Hi all,
I've spent a lot of time on the forum reading through lots of posts from some amazing members and found lots of valuable information that's helped me make decisions on my own vehicle. I wanted to create this post as a way of giving back to those who are searching for similar answers and share my experience.
Context
I've just got (October 2023) myself a T6.1 T30 LWB Highline 204 DSG Transporter Panel Van in Raveena Blue for use as a work vehicle. Prior to this I owned a T6 but didn't really make modifications to it. This time I thought I'd treat myself to some 20inch alloys and didn't realise how much there was to consider when upgrading wheels.
Wheels
The T6.1 comes with 17inch Davenport Alloys as standard. Mine came with Bridgestone Duravis 215/60/R17 C Tyres load rated at 109/107T
After searching through the forum I opted for Wolfrace Eurosport Wolfsburg in Gloss Black Alloys. I prefered the Gloss Black finish although did see some people mention some of the other finishes they offer don't wear well in the great British weather. I think they look great in gloss black and really elevate the look of the van. Many people recommended the 8.5J version although these were out of stock so I opted for the 8J version. They came with the appropriate Spigot rings and sit nicely on the van.
For the tyre I saw a few mentions of the Goodyear Eagle F1 and these had the best ratings I could find of B for Wet Conditions and B for Fuel Economy. I needed to take load rating into consideration and these have a load rating of 104. On the spec sheet for a T30 the max front axel load is 1680kg which translates to 840kg per tyre. The max rear axel load is 1625kg which translates to 812.5kg per tyre. The minimum load rating tyres required are 102 which support 850kg. These tyres at 104 support 900kg.
I used the wheel-it-fit.com website to see how the tyres would look and then worked out what Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 I could get that would take the load and look good. In the end I opted for 255/40/R20 104Y
I purchased the wheels and tyres directly from wolfrace.co.uk When you add the selection to the basket there's a bit at the bottom that allows you to add locknuts and tyre pressure monitoring sensors. What I loved most about their service is that they fit the tyres on to the alloys, align and load balance them before sending out. When you receive them you can take them to any tyre shop to fit. My van found the new tyre pressure sensors immediately and reported the values on the head unit.
Regarding insurance, I had the cheapest quote from Aviva. On their online configurator it allows you to select Allow Wheels (Manufacturer Fitted) but when I rang my local VW service centre they refused to fit any third party parts. I rang Aviva and they were able to manually amend the insurance for £120 extra acknowledging they were third party alloys.
Installation of the alloys was pretty straight forward and there is no rubbing on the front tyres on full lock.
Tyre Pressure Monitoring - DPMS - Direct Tyre Pressure Monitoring System
I paid for the upgrade to a DPMS system for this van. The way it works is that there are sensors attached to all the wheels that report real tyre pressures back to the head unit. Unfortunately the T6.1 head unit only allows you to select from a list of selected tyres that max out at 18inch. The default selection has multiple profiles with a "Standard" and "Fully Loaded" pressure configuration but no custom option.
After reading more posts I found out that you need to manually upload a xml file using ODIS with custom tyre pressures to the T6.1 so that you can run the correct pressures. The general consensus on the forum was around 40 PSI was the recommended setting.
I discovered two solutions. One software at this link RDKS Datansatz Helper – dunt.at and another online file generator at GitHub & BitBucket HTML Preview
I'm based near London so I took my van to Hazzy Dayz in St Albans to help with this.
After scanning the vehicle the engineer discovered that my RDKS ECU Version was showing as version 10 but a different hardware revision 5Q0907273D. Unfortunately neither of these two solutions have been updated to support version D of the ECU yet. Back to the drawing board.
Luckily he had access to the latest beta version of VCDS (at the time of posting). Using VCDS he was able to activate a tyre pressure profile called Individual which allowed us to enter two sets of pressures as "Standard" and "Fully Loaded". He couldn't activate the third available visible option of "Comfort" pressures. In VCDS the tyre pressure had to entered in BAR and without the . so for example if you wanted pressures of 3.2 BAR this had to be entered as 32 into VCDS. Once the new pressures had been uploaded, the vehicle had to be turned off and turned on again. Once this was done you go back into the settings on the head unit and select the individual profile. The next time the vehicle is turned off and on again it would start up with Individual profile selected.
