Does your syncro fit into your garage?

[kayakmaster]

My syncro barely fits into the garage with stock 14" rims and tires. I live in a townhome and was thinking that maybe my garage door is not as tall as regular home garage door. Doing a conversion and I have been told to not only change my gearing in the tranny but also to go to 16" rims and larger tires. Problem is that if I do that it will no longer fit in the garage. But we do have to move soon. So I will not do it until I move or not at all if it does not fit into a standard garage door height.
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Jack

'87 GL Syncro (conversion)

[hiram6]

My westy will not fit in my garage, but my previous van did. The 86 2WD 7 passenger would clear by less than 2 inches with the factory 14 inch wheels.
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1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[riceye]

My 87 Weekender barely fit into the garage with the old 205/70-14's, but when I upgraded to 225/60-16's I had to deflate the right rear to about 10 psi to get it into the garage for the winter.

Gotta love that Westy lean!

Measure the diameter of your tires, and then peruse the tire specs provided by tirerack.com to find the 16" tire that will fit your need.

Check the travel adjustment of the garage door, as well, as most automatic openers come to rest (in the "up" position) with the bottom of the door a little below the actual door frame opening.
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'87 Westy Weekender - daily driver on salt-free roads

There's gonna be some changes made.

“I find that things usually go well right up until the moment they don't.” - Ahwahnee

"Quality isn't method. It's the goal toward which the method is aimed." - Socrates, later quoted by R.M. Pirsig

[Dogpilot]

No, mine does not fit. Before the 16" tires it barely fit (~1/4"). Now, when I want to do work, I must let air out of the tires to get it in. It does fit nicely in the airplane hanger. Which is were it is at the moment. Flagstaff is experimenting with salting the roads, so it is out of harms way for the moment keeping the O-1 company.
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Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[seans67]

Wish I had a garage to put it in, but when I do build one it will most definetely be big enough for the Syncro Weekender.
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Sean

'71 Squareback '71 Porsche 914 ‘80 Camper '87 Syncro Weekender 1.8T '87 Wolfsburg Weekender '97 Toyota Land Cruiser ‘03 Audi A6 Quattro 3.0 ‘04 Audi A4 Avant Quattro 1.8T ‘05 Audi A4 Quattro 3.0
‘06 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S

[hiram6]

[Mathew Zelezen]

Ohhhh to have a garage ...... but I do find myself parking in alot of different garages for my work and I've recently had to re-memorize which garages I will fit into. I upgraded to 15" passat rims with 205 75 BFG Mud Terrains and find my parking options to be rather limited.

But I have come to learn that those Max Height Bars they hang in front of parking garages are more of a "suggestion" than fact.

Hey, instead of raising the garage just lower the floor a little!
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87 Syncro Tintop
~Rocky J Motor
~Steedle Trans


Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.

[izzydog]

Mine used to make it by 1/2". I went to syncro.org springs and BFG AT KOs on 15"s and it didn't fit anymore. I took the trim piece off my door opening and underneath was another 16' piece of redwood nearly two inches thick. That was nailed to the header so I removed it altogether, gained over 2" back and now the syncro once again fits by about 1/2". Thanks to the guy who overbuilt my garage!

Jeff

[amishman]

Mine fits.... I had a garage built for it with a 9 foot tall garage door.

Now I can pull in even with my top Thule rack setup.

tj
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tj (the Amishman)

Come visit my web site!
http://www.vwhippie.com

[lovedavdubs]

I live in NYC and my Westy sleeps in an underground parking garage. The fit is so low tight that if I have my antenna fully extended it scrapes along the ceiling at some points.
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82 Air-cooled Westy (Lola)...My other vehicle is a subway.

[ranchero]

Hi,

I'm glad this thread came along. It seems like a standard garage door height is 7 ft. My Syncro Westy with GoWesty Springs and 215/75/15s wouldn't clear that. I'm about to build a garage and was planning on using an 8ft door. None of your vans are taller than 8ft are they?
Steve
Salida, CO
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'90 Westy Syncro EJ25 (money pit #1)
'96 FZJ80 (cheap by comparison^^)
'13 Golf R. Daily driver.

[Paintedbus]

i am pretty sure the only way i could get my vanagon into my garage is if i removed the westy top... and thats a 2wd! ( it would be nice to afford a syncro.) i wish i could get it in there, but im not going to worry about it as i am renting. when i get out of school a big garage is priority number one. sure sucked putting my winter studs on in my heavily rutted driveway while it was snowing.
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Champagne Edition Roadtrip monster "Juakali"

~"Paintedbus" Ken~
The Mobile Muralist
WWW.PAINTEDBUSART.COM

[danfromsyr]

if you can't raise the roof,.

how about lowering the floor?

would jsut ahve to add a dropped section for the tires.

but I'm building my new/next garage to accomodate a nice Syncro hightop.. as I have a syncro passanger van that will be getting the HT treatment (easier and more winter functional then a westy top IMO)

garage will have at least a 8'6" ceiling with sideways opening (curtain)doors. which I've found are more common in Europe, then in USA. I may have to MFG. my own bits and tracks to keep costs reasonable.
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[bunker108]

My 85 Westie barely fits with 15in wheels and 215/65's. Three different garages I might add.

I broke the skylight once when I pulled in and forgot it was open.

[vwjedi]

[otiswesty]

My van is 1/4 inch too tall. I have a new skylight to prove it. If I put a early style westy roof on it without the skylight it would fit, easier than raising the carport anyway.

BTW - Nice house Jedimaster

[whip618]

This is an 8' x 16' door on my new garage, the 86 weekender with the stock 14's fit with with no problems as well as the bay with the roof rack.

And the 87 GL with 215/75/15 BFG T/A's fits easily under the door edge.

Phil
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Life is simple....either you're qualified or you're not.
USSVI.......Pride Runs Deep
USSVI Life member and Holland Club member

Samba Member No. 3307

[vwjedi]

[Dogpilot]

Lowering the floor is the option I have to take on my house in Laguna. Built in 1927, it would seem that cars where much lower then. I cannot get either Land Rover in the garage, much less the Syncro. So, since the floor was actually asphalted in the first place. Now, 81 years later it has settled into a very lumpy not even close to flat floor. Since I have about 4' of foundation, I am going to lower the floor about a foot when I re-do the driveway and garage floor this spring.

The nice thing is; construction costs are, for some unknown reason, going down in California at the moment. The fruits of this are being reaped by the procrastinator, me.
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Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[RicoS]