Cheers fella I appreciate you taking the time to reply and get the measurements at the weekend. What engine and gearbox do you have and have you noticed much loss of acceleration or having to drop down a gear earlier on hills etc?
When I bought the pickup the engine and gearbox were laying in the load bed (with a whole bunch of other stuff - almost like it was just plucked from its South African resting place) so I decided to see if I could use them. I don’t know the history of either. The gearbox is a 5 rib CM code. The engine is type 1 1600 twin port. I know from the VW birth certificate that it came from Germany with a 1600 type 1 engine so the gearbox is not strictly correct and probably not the original. However, after a thorough clean, service and refurbishment I used both and they seem to be well matched. There are some steep hills round me that he needs 3rd gear to get up, but don’t forget that being a pickup, there’s a lot less metal to drag around than in a bus. All the maths says there will be differences as a result of running larger tyres but just by the seat of my pants I can’t say I can feel any difference when moving off or in general driving. However, it does attract some comment when I’m out and about now - more so then when it was on stock wheels / tyres so be prepared for that. Stirlingmoz
They also do a worm drive all terrain if you want something slightly less aggressive @ozzydog has them on his prototype bay
That’s going to be my choice The drone of muds on tarmac resonating through the van would drive me potty. Plus you can get the all terrains in standard size so you don’t alter the gearing and thus the cooling fan speed.
would you recommend normal tyre size or something a little taller? Sent from my ELE-L09 using Tapatalk
Whatever you do by increasing the diameter will have the opposite effect on revs and therefore torque. Eg, go 10% bigger on tyres, drop revs at corresponding mph by 10%. Possibly not a major issue if, if, you've got a more powerful and torqey engine,but if it's standard you'll be changing down on hills more often and lugging the gearbox, which is not a good look. VW matched the gear ratios to the engine spec using 185r14c tyres and spent quite a few Deutschemarks along the way. Your bus, your look but it's probably better standard coz mods end up having a cost somehow...
It's never as simple as that though is it! Have a look at a tyre size comparison chart thingmybob and have a play with standard bay tyres/wheels and plug in what you're looking at. A few single point percentage differences probably won't make a noticeable change on the road, but be aware 2 or 300 rpm at the same speed will have you off the boil from what you're used to. I'm pretty sure we'll be going to the tyre that @paradox suggested for the next change, the AT 980 E. Those muds look very, very cool but for us the all round boring ability of the AT trump's the visual. Then again...with a limited slip diff in a standard box... I use this for a starting point when helping customers arrive at a sensible gearing decision.. https://tiresize.com/comparison/ Using 185 80 14 as the first line input. Have fun...
These are as close as “BANANAS” is to swearing to the original sized tyre, possibly a tad larger. The road noise is nothing like most all terrain tyres and you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference to a sporty type radial tyre. The only thing I’d mention is the white lettering, it’s a job for life faffin about with the white lettering, it does get less frequent as the tyres get older but when new, they need touching up frequently, but then again, who doesn’t I’ve been working towards this look for a while after running around for the last decade with two splines down at the rear and T Haus spindles and smaller tyres on the front in order to get in through my garage doors with a smidgeon of clearance. I’ve now crashed the lintel and built a new one higher and raised the garage doors too. This van of mine is now up one spline at the rear so needs a little fettling as the suspension crashes when riding along empty ( bump stops) a Westy probably wouldn’t notice because they’re a bit on the heavy side anyway, or maybe when I finish loading out the interior (again) and put some weight back in on mine. The front has stock everything apart from a little lift with coilovers with 150lb springs raising it about 20 to 30 mm . Rides great and I like the look. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,not so many issues with them speedy bumps now.
Sorry about digging an old thread up but just wondered how you're getting on with the Big Horn Maxxis now you've had them a while? I had the 28x8.5R 14 Wormdrive on my split, I found the speedo to be out less than 10% according to the satnav x speedo reading. Acceleration, what acceleration LoL it was a 1600 split. I may have had to change down climbing hills a little more often but was doing that before I fitted these plus I still had the reduction boxes fitted, road noise again I can't say I noticed a lot of difference from standard road tyres. I absolutely loved the tyres so much so I'm buying again for my late bay, the Maxxis Wormdrive were so strong, side walls so thick, they really felt firm on the road and the extra clearance made it so simple to slide underneath for maintenance work. No rubbing anywhere, no bottoming out, be honest they fill the wheel arches so perfectly they look right. I fitted my tyres on the split white letters in, for the late bay I will be opting for the white letters outward facing Fitting these tyres and bigger isn't a new thing, really big in the States and I follow quite a few forums specifically for off road and wild camping. Just need to decide on Worm drive or Big Horn this time round?
Still like these Worm Drive tyres. The white lettering isn’t on these in the U.K. I’ve stuck it on myself with a white pen over the outlines of the letters. Unfortunately it doesn’t last that long and once you’ve started doing it, you effectively have commissioned yourself a job for life. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,, yes I love the look.
