Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 23:29:54 -0400
Reply-To: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@adelphia.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@adelphia.net>
Subject: Oh no, not tires again!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi all,
I'm back for a short time because I've run into an odd situation and I
think my tires may be the culprit. I've got an '87 Westy with auto
tranny, recently replaced shocks, KYBs per list recommendations, tires
rotated and balanced, and wheels aligned. Before doing all this, I had
an incident at low speed where I thought the van was going to roll over
because the rear rocked so violently. In addition, the steering wheel
was always turned about 10-15 degrees left when the wheels were
straight, and the van pulled to the right. After doing all the work,
the van handled beautifully and the steering wheel was straight. Now,
about a thousand miles later, the van rocks lightly, but regularly, at
slow speeds, almost as if there were a bump on one of the tires. At
higher speeds the van seems to vibrate, with a fair amount of road
noise. I checked out the tires, which were uniformly low at 37 psi, and
pumped them up to the max rating listed on 3 of them, 44 psi. I haven't
yet fully tested the effects of this. The 4th tire is different. All
the tires appear to be evenly worn, with probably half of their tread
left. I wrote down the specs and suspect that either 1, 3, or all of
these tires, is incorrect for the Westy. Unfortunately, I can't make
any sense of the numbers beyond the normal stuff. Here are the numbers
and what I understand about them. I'm hoping somebody can shed some
light on what the other numbers mean.
One tire:
Continental Transport
185R14C RS771
DOT CUKM CWC 496 185 R 14C
99/97 N 55 PSI
Tread: 5 Plies (2 Rayon, 2 Steel, 1 Nylon)
Sidewall: 2 Plies, (1 Rayon, 1 Nylon)
Load Range C
This one sounds like a halfway decent tire, but probably right at the
lower end of what I should be looking for in terms of # of plies and
load range. I understand the size part except for the RS771. Not sure
what 99/97N is, or what the DOT numbers mean.
Three tires:
Metric Radial (Who is this made by?)
185R14 90S
Treadwear: 280
Traction: B
Temperature: B
Made in Brazil
URM-203 R-35441 K-7371
M&S 44 PSI
DOT C2J5 HPKR 256
Tread: 3 Plies (1 Polyester, 2 Steel)
Sidewall: 2 Plies, Polyester
I get the uneasy feeling that these tires are cheap and woefully
inadequate. The speed rating of S seems ok, but is the 90 the load
index? Is 90 sufficient? I understand treadwear, traction, and temp.,
as well as M&S, but what is the URM number and, again, what do the DOT
numbers mean?
Thanks for your help in figuring out this weird problem,
Marc Perdue
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