the time, in the end I got fed up crashing about in it that I put the standard springs back on. My mates T6 has Sport Line springs on it I think and it’s much better than my H&R were.