"What wheels fit?" The ultimate wheel post.

[S4VAGE]

[Crooked Designer]

Well.. finally got there. After years of being on the fence, I took the leap and now am on 16" CLK320s with 215/65/16 Falken Wildpeak AT Trail tires.

For anyone considering new wheels / tires for a non-lifted westy, I can tell you that this is probably the answer for "how big of a tire can / should I get" I went back and forth for a long time on 215/65 vs 215/70 and I'm very happy with my choice. They look great, they run well (I have a subaru EJ25, so can't speak to pushing 27" wheels with an OEM motor) they don't rub at all. I have GoWesty "zero lift" springs all around with a few leveling spacers in the back.

Black satin powder coated rims. new R12 ball nuts and lug bolts, 45mm studs for the rear hubs, 5mm front 12mm rear spacers, and center caps with VW logos (now painted to match rims) from T3Technique. (Along with lots of free and great advice and timely email replies from Christopher. Thanks!) Silicone lug nut covers for the look and to keep corrosion down and crap out of the open ended lugs on the rear wheels. Fancy machined valve caps on OEM Mercedes valve stems (which for some reason come with tiny chrome caps that don't cover all of the threads on the valve stem)

For the install, the rear hubs had to come off to press in the new studs. I know you can probably do this without removing, but I also wanted to inspect wheel bearings, so was worth it. The grease caps have to come off the front wheels to get the spacers on, which means uninstalling / reinstalling the speedometer cable. Not a big deal, but something I didn't think of before getting into it. Rear wheel has plenty of clearance to slider door. Front tires don't rub even with the Terrawagen fender flares. Still need to figure out the spare under the front situation. Won't fit with just the added spacer to the bolt (that allowed the old 15" wheels to fit) but I have a "new clamshell solution" I'm hopefully going to figure out in the next week or so. Will def post about it if it works.

Hopes this info helps someone in the futurs. Thanks for all the DM replies from the various Samba people I hounded over the last year or so. I'll follow up after the next long trip to give a review on the tires in that thread.

Before (15" GoWesty rims and Michelin Agillis CrossClimate CMetric 205/65/15)

vs after

_________________
'85 Westy full camper, Subaru 2.5L, 5 speed SubiGears + 5speedbus shifter kit

[5BWesty]

[Crooked Designer]

[cdussault]

[4Gears4Tires]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126623731732?_skw=zender+...R4Dc6tnfZQ

One of my dream sets of wheels are up for sale. $1700 + Shipping.

Zender Turbo in 15x7 et 22
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition