15" spare tire in clam shell carrier...will it fit?

[madspaniard]

Hi there,

I'm still a newby to the westy world. Changing to 15" Rhein wheels and steel spare tire. Mounting Hydroedge 215/70/15 tires. Will the spare tire fit in the clam shell original carrier? what about de-inflated? What about my friend's 215/75/15?

Thanks a lot for your help

[1621]

I didn't have any luck with that so I took the easy route and used the larger spare carrier from Van-Cafe down in Santa Cruz. If you search through the old threads though, I'm sure you will find some good solutions. Try SPARE and CARRIER and see what you come up with.
_________________
'85 Westy

[syncrodoka]

http://www.burleymotorsportsdirect.com/
click syncro parts.

[Jon_slider]

> Changing to 15" Rhein wheels and steel spare tire. Mounting Hydroedge 215/70/15 tires

I dont think a 15" rhein will fit in the clamshell, but if you dont have a syncro, a steel 15 as a spare will fit

the burley tire carrier only works on Syncro's (not on 2wd vans). I dont know if you have a 2WD or a Syncro.

for a 2wd, I recommend the Michellin Agilis, rated for a light truck, as a better choice than the Hydroedge, rated for a passenger vehicle.

For a Syncro I recommend the BFG AT KO in 215/75/15, but be aware it will rob you of 10% of your power, because its 10% bigger than stock.

and I agree the Van Cafe bent wire carrier is a great option for 15" wheels

[Westy-Life]

I am running 215/70/16's on my Westy and I have the spare sitting in the original place.
I removed all the original pan and weird hanger bars. Then I simply used a 2" wide piece of steel with the proper bends. It holds it in place perfectly and does not rub on the shifter or coolant lines.
The tire fits snugly between the frame rails.

Cheers!
Dave
_________________
86 Westfalia with 03' TDI Auto trans

[kevinm]

The Rhein will fit into the clamshell spare, but only with a whole lot of pressure on the clamshell lip to get it close enough to line up the retaining bolt.

I would not recommend trying this. The problem I found is that the face of your nice new alloy wheel will get scratched up by the top side of the clamshell, as it is not shaped to provide space around the face of the wheel.

Reducing inflation does not seem to help. I believe the van-cafe carrier will work and will try it this weekend.

- Kevin

[Sodo]

The spare tire cavity has a lot of flanges, weldments and other non-precise features protruding into it. It is very reasonable that the cavity size could vary by 1/2 inch from van to van!

And crash damage might affect it too.

On mine, ----->if the cavity happened to be 1/8" smaller------> the (new) BFG tire probably would not fit. Its reasonable to assume that a BFG A/T KO 215R75X15 could fit in some Syncros and not others. Sorry I have never tried to put a 15" in a 2wd, sorry if this stuff does not apply.

FWIW, my BFG A/T KO 215R75X15 on 6" wide Audi wheels, fits perfectly in my syncro.

Photos here http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2357729#2357729

Tom
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[madspaniard]

thanks for all the good info. Since I don't have a lot of time to do mods before my trip to Baja I decided to buy the van-cafe carrier.

Thanks

Enrique

[Jon_slider]

> FWIW, my BFG A/T KO 215R75X15 fits perfectly in my syncro.

yes, but you cut and modified your clamshell

that tire will NOT fit in a stock clamshell, dont you agree?

The burley motorsports modified clamshell will work, as does yours, modified, not stock

[madspaniard]

[Jon_slider]

> the 215/70/15 hydroedge seems to be a robust tire and I believe is rated something like 98S

yes, OK
fwiw, there are people who disagree with the use of Hydroedges on Vans

lets just compare, and btw, the Agilis is nothing like a BFG in terms of highway ride. You mention you dont like the ride on your current LT tires.. you dont mention which ones, but, the Agilis is smooth as butter, I drive it on my 2WD van and LOVE it.

Agilis is load rated higher than Hydroedge,
Agilis can be inflated higher (implies stronger sidewall construction to me)
Agilis weighs less, always a good thing, IF the tire is strong enough. Vans should use at least C rated tires, the Hydroedge is not C rated.
Agilis turns 802 revolutions per mile, closer to stock than the 782 revolutions of the Hydroedge. Stock rotations is 819, so the Agilis is just 2% taller than stock size, while the Hydroedge is 5% bigger than stock.

