More fuel for the fire:

If you're using 16" wheels on your camper, the German TUV requires a tire
with a minimum load index of 99.  A regular Vanagon is required to have
tires with a minimum load index of 97.

No guess work here, just engineering and testing.

Cheers,

Jeff
www.vanagonparts.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Kim Brennan
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:20 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: 15" wheels - 16" Wheels Now Available!!!

Interesting. TireRack's search didn't pull up those choices. Still, a
lot less choices in appropriate tires than the 215/75R15 size.

On Mar 17, 2005, at 2:11 PM, Aleksandr Milewski wrote:

> Kim Brennan wrote:
>> Not to discourage folks from buying these wheels (these appear to be
>> Ronal wheels). Ronal shows 215/55R16 tires on Vanagons with their 16"
>> wheels. I could not find a single tire with sufficient load ratings
>> for
>> Vanagons in that size tire. Just a cautionary tale...
>
> Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 and ContiWinterContact TS790 V are available
> with   a 97 load index. (and "Load Range XL" on the Tire rack site,
> whatever that's worth)