Hi, recently posted and got some good advice re my van’s wheels. But have just got a rear puncture and I realise I’m still ignorant about my setup.

Van is a 2011 T5
LWB, 1.9Tdi
Lowered 70mm
19″ BBS alloys – front have 245 45 19 Mohawk tyres (new)
Rears are deep dish 265 45 19 Goodyear
Rear tyres are stretched (I think)

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2msiRQY]IMG_20210919_161956735[/url] by aus23, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2msa47W]IMG_20210919_162027188[/url] by aus23, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2msiRN8]IMG_20210919_162010943[/url] by aus23, on Flickr

I’m not desperate to have wider alloys albeit we have found them comfy, not noisy, fine in fields (summer time only!) but we have little alternative experience. Have a puncture in rear and they’re relatively worn so before a tyre fitter suggests to replace the tyre:

– can I switch to standard 17-18″ T5 wheelset for significant comfort, quieter, better off road grip, cheaper tyres? Or will I have problems as lowered 70mm?

– the rear tyre looks stretched (dont really understand this). What does stretching mean, is it safe/good idea?

– Can I fit a alternative size to 265 45 19 for a standard fit, or will it possibly rub on arch, or not fit as a deep dish?

– fronts are new Mohawks which seem fine to us, but bad reviews – anyone else experienced these?

– if I stick to 265 45 19, the Goodyears (or premium) tyres are v v expensive – is there a good budget option?

– spare wheel is a standard T5 wheel – can this run alongside 3 19″ alloys in case of emergency?

Many thanks

Many thanks

Will they fit is where you need to head to check the rolling circumference.

I run 18s with AT tyres and would only ever run the spare on the rear in an emergency as it has a slightly smaller circumference.

Are they genuine BBS alloys or a BBS copy? Have they been banded or is that an original style? Reason I ask is that I had some 20” BBS style alloys and they lasted about 2 years before I realised they were poorly manufactured. If they’ve been banded I’d suggest getting rid and buying some genuine 18/19” alloys and fit a narrower tyre.

I believe they’re genuine BBS as seller was top bloke, absolute VW nut, and the work on his fan tended to be v premium, and he said they were!

I never knew you could band alloy wheels, thought it was only steel.
I’ve run 20’s with correct width tyres and banded 17’s with slightly stretched tyres, TBH the comfiest ride was on stock 17’s with correct width tyres in my experience.

I ran 18″ rims on my T5 – can’t remember the tyre size but was the standard size. Had the standard 16″ spare wheel and did get a blow out in France one year and drove back with the 16″ spare on and it was fine. Overall diameter was the same, or close enough to the 18″ rim and tyre set up to not cause any noticeable issues – no traction control or ABS system confusion, the van ran flat and level so tyre diameter close enough and no funny handling issues. Van was pretty heavily loaded too so if there were any issues I would have found them.

If I were you I’d just stick to the standard VW tyre and wheel sizes. Makes things easy with things like the standard jack. The van came to me with 20″ alloys with much lower profile tyres. The ride was horrible, tyres alot more expensive and tyre diameter was greater than the standard sizes so jack didn’t work and speedo was out (need a speedo drive mod with big wheels). On top of that I was more paranoid about scraping the rim, damaging the tyre or rim on rough ground and it just looked a bit boy-racer’ish. I also have a bit of a ‘thing’ about big wheels with tiny disc brakes behind..just looks utter crap to my eye so the stock brakes filled the 18″ wheels lot more than the 20″ rims where the brake disks just looked piddly.

Firstly the “stretched” rear tyres.

There’s probably one or more reasons for this. The rear wheels are wider than the fronts, to get roughly the same rolling diameter the previous owner has used tyres that are narrower than the recommended width, therefore the tyres then stretch the sidewalls outwards to fit the rims. It could also be to ensure the tyre sidewalls don’t rub the inside of the wheel arches. Car modifiers or boy racers think this looks cool. Whether you buy in to that is up to you. IMO theride quality and handling is bloody awful.

Fitting standard wheels.

Standard or upgraded OEM wheels should just fit straight on. This also gives you a wider choice of tyres that fit the vehicle and your budget. This is fine as long as the previous owner didn’t change the brakes. If they’ve fitted larger diameter brakes then standard wheels might not fit. You may have to have big diameter wheels to fit over the larger brakes.

Wheel and tyre choice. As with all cars / vans you need to ensure the correct speed rating. But for vans or goods carrying vehicles the wheels and tyres need to be load rated for the vehicle. Plenty you modifiers will just throw on some cool looking wheels from a car. Your insurance, even if you have fully declared all of the modifications, will be reliant on you having correctly load rated wheels and tyres fitted.

