Club 80-90 Forums

The garage informed me that being porsche wheels the the tyres available were not heavy load tyres. In fact the best they had were w95.

Wesley.Your boot lid question belongs in the mechanical section,not the wheels and tyres section.

Wesley wrote:Many thanks for that Ralp85. Would make sense , cos as you say most weight is at the back.

I read somewhere that weight is carried fairly evenly front - back.

Thanks all-

Ended up with hankooks. Have load 94w on front and 96w on rear. Apparently these are the heaviest load tyres I can get for the rims that are on van.

This gives me a load maximum of 2760kg. Took van to local weigh bridge and with all camping gear loaded up and a full tank of juice it weighs 1760kg.

Not sure if it's right or not but was told to factor in 20% play room so max weight on these tyres should be 2208kg. If my sums are correct that should give me 448kg left to cover 6 people. Most of my friends are 40 + now and are piling it on so one or 2 may need a diet!

Thanks for the help and advice
Wesley

A couple of things to be aware of are that GVW of your van is 2500kg, and that the minimum load rating recommended by VW in the owners manual was 97 all around.

And best not to see load as 'weight'. There are several factors that dictate the need for additional strength in the tyres. Tyres can really flex/deform on something heavy like a camper as theres all that extra weight bearing down on them - particularly during cornering where the side forces are much increased. With car tyres, you'll hear them squeal if you have to pull out of T-junction even moderately briskly and believe me, thats not good. Rufty-tufty commercials are a must in my view although I have driven on car tyres too.

The other aspect is longevity. From experience, cheap commercial and ordinary car tyres wear rapidly compared to good quality commercial tyres. They do cost, but the saving in the long run is enormous.

I run at 40 PSI front (35 in winter) and 45 at the rear.

Sound advice. Just thinking out loud, but doesn't tyre psi vary quite a bit depending on size of tyre, volume of air? I know it does on cycles ie a thin racing tyre is hard at 120psi and a much bigger mountain bike tyre is as hard (approx) at 70psi. Just curious

What with the large variety of wheel and tyre sizes (and types) you see on T25's it must be a bit of a guessing game this tyre pressure lark.

I mean, would a 195/70/15 heavy duty "C" rated tyre have the same pressure requirement as a non "C" rated one.

I read about an idea that seems to work. I've got one of those little hand held infra red temperature guns (only cheap on Ebay). After a decent run, point it at the centre of the tread, and again towards the outer portion of the tread. When the temperature difference is minimal, you have the correct pressures.

multisi wrote:Why do you need to get new wheels ?

Agreed, you don't need to do that, or have different sizes front and rear.
A rating of above 95 is ok