The engineer believes that once these 2 solutions are updated to support ECU version D then we should be able to add up to 10 profiles if required. In the end I opted for Standard 2.7 BAR (39 PSI) and fully Loaded 2.9 BAR (42 PSI)
Speeds & MPG
I did approx 70 mile round trip today through town roads and a bit of motorway driving. Average MPG reported was 30mpg with the new wheels. No cargo in the van.
I read that the speedometer will be a bit off after changing to bigger wheels. I got pointed to this website to help work out the speedometer discrepency Tyre Size Calculator
In my case at 70mph I'd be doing 72mph in reality. There's probably some allowance in the original facotry calibration but to be safe I'll be driving 2mph slower than the limits.
The Ride & First Impressions
It's my first time upgrading to larger wheels. Having run a T6 with 17's for a few years I got used to how it drives and handles. As soon as I fitted the 20's I found that the van feels heavier, hugs the road more, slightly slower to accelarate and brake and not as nimble in the corners. The suspension feels stiffer, less bouncing around, glides right over speed bumps. However they were worth it simply based on how much they improve the aesthetic of the van. They look really nice and larger wheels definitely suit the transporter better.
Lowering
I did a bit of research on lowering the van and found this video on YouTube the most helpful by Transporter HQ at explaining things.
In the end I decided not to lower the van for two reasons. Firstly because I have a roof rack and lots of items to install in the rear. This should lower the van a bit naturally. Also no standard insurance I could find covered suspension meaning a bespoke broker policy and my standard policy cost was already high.
Customisations
A side note but I came across a few forum posts talking about Carista OBD module plug in that allows you to enable various settings like beep on lock yourself via an app. Going to have a play with this soon but it will allow me to enable various features I like without taking it somewhere for additional coding work.
Photos
I've attached various photos to this post for reference
Original Factory Fitted Wheels & Tyres (No Cargo Inside)
Sides of Van with new Wolfrace Wheels Fitted with Goodyear Tyres (No Cargo Inside)
Close up photos of new wheels from different angles
Various Head Unit Menu Pages regarding Tyre Pressures
Thanks again to all those who contributed to this forum and allowed me to get my setup going properly. The only thing left for me to figure out is the spare wheel situation and whether the factory 17 is good enough to run if I get a flat.
I've spent a lot of time on the forum reading through lots of posts from some amazing members and found lots of valuable information that's helped me make decisions on my own vehicle. I wanted to create this post as a way of giving back to those who are searching for similar answers and share my experience.
Context
I've just got (October 2023) myself a T6.1 T30 LWB Highline 204 DSG Transporter Panel Van in Raveena Blue for use as a work vehicle. Prior to this I owned a T6 but didn't really make modifications to it. This time I thought I'd treat myself to some 20inch alloys and didn't realise how much there was to consider when upgrading wheels.
Wheels
The T6.1 comes with 17inch Davenport Alloys as standard. Mine came with Bridgestone Duravis 215/60/R17 C Tyres load rated at 109/107T
After searching through the forum I opted for Wolfrace Eurosport Wolfsburg in Gloss Black Alloys. I prefered the Gloss Black finish although did see some people mention some of the other finishes they offer don't wear well in the great British weather. I think they look great in gloss black and really elevate the look of the van. Many people recommended the 8.5J version although these were out of stock so I opted for the 8J version. They came with the appropriate Spigot rings and sit nicely on the van.
For the tyre I saw a few mentions of the Goodyear Eagle F1 and these had the best ratings I could find of B for Wet Conditions and B for Fuel Economy. I needed to take load rating into consideration and these have a load rating of 104. On the spec sheet for a T30 the max front axel load is 1680kg which translates to 840kg per tyre. The max rear axel load is 1625kg which translates to 812.5kg per tyre. The minimum load rating tyres required are 102 which support 850kg. These tyres at 104 support 900kg.
I used the wheel-it-fit.com website to see how the tyres would look and then worked out what Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 I could get that would take the load and look good. In the end I opted for 255/40/R20 104Y
I purchased the wheels and tyres directly from wolfrace.co.uk When you add the selection to the basket there's a bit at the bottom that allows you to add locknuts and tyre pressure monitoring sensors. What I loved most about their service is that they fit the tyres on to the alloys, align and load balance them before sending out. When you receive them you can take them to any tyre shop to fit. My van found the new tyre pressure sensors immediately and reported the values on the head unit.
