On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, Ari Ollikainen wrote:

> >have you done this conversion before?  i have .  many times.  never had
> >a problem. IMO the stock vanagon steels w/ 185-195 14"s are a death
> >wish.
> >chrios
>
>         You've made this assertion several times...would you please back
>         it up with some facts?

I don't buy it.  Steel wheels are tremendously strong and I've never seen
one fail, on any vehicle...by contrast, alloy wheels get bent by potholes
here all the time, and there are stories of pieces of the rim exploding
off while tire shop personnel tried to mount tires on them.  At at least
one shop they use a thick plywood shield while putting tires on alloy
rims, for that reason -- over-pressure can easily result in rim failure.

Check out the aftermarket rims in the local tire shop, some time...almost
all of them will have a maximum pressure rating stamped inside and it's
almost always surprisingly low.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si