Porsche wheels on Vanagon

[mskar]

Upgraded my 84 Carrera to 17" Cup wheels and was thinking of trying to use my 15" phone dialers on my Vanagon ... Anyone ever done this? Assume I'll need 5x112 to 5x130 hub adapters but what about clearance?

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Official the Vanagon is to heavy to run on Porsche wheels. In germany you have to downwight the load from the car. Yet a 928 or loaded 996 convertible have the same curbwight.

The phone dailers are tough rims. Have them shoot pened or polished inside the spockes to prevent cracking.

In germany several companys offer conversion kits or adaptors.

Grüsse

[mskar]

Thanks Roland, I didn't even consider the fact that the Vanagon is much heavier.

[BenT]

Hi,

You can install Porsche alloys on Vanagons by installing adapters. Both steel and aluminum alloy adapters are available. Steel is recommended in something as heavy as the Vanagon. More importantly, select your tires carefully. If you had tires suitable for Porsches on the alloys you are intending on are not likely to have the proper load rating.

The problem with using adpaters is you will be adding a half inch to the offset. The most suitable offset would be that from a 911 or 944. However, any wider than 7 inches and you will encounter interference with your rear sliding door. One solution to this is to install longer swingarms for the sliding door. They are available from Projektzwo or Winkler dealers. I had mine welded by a local fellow.

You can view what Fuchs look like on a Vanagon by following the links on my personal webpage at:

http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html

One other alternative is to have your wheels redrilled to the correct pattern. You will also find a section in my webpage which deals with this modification. I now have 8 inch wide Fuch replicas in the rear of my Vanagon w/o any interference with the stock position sliding door.

Pmail me if you want further details at: bentbtstr8@aol.com

Cheers,
BenT

[mskar]

some seriously fat fuchs ya got there bro... I think the wheels I have are 7 & 8's. I'd rather not drill them, there is a second possibility of using them for track wheels if the vanagon idea doesn't work out. Thanks for the info and... NICE PAGE! I love vanagons, almost as much as 911's !

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Didn´t sayed Road & Track: The VW Van is the Porsche under the Van´s ?

Now Porsche had made aprovals to run there B32 vans on Porsche rims. The major problem was to find a tire in a suitable plyload ratet for 210 km/h

Most people in germany use Mercedes Benz Alloys.

Grüsse

[BenT]

Martin Schneider at MSDS purveyor of Porsche exhaust systems in Southern California markets a kit to install 3.2 liter Carrera engines along with a G50 trans into T3 (aka Vanagons). He had his "Range Panzer" all-wheel drive monser perched on the spectotor lot as you went in during the Laguna Seca festivities for Porsches 50th. So if you have a spare 80's Carrera drivetrain sitting on your garage floor, here's what you can do to it. Donate it to me for a project or send a couple of thousand to Marty and find yourself a Vanagon to put it in. Installation in a Westfalia Camper will give new meaning to the term "sleeper". BEN

bentbtstr8@aol.com

[mskar]

Man that is too much! Not for me though, I'd be a bit spooked with 200HP on the rear end of that thing with me basically sitting right over the front bumper. Would feel rather like driving while sitting on the hood of your 911 I would think.

[tipsword]

Originally posted by mskar
Man that is too much! Not for me though, I'd be a bit spooked with 200HP on the rear end of that thing with me basically sitting right over the front bumper. Would feel rather like driving while sitting on the hood of your 911 I would think.

Speaking of which, here is that link I sent you so ya all can see it:

http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/article_757.shtml

This van dyno's 227 to the rear wheels (before he added the manual boost adjuster). It is crazy fast and I'm here to tell that doing 120 in a vanagon is an experience.

Brian