man o man..  you all have to think out of the box..   
theres more to tires then just vanagons..  

on my baja I had G78s  (about a 29x8.5) on beetle rims..  mind you I had the "Marathon" rims 4.5" instead of 4"
and were a fun squeeze, ( have my own vintage tire machine saves me $tons$)  but ran them for years.. 
currently i'm running the other way a 225/75/15 on a 7" rim.  but it's a 2ndry project and has very little $$ budget so I roll with what I can. 

for images of my baja's big tires on skinny rims, goto www.thesamba.com gallery and look up oh never mind heres the link
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/270407.jpg 

I'm sure someone will quip back in that they wouldn't  do this  or that regarding tires.. 
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Subject: Re: 

Don't mix up the width of the tread (what sits on the ground) with the rim width. It is an 8.5 inch tread width, but mounts on a 5.5" width rim. It is actually supposed to be a 6" minimum rim, but plenty of people use a narrower rim. I am not condoning this act, but I currently have 50 series tires on my beetle on 6" rims that should be on 7" minimum. After 16K miles, I see no adverse wear, or premature failure signs.
YMMV,
Courtney