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melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 10:33
by dirty-syncro-lover
are these originaly for a merc car ?
has any one ever heard of any failing ? i suppose they are not load rated for a heavy van ?
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 11:35
by ..lee..
i wouldn`t use an alloy for heavy off road use but i use merc ml wheels for light / medium off road use and they`ve been fine. if youre going to go a bit mad then try and get a set of 16" syncro steels. that said they weigh a bloody tonne.
lee.
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 12:05
by syncrowjoker
WHS, best kept for on road, Mefros/steels for the rough stuff.
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 12:19
by hugomonkey
then again if you get caravan alloys they are rated at 1200 kg`s have an et of 30 , the centre hole is the right size and they have the right bolt pattern,
only problem is that most of them are ugly as hell!!

Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 18:16
by dirty-syncro-lover
i would prefer a steel but cant find a van rated set with a good et
thats interesting about the caravans are they deff 5x 112 ?
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 18:35
by Aidan
dirty-syncro-lover wrote:i would prefer a steel but cant find a van rated set with a good et
thats interesting about the caravans are they deff 5x 112 ?

mefros
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 20:49
by syncropaddy
Melba and Penta are different wheels. Some Pentas were used by AMG for Mercedes cars in the '80 and were usually 8x16 but occasionally you will find 7x15. For what you need I'd go for Mefros.
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 25 Aug 2012, 08:42
by Simon Baxter
What you have to remember is that if you clout a alloy wheel against a rock with any force you'll either crack it or knock chunks out of it.
A steel wheel is much better as it will bend and can usually be battered back into place.
I can vouch for the strength of the mefro wheels as I clouted one of mine last week and it was really hard putting it back to shape! If I had of hit a alloy with the same force it would have been game over.
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 25 Aug 2012, 11:56
by dirty-syncro-lover
how much we talking for mefros ? were are they from ?
surely there's a place in the uk to get some decent wheels ?
its for a t4 too i cant remember how the t3 et's stack up with the t4 ? mine are et 55 and i want something wider to fill the arch not tucked in under the t4 steel is a good solid wheel an i prefer the idea of steel .
we had the old bbs splits on the t3 syncro, wacked a rock on the verge didn't damage the bfg's they're bullet proof, but the rim was bent right in.
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 25 Aug 2012, 12:08
by Aidan
mefros about £45 each, order them from Lars at Tristar Connection, pay up front and get free delivery to Vanfest/Busfest
info@tristar-connection.de
ET31 bang on for a T3, probably no use on a T4, you'll struggle to find something that does both other than MercML alloys (with spacers/long studs on a T3); T3 is much better with the skinnier tyres it was designed to run imho, full arches might look good but doesn't do anything for the handling, if you want phatt then run a range rover
no where in the UK does them, mefro uk distributor won't stock them cos he can't see that we buy 50-100 a year, his loss, but admittedly we are probably the only 4x4 they fit and there's not that many of us, but if he'd bought a pallet load in when we first asked 7 years ago he'd have sold 3 pallet loads by now
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 25 Aug 2012, 15:12
by dirty-syncro-lover
thanks
do they only come in that et ? it could work with the t4
did i see you were doing an order? otherwise its just about waiting for the shows i guess?
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 25 Aug 2012, 15:53
by Simon Baxter
You'll be hard pressed to find a better wheel than the standard T4 one, why do you want to change that?
Are you wanting one set of wheels that you can swap between T3 and T4.
If so buy the wheels for the T4 and use spacers/bolt on adapters to use them on a T3.
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 25 Aug 2012, 20:26
by syncropaddy
Is this what you mean by filling the arches ....
clears the rear arm .....
and the slider ...
Those wheels are 7 x 15 wearing 205 section tyres
Re: melba pentas are they suitable for heavy off road use?
Posted: 26 Aug 2012, 19:40
by dirty-syncro-lover
that looks good !
its a t4 as said before i may just use spacer's ? on oe t4 rims the front's aren't too bad but the backs sit right in under the arch i think the wider track could be nice on and off road im running 215's so not skinny 4x4 set up
mefro steel part number
Posted: 30 Aug 2012, 09:13
by dirty-syncro-lover
i have some one in the uk trying to source for me mefro steels i need a part number so we can get the right wheel for the syncro
any one got a rim they can check ?