Date:         Fri, 17 Mar 2000 23:19:37 -0500
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      Re: slashed tires, used tires/Who are we?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

My little brother was killed as a direct result of having two different tires on
the back axle of a Chevette.  They were headed into a curve at about forty mph
when one wheel locked up.  "Less than ideal handling characteristics" are MOST
DEFINITELY a safety problem.  You'd be well-advised to at the very least replace
both of the tires on the same axle.  You don't really have to push a machine to
its limits to discover little gotchas like this one.

I've found tirerack.com to have reasonable prices on tires . . .

Gee, sorry for the tirade as my first post to the List all, but as you see, this
issue is a very close and personal one for me.  I'm sorry, Doug, for the damage
to your tire and the financial burden it's put on you, but please try and get a
matching pair of tires.

Marc Perdue
PS--I'm an old-time banjo player who wants to get a Westie to camp out at
festivals.  When I was 5, my family bought a 1962 microbus, replete with sliding
top (what DO you call that?) and the little oval windows, and we drove it over
Pike's Peak (barely) to California, from Virginia.  My dad couldn't deal with
the high engine maintenance and traded it away in 1964, but I loved that bus.

Mike Miller wrote:

> I'd always heard that if the tires were the same circumference they wouldn't
> hurt the car.  The handling might be odd because of different
> characteristics on either side but mostly we don't use our vehicles, any of
> them, let alone the vanagon near the limits where this matters most.
>
> Having said that I say from personal experience you'd better have the same
> tires on each side of an axle on a BMW or you'll really feel weird handling.
> It's even quite apparent when there are different tires front to back.
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rico Sapolich <JKrevnov@AOL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, March 17, 2000 2:43 PM
> Subject: Re: slashed tires, used tires
>
> > In a message dated 3/17/00 6:23:26 PM, bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM
> writes:
> >
> > << As to using mix & match tires, there's really no big problem  >>
> >
> > Douglas:
> > From the experts in these matters, I have always heard NOT to mix tires on
> > the same axle.  The logic behind this is that one of them may break
> traction
> > before the other causing all manner of handling weirdness if not an
> accident.
> >  Sounds reasonable to me.
> >
> > I have 1 Continental RS771 which was the OEM tire on one of my vans.  It
> has
> > always been a spare and you can have for the cost of shipping if this
> matches
> > the one you already have.
> > Rich