The 225/60- is the same diameter as the 205/65. The larger air space will
soften the ride and increase capacity while the wider footprint will
increase traction and stability. Try, it you will like it.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Phil Zimmerman
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 1:09 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: What size tire for 16" rim?

From:         Kevin Dawson <Calwolfie@AOL.COM>
Subject:      What size tire for 16" rim?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi Everyone,

I know you all dread tire questions but....  I just got some real nice
Mercedes rims that are 16" X 7" with a 37mm off set and I think they  will
look
great.  I the question I have is what tires to use.  I've  seen you
discuss 14"
and 15" but not really 16."  So I would welcome any  thoughts you might
have.
This would be for a 87' Westy with normal height  springs and we don't
plan on
off roading.
----------

Hi Kevin

All good responses from Dennis, Jack, Jordan and George, which cover a
wide range of
applications. FWIW, I love tire threads.... I am sick!

I have personally run both 205:65R16 (Nokian CQ) and 215:65R16 (Nokian WR)
sizes. Installed on
6.5" wide rims. I have an AT Westie, with the 27" diameter 215:65R16's the
loss in acceleration
was significantly felt. Kinda relative with a stock WBX engine though. The
WR's were great all-
around performers. Tread life was acceptable at 85,000Km.

The CQ's are a full snow tire. Real grippy on anything slick. Became a bit
noisy and less stable on
dry pavement as they wore down. At ~50,000Km the tread is almost to the
wear-bars. Expensive
tires but their grip on anything slick was phenomenal.

In a perfect world, I prefer the 205:65 size to the 215:65 size because of
the acceleration hit one
suffers with the larger diameter 215 size tire. I would be interested in
hearing of folks experience
with the 225:60 size. As I do a significant amount of driving on gravel
roads, I have resisted
dropping down to a 60 series profile. But, for Highway Cruising I would
think the 60 series would
track exceptionally well, similar to my experience with the Nokian WR's in
215:65R16 size. The
ride will be "firm" I suspect.

What am I driving on now? Don't ask! The last 8 weeks has been totally
frustrating with OUT of
Stock notices at all Warehouses in Western Canada for any suitable load
rated tire in a 205:65R16
size. In hindsight, the cheap but informative kind, perhaps think long and
hard when sizing up to
a 16" wheel. Availability of tires in the smaller 195/205/215:70/65/60
sizes are rather limited.
From my resent experience, with 15" rims I would have had a virtual-flood
of tire choices.
Thinking down the road, so to speak, with engine transplants. The larger
16" rim may payoff with
the ability to run a larger diameter tire to change the gearing without
the exorbitant costly
changes to transmission or differential gearing.

Regards
Phil Z.
Campbell River, BC
BusFusion & Labrador Bound this summer (on new tires I hope)
--------------------------------------------------