Well the time has come for me to put tires on the old van and I am having trouble finding anything. The tire shops are not very helpful so far. I have been told that I need to run a tire with a reinforced sidewall as I use my van to haul stuff. I guess that a 185/75/r14 is as close as you can get to stock but I have been looking for a 195/75/r14 in a Light Truck tire and am having trouble. It seems that all the tire manufacturers have discontinued making them. I am running the stock 14 X 5.5" rims and am looking for a stock look. Do you guys have any ideas here in So Cal?
What is the rear GAWR of your van? I know fourteens are hard to come by these days, especially for trucks or large cars. I changed my Bonneville to 15's since fourteens that carry their share of 5000 lbs were hard to find.
There are several brands of 205/70/14 that are built with extra load capacity. I checked one in my warehouse and the max load is 1653 lbs. If you cant find them let me know. Tab
I was wondering about 205 tires but I was afraid that they would rub when turning. The tires that came on the van rub on the sway bar up front. They are size 27 X 8.5 R14 LT. Acording to the orig. sales brochure the rear axle has a capacity of 3050 lbs. and the van has a GVW of 4930 lbs.
I have the 185s on the front and I think 205s on the rears. I'm considering making some rear changes now that I have the v8
i had problems with finding good 14" tires for my falcon Ranchero too....so i switched to 15" rims. Thats the way to go. looks stock and actually better imop. don't know why, but 14" tires are a bitch to find, and the ones i found weren't the look or performance i was after, usually for trailers or shit
get the early mustang steelies.....they will swap out with yours and look stock, plus your old caps will fit 'em. a tip i got from a falcon guy....falcon rancheros and econos are close cousins, so i bet it'd work for you too
Are you willing to have 205s that DBTires talked about on the rear and something else on the front? The bigger tires in back will give you a slight rake and match the capacity. A smaller set on front will give you the turning without rubbing. I have a set of 14" tires on some slotted mags from a 56 Chevy 3100 truck. I have to check what size they are. The rears are really wide. Email me at [email protected] if you want me to check them.
15"'s maybe the answer but I hate getting beat. I've been doing alot of looking around online about these tires and it seems that I am in the same boat as the VW westfalia and vanagon guys. The wheel sizes are indenticle between the VW buses and the Econolines with a similar weight. We both need the LT tires and are SOL. Sucks.
If anybody is interested, here is a link to a good article explaining why these old vans need LT tires. It is written mainly about VW's but I think that the logic applies to any early van. http://simonsspeedshop.com/Busses.aspx
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