You sure that’s a 45 profile on the rear?? Remember the 45 is a percentage of the width and even for allowing for the stretch (which makes the sidewall look less) it’s a lot smaller sidewall than the fronts look.
Be odd to run a bigger rear tyre dia. usually you’d go wider width and lower profile for the rear on a staggered set…

Do you like the wheels is the first question?

Staggered do look good on transporters (as the rear track is narrower and it helps fill the arches), but if you want fit and forget with cheap tyres get some oem 17’s, devonports or something. They can be had for £500 with delivery mileage on them and you can go as low as you want.

thanks all.

Firstly, mistake on my behalf – rear tyres are 40 profile.

Bit indifferent about the looks of the wheels/tyres, I think I’d be happy with a standard 17″ VW set. So assuming the brakes aren’t modified, that might be the way to go.

Yes, from your questions I think you’d be happier on an oem set. I’m a big fan of devonports, currently running some sportlines (18″) on mine but maybe looking to change.

I think the big brakes clear (on a t6 anyway) on the 17″ devonports.

What width (wheels I mean) are the rears by the way?

What’s your biggest concern with them? Load ratings, stretched tyres or cost of tyres?

I think they look good and black wheels always suit a red van.

Standard wheels and tyres should fit fine. Spare will also be fine if it comes to it but you’ll need 5 standard steel wheel bolts to fit it when needed.
If you change to stock you should find better economy and for me, much better ride. Delivery mile davenports with conti or bridgestone tyres should cost you no more than 500 for a set, buy the tyres costs more.
Looking at the rears reducing the stretch could lead to tyre catching the arch but you should be able to see fairly clearly in the flesh.
I buy and sell a few transporters, have done for around 10 years, generally have one myself and wouldn’t go past 18’s on my own vans, those I sell pretty much all go on 20’s as they are the most desired size.

@jackal any standard brakes will be fine with 17″ davenports. Only top power vans get the bigger brakes as standard so they are not common.

@aus minor point but it’s a 2.0 not 1.9.

Just changed wheels & tyres on my t5.1 as the tyres we’re nearing replacement anyway. I’m not lowered and have gone with 17″ steels with Goodyear winter tyres which are 235s and load rated. Less than £900 from mrwinterwheels seemed fine to me when compared with the cost of alloys. First drive will be tomorrow night…..

Thanks again, helping my understanding a lot!

Sounds like 17’s VW wheels would be a safe bet, and ease my worries. (And having been lowered, that won’t cause a problem??)

Or, just stick with what I’ve got and suck up the tyre cost!

17” wheels and sensible tyres won’t be a problem with the lowered suspension. The issues and clearance becomes a problem when when it’s lowered on very wide rims and tyres. Clearance on wheel arches and turning circle.

First up, they’re not BBS alloys

– can I switch to standard 17-18″ T5 wheelset for significant comfort, quieter, better off road grip, cheaper tyres? Or will I have problems as lowered 70mm? Absolutely fine. 70mm is nothing.

– the rear tyre looks stretched (dont really understand this). What does stretching mean, is it safe/good idea? From the side pic, they do look marginally stretched. Usually done for fitment. A stretched 245 will give more clearance than a massive 275 etc. Hard to tell from the side pics but if the van was fully loaded and sitting another couple of cm lower it looks like with a wider tyre you might get some rubbing. A stretched tyre remediates this.

– Can I fit a alternative size to 265 45 19 for a standard fit, or will it possibly rub on arch, or not fit as a deep dish? Depends on width of the current wheels and offset. If they’re a really low offset as well as being wide then with a wide tyre you might get problems.

– fronts are new Mohawks which seem fine to us, but bad reviews – anyone else experienced these? I run cheapish tyres on my T5 and have done for years. Never had a single problem but then I tend to drive it like miss daisy.

– if I stick to 265 45 19, the Goodyears (or premium) tyres are v v expensive – is there a good budget option? If going budget, Landsails are ok, Nankangs are probably a bit more expensive. Hankook too. Otherwise I ran Jinyu on mine for ages and were brilliant. Made my Hankook I think or something like that.

– spare wheel is a standard T5 wheel – can this run alongside 3 19″ alloys in case of emergency? It’ll be fine.

If you do change them, theres LOADS of standard VW options out there for next to nothing. Loads of them come on high spec vans which then get converted and the conversion companies basically give the original wheels away when they fit a set of cheapo 20s.

Are they genuine BBS alloys or a BBS copy? Have they been banded or is that an original style? Reason I ask is that I had some 20” BBS style alloys and they lasted about 2 years before I realised they were poorly manufactured. If they’ve been banded I’d suggest getting rid and buying some genuine 18/19” alloys and fit a narrower tyre.

