Tires: Tire and rim size, passenger car tires, chevrolet chevy van

Question
Have a 200 Chevrolet Chevy Van 20. Current tires are P245/75 R16.  Can I replace with P265/75 R16. The 265 tires are on alloy rims that were on a Ford Econoline 2004. Do the rims suite on Chevy.


Answer
Ari,

On every vehicle sold in the US, there is a sticker – commonly called the tire placard - that lists the original tire size and the proper pressure for that size.  The placard is usually located on a doorpost or in the glove box – but sometimes it is located in the trunk or on the fuel filler door.

I am under the impression that the placard also appears on pretty much every vehicle produced worldwide - and given that the 2 vehicles you've mentioned are based on US versions - I guess they also have placards.

According to Tire Guides, Chevy 20 series vans came with LT metric tires.  You can recognize this because the letters "LT" appear in front of the tires size.  These are functionally equivalent to "C" type European tires.  They use a higher inflation pressure so they can carry additional load.

Ford Econoline came in a variety of configurations - E-150's, E-250's (the functional equivalent of a 20 series Chevy G van), and E-350's.  Like the Chevy G van 20 and 30 series, the 250's and 350's came with LT metric tires.

So, if I am right, your placard will say that LT metric tires are required for the Chevy van - and you currently have P metric - passenger car tires.  That means the tires can be overloaded.

None of the tires you mentioned have enough load carrying capacity for the Chevy van.  So your first step is to get that fixed.