That means with Hydroedge you will have LESS power to climb hills in 4th gear than with the Agilis, and you will have to shift into 3rd gear sooner on a hill climb with the Hydroedge.

imho, there is absolutely nothing a Hydroedge doese better than an Agilis. And personally, I find the Hydroedge tread pattern unappealing, actually, pretty stupid looking.. Its a speacialty tread for rain. Do you have lots of rain? My Agilis handle rain very very well btw.



enjoy whatever you get

Jonathan


http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp?make=Michelin&model=Agilis&tirePageLocQty=

Agilis
205/65R15
Load Index 102/100T C
Max Load 1875 lbs.
Max. Inflation Press. 54 psi
Tire Weight 24 lbs.
Revs Per Mile 802

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp?make=Michelin&model=HydroEdge&tirePageLocQty=

MichelinHydroEdge
215/70R15
Load Index 98T SL
Max Load 1653 lbs.
Max. Inflation Press. 44 psi
Tire Weight 26 lbs.
Revs Per Mile 782

[Dogpilot]

Other have seen this before, but I fabbed up this mount out of some sheet steel, scrap strapping and a piece of aluminum angle to make a strap mount. I fit a 16" in the clamshell location. I used the original mounting locations for the rear hinges and the angle screwed up exactly like the original. It must have cost me $5 to make, and it has been on for almost two years now with no issues.

_________________
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

[madspaniard]

Thanks a lot for the info Jonathan

[Sodo]

[madspaniard]

Jonathan,

the LT tires I had on were Wildcat Radial LT.

BTW, I stopped by my local Costco, asked for the Agilis 205/65R15. Didn't have them in stock so the guy called Michelin, the answer was this tire has been discontinued. Is that true?

[Crooked Designer]

I wanted to report back as I just recently solved the riddle of getting a 15" alloy rim in the clamshell with a 205/65-R15 Michelin Agilis Cross Climate on a GW 15" alloy rim.

The thing that was most surprising to learn was that the width (from frame rail to frame rail) was actually more than the depth (From rear crossmember to the front indent.) Most of the research I did here prior to attempting this led me to believe that the problems would be overall height and width.

My challenge was height and depth. I also thought it would be helpful to post some photos of actual measurements, as this seems to be lacking as well. (Note: This is from a 2wd 85 westy and the shifter box is 5 speed bus. YRMV)

As you'll see, the width is just over 27" inches and the depth is ~25".. As you can probably also see, I modified the clamshell hinge and removed the retaining bars (those curvy bars that sit above the tire and act as the hinge pin as well. But I found out that I didn't need to modify the clamshell at all with this wheel. So, I reverted back to just a bolt running through to act as the hinge. The clearance I got from removing the retaining bars was enough. Went from 7.5" tall to 8.5" at the shortest point from the clamshell, which became the shifter box.

My tire is 8.5" x 25.5"

So, I ended up needing to put the tire up on the crossmember in the back (like the original design.) I'm not sure you could get anything in there that is BOTH +25" in diameter AND more than 8.5" - 9" wide. This is because anything +25" will have to sit up on the crossmember and dropping the clamshell hinge doesn't really help you anymore.

Here's the final answer for me. Take out the retaining bars, put bolts in place to secure the clamshell in the original position. Buy a new M12x1.5 bolt. I think the one I got was 80mm and a ~2" spacer. Still waiting to hear from BenT Syncro about the extended latch.

Hope this helps someone doing this in the future.

PS. Yes, I'm aware that I have a directional tire as a spare. One of the bummers of my process was realizing that when they were mounting the tires and the tech asked which direction I wanted the spare. Just had never even crossed my mind until I was past the point of no return.
_________________
'85 Westy full camper, Subaru 2.5L, 5 speed SubiGears + 5speedbus shifter kit

[Sodo]

[dobryan]

[Sodo]

Ok there’s that...hydroplaning, driving fast in heavy rain conditions.
I bet it would take some effort, in a van, in worst conditions, to notice the subtle difference.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[montanasurfer]

I decided to do this. I bought a Falken Sincera SN250 A/S All- Season Radial Tire-205/65R15 99H XL-ply tire on a whim and mounted it to my spare GW 15x7 wheel.

The good news is that it fit! I did have to remove the retaining bars and use bolts as hinge pins. I had the spare tire carrier that came equipped on vans running the 205/70R14 97R's. It had a longer tab at the front where the bolt secures the spare tire carrier. I was actually able to get the bolt in and the spring catch to latch! However, I couldn't get the bolt fully tightened down so I used an old radius rod nut as a spacer between the tab and the body.

There are two problems with this that I think I can live with. At full inflation, there is very slight pinch between happening to one of the radiator hoses. I think I may be able to push it out of the way and it will be a non-issue. The only other issue is that when I push the shifter down to go into reverse, the shaft hits the tire. It still goes down low enough for me to get past the gate to enter reverse. Tire deflation may alleviate both of these issues.

Now I have a "donut" style spare and no need for a spare tire carrier! I'm stoked. I can buy me some GW Rear Disc Brakes now! I'm stoked.
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1987 Vanagon GL - Wolfsburg Edition