15" passat wheels on T4 not strong enough?

[MAZI]

Ive just bought a set of 15" passat rims to put on my T4 using my existing michelin agilis 81 tyres.
A freind said that the wheels wont be strong enough for my van as i use it to carry weight.

Is this true?

[Herman.58]

Steel or alloy??

these are the wheels on my working van. Had them nearly two years. They were on a vw breakers van before I bought them. They are genuine vw from a mk 5 passat, so are well made, and have nice thick spokes.



Van rated alloys would be around 890kg per wheel. I have no idea what the load rating of mine are, but in worse case scenario if they are only rated at 700kg a wheel I can carry 2800kg safely (which I doubt I get anywhere near in the real world). Maximum allowable gross vehicle weight for the T4 van is 2700kg anyway. However I do run van rated tyres.

As I say they are genuine VW and that says a lot. I've heard of other guys buying cheap £500 wheel tyre kits (usually cheap chinese imports, RS4 copies ,etc) that are advertised as "van rated" only to find themselves with distorted/bent alloys 6months down the line. Unless your planning carrying 1000kg's of lead pipe up and down motorways at 80mph, week in, week out, I wouldnt worry too much. Thats my experience, but its your life, your call!!.

[Herman.58]

Oh they are 7j x 16's by the way. I sprayed them myself with vw diamond black black paint, mixed by Halfords.

[WILLY]

NICE WHEELS HERMAN, MIGHT DO MINE

[MAZI]

Steel or alloy??

these are the wheels on my working van. Had them nearly two years. They were on a vw breakers van before I bought them. They are genuine vw from a mk 5 passat, so are well made, and have nice thick spokes.



Van rated alloys would be around 890kg per wheel. I have no idea what the load rating of mine are, but in worse case scenario if they are only rated at 700kg a wheel I can carry 2800kg safely (which I doubt I get anywhere near in the real world). Maximum allowable gross vehicle weight for the T4 van is 2700kg anyway. However I do run van rated tyres.

As I say they are genuine VW and that says a lot. I've heard of other guys buying cheap £500 wheel tyre kits (usually cheap chinese imports, RS4 copies ,etc) that are advertised as "van rated" only to find themselves with distorted/bent alloys 6months down the line. Unless your planning carrying 1000kg's of lead pipe up and down motorways at 80mph, week in, week out, I wouldnt worry too much. Thats my experience, but its your life, your call!!.

They are 15" genuine passat alloys from 2002 passat TDI se.
And i will be using my existing van rated michelin agilis 81 tyres.
oh and my van van is the same colour as well (paprika red)

[Herman.58]

Post a pic when you get them fitted. My van colour is called Tornado red. This shows the set up better. I've since raised the front 15mm to improve the ride comfort.

[Garscoal]

can anyone tell me what the best size of alloys are more conveniant for my t4 campervan, 16's or 18's, i am going for thecheap alloy tyre package as there is never much weight in my van..cheers..

[Brian Considine]

can anyone tell me what the best size of alloys are more conveniant for my t4 campervan, 16's or 18's, i am going for the cheap alloy tyre package as there is never much weight in my van..cheers..

It really does not matter what weight you actually carry in practice - legally, the wheels & tyres must be load rated to the maximum plated weight of the vehicle.

If your wheels & tyres are not load rated a decent MOT testing station will pick this up (as a fail) as will the traffic wombles or plod, worse case will be if you have an accident & the insurance assessor picks it up & they refuse to pay out.

Your wheels & tyres are your last link with safety - it's just not worth it for a bit of bling. As mentioned before some of the cheap packages are not load rated.