Helical equilibria can be generated by arrangements of planar coils similar to tokamaks, but without a central solenoid and with the toroidal field (TF) coils tilted with respect to the vertical. This is known from earlier numerical works, e.g. Moroz 1995 Phys. Plasmas2 4269. However, such concept tends to need large coils but form small plasmas (of large aspect ratio). Here it is numerically shown that larger, more attractive vacuum flux surfaces—relative to the size of the device—can be generated by carefully optimizing the inclination of the TF coils and currents in the various coil-sets. Vacuum configurations of aspect ratios as low as 4.1 are found for six tilted TF circular coils. Higher numbers of TF coils have advantages (smaller effective ripple) and disadvantages (lower rotational transform, smaller plasma). Finally, the aspect ratio A of the vacuum flux surfaces is quantified as a function of the ratio Ac of the coil radius to the radial location of the coil center. It is found that, in order to minimize A, it is beneficial to interlink or marginally interlink the TF coils (Ac ≲ 1).