Banding alloys? I think I read about that once and its definitely not something I’ve ever seen in person. Banding steels very different.

I reckon I can say with 99.9999% certainty they’re not genuine BBS. They’re a bit LM-like but not quite. If you take a wheel off, I reckon you’ll find a) that theres no BBS stamps on them and b) that despite their looks from the front, they’re not genuine split rim/two piece wheels.

thanks, and DaveyBoyWonder, v helpful. Thinking of a set of 17″ Davenports as seem v good value 2ndhand and look fine to me.

I picked up a set of Thunder 17in 5 spoke alloys with new virtually new tyres for less than £300. I prefer them to the Davenports but ebay isn’t showing anything quite that bargainous at the moment.

*edited, duff post*

Its Devonport NOT Davenport, just incase you are searching for a set 🙂

They come with 2 different tyre sizes from the factory. 215/60 on a commercial tyre (goodyear or conti, goodyear being the best but hard to come by) and 235/55 on a 103 rated tyre (ie. non-commercial car tyre, Bridgestones only iirc).
The 235’s ride better than the 215’s as the commercial ones can be a bit hard/stiff sidewall (but should last longer)…

Bargain for around 500 a set with delivery mileage.

I’m a big fan of the GP steels (17″), look good, especially banded, but need to be low(ish)….

They look like 3 piece split rims to me.

Basically the outer rim is steel and you can buy different widths.

You have wider outers on the rear rims.

If not BBS then some other expensive brand.

They belong on racing cars, they have no place on a van or a boy racers car.

Thanks all again.

Would 235’s be significantly comfier than 215’s on 17 rims? And/or, does going to 18″ rims significantly increase ride comfort? (That said, I’ve been surprised at how smooth my van feels with the current set up).

Jackal – I seem to get more success finding used ones with Davenport rather than Devenport!!

wzzzz – that’s interesting (and genuinely enjoying finding out stuff like this). Theoretically and practically, could I change the outer rim of the rear wheels (deeper dish) to match the fronts? Or does that set the wheel in a different/wrong place etc?

Cheers

wzzzz – that’s interesting (and genuinely enjoying finding out stuff like this). Theoretically and practically, could I change the outer rim of the rear wheels (deeper dish) to match the fronts? Or does that set the wheel in a different/wrong place etc?

Theoretically yes if they are 2 or 3 piece wheels. But as above, I reckon if you pulled one of them off or even reached around the back of the wheel and photographed the back of the rim it would show that they’re not genuine split rims.

FWIW, I’ve just made the switch from 19s with a 35 profile tyre to 18″ Sportline wheels with a 45 profile tyre and the difference is very noticable in terms of comfort.

I have a T6 California on Devonport wheels with 215 wide Contivan Contact tyres. I think it rides quite poorly (harsh on potholed and rough roads) and suspect this is a combination of the stiff sidewalls on the tyres and poor standard fit dampers. When the tyres need changing (which may be a while as the current ones are wearing slowly!) then I will probably go with 235 wide tyres for the improved ride. I will likely have upgraded the shocks to Koni Special Actives by then also… for ultimate comfort!

P.s. search for Devonport and not Devenport

Haha, definitely not Devenport either. It’s amazing how many different ways people can spell Devonport.

Re. The 215 vs 235 comfort wise, you prob missed my point. It’s not the tyre size specifically, it’s the type/load rating of those two specific tyres that I was talking about. The 215’s being commercial rated and the 235’s being a more car/suv based tyre….

I’ve had both, prefer the Devonports with 235 tyres, you do see more sets that come with the 215’s though. Not sure what determines which vans came with what from the factory? Maybe panel vans came with the commercial tyres and Caravelles, Cali’s (maybe kombi’s) etc with the 235’s…?

@Jackal …yeah, I get that it is the sidewall stiffness that makes the 215 wide tyres harsher than the 235s and not the tyre width itself. I had come to that conclusion myself but you confirmed it for me… thanks 🙂

Slightly off topic but you can band alloys, it’s quite an involved process, though. I know of a 1000bhp+ car that was daily driven and regularly given death on the track and strip on a set.

As above, I’d put money on those being 1 piece fake splits, and not genuine BBS. You can buy outer lips for genuine splits but they aren’t cheap. Many splits are welded from the factory as well. eg my LMs are 2 piece, so the outer barrel is welded together at the factory. Places like Image wheels can cut and make up new outer lips but it was £1.2k plus last time I enquired, and then there’s the obstacle of having to deal with Image…