Regarding insurance, I had the cheapest quote from Aviva. On their online configurator it allows you to select Allow Wheels (Manufacturer Fitted) but when I rang my local VW service centre they refused to fit any third party parts. I rang Aviva and they were able to manually amend the insurance for £120 extra acknowledging they were third party alloys.
Installation of the alloys was pretty straight forward and there is no rubbing on the front tyres on full lock.
Tyre Pressure Monitoring - DPMS - Direct Tyre Pressure Monitoring System
I paid for the upgrade to a DPMS system for this van. The way it works is that there are sensors attached to all the wheels that report real tyre pressures back to the head unit. Unfortunately the T6.1 head unit only allows you to select from a list of selected tyres that max out at 18inch. The default selection has multiple profiles with a "Standard" and "Fully Loaded" pressure configuration but no custom option.
After reading more posts I found out that you need to manually upload a xml file using ODIS with custom tyre pressures to the T6.1 so that you can run the correct pressures. The general consensus on the forum was around 40 PSI was the recommended setting.
I discovered two solutions. One software at this link RDKS Datansatz Helper – dunt.at and another online file generator at GitHub & BitBucket HTML Preview
I'm based near London so I took my van to Hazzy Dayz in St Albans to help with this.
After scanning the vehicle the engineer discovered that my RDKS ECU Version was showing as version 10 but a different hardware revision 5Q0907273D. Unfortunately neither of these two solutions have been updated to support version D of the ECU yet. Back to the drawing board.
Luckily he had access to the latest beta version of VCDS (at the time of posting). Using VCDS he was able to activate a tyre pressure profile called Individual which allowed us to enter two sets of pressures as "Standard" and "Fully Loaded". He couldn't activate the third available visible option of "Comfort" pressures. In VCDS the tyre pressure had to entered in BAR and without the . so for example if you wanted pressures of 3.2 BAR this had to be entered as 32 into VCDS. Once the new pressures had been uploaded, the vehicle had to be turned off and turned on again. Once this was done you go back into the settings on the head unit and select the individual profile. The next time the vehicle is turned off and on again it would start up with Individual profile selected.
The engineer believes that once these 2 solutions are updated to support ECU version D then we should be able to add up to 10 profiles if required. In the end I opted for Standard 2.7 BAR (39 PSI) and fully Loaded 2.9 BAR (42 PSI)
Speeds & MPG
I did approx 70 mile round trip today through town roads and a bit of motorway driving. Average MPG reported was 30mpg with the new wheels. No cargo in the van.
I read that the speedometer will be a bit off after changing to bigger wheels. I got pointed to this website to help work out the speedometer discrepency Tyre Size Calculator
In my case at 70mph I'd be doing 72mph in reality. There's probably some allowance in the original facotry calibration but to be safe I'll be driving 2mph slower than the limits.
The Ride & First Impressions
It's my first time upgrading to larger wheels. Having run a T6 with 17's for a few years I got used to how it drives and handles. As soon as I fitted the 20's I found that the van feels heavier, hugs the road more, slightly slower to accelarate and brake and not as nimble in the corners. The suspension feels stiffer, less bouncing around, glides right over speed bumps. However they were worth it simply based on how much they improve the aesthetic of the van. They look really nice and larger wheels definitely suit the transporter better.
Lowering
I did a bit of research on lowering the van and found this video on YouTube the most helpful by Transporter HQ at explaining things.
In the end I decided not to lower the van for two reasons. Firstly because I have a roof rack and lots of items to install in the rear. This should lower the van a bit naturally. Also no standard insurance I could find covered suspension meaning a bespoke broker policy and my standard policy cost was already high.
Customisations
A side note but I came across a few forum posts talking about Carista OBD module plug in that allows you to enable various settings like beep on lock yourself via an app. Going to have a play with this soon but it will allow me to enable various features I like without taking it somewhere for additional coding work.
Photos
I've attached various photos to this post for reference
Original Factory Fitted Wheels & Tyres (No Cargo Inside)
Sides of Van with new Wolfrace Wheels Fitted with Goodyear Tyres (No Cargo Inside)
Close up photos of new wheels from different angles
Various Head Unit Menu Pages regarding Tyre Pressures
Thanks again to all those who contributed to this forum and allowed me to get my setup going properly. The only thing left for me to figure out is the spare wheel situation and whether the factory 17 is good enough to run if I get a flat.
