Mike,

You can fit larger wheels if you go to lower aspect ratio tires. If
you are willing to ride on O-rings for tires, you can use up to 19"
wheels. I have 17" X 7" wheels in the front unmodified end of my 84
GL. The rears are sporting mighty proud 17" X 9 " Porsche Cup 2
wheels.

BTW, IIRC Go Westy's wheels are NOT modified Mercedes alloys. They are
custom cats for GW in China to the Ronal pattern commonly known as the
Mercedes 8-hole wheel. If you folks will recall some months ago, a
fellow listee had wobbling problems with one of these wheels. Turned
out to be incorrectly drilled lugholes. GW replaced ASAP w/o
additional cost.

BenT Weehl
http://members.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 21:06:46 -0700, Mike Miller <mwmiller@cwnet.com> wrote:
> Thought you couldn't get 16" Wheels on the front without changing the
> control arms [or something like that]?
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
> On 9/18/04 8:36 PM, "jbange" <hfinn@INGRATES.NET> wrote:
>
> > ust returned home from a week long trip up and down Highway 1 in
> > California. The first thing I did before tackling the dangerous twisty
> > monster that is the 1 north of San Luis Obispo was stop in at GoWesty in
> > Los Osos to ditch those factory 14" steel wheels with unbalanced, decaying
> > cheap crap tires (PO was a college student-- no money) and have a set of
> > 16" ones with good Michelins put on. All I can say is "wow". This is the
> > best $1100 I've spent on the beast. Before, it handled like a unicycle with
> > a bent wheel rim. The slightest wind, or groove in the pavement, or even
> > going over 60mph required eternal vigilance at the steering wheel,
> > correcting, re-correcting, and re-re-correcting as the dang thing wandered
> > all over the road. After the 16's though, it handles like a dream. I can't
> > recommend this upgrade highly enough.  Now the wife and I actually fight
> > over who gets to drive!
> >
> > http://www.gowesty.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=GVW-802
> > 7&Category_Code=
> >
> > John Bange
> > '90 Vanagon "Geldsauger"
>