Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 22:18:09 PDT
Reply-To: Mark Dorm <mark_hb@hotmail.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Dorm <mark_hb@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Oh no, not tires again!
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
You could have a tire seperating, or the wheels need to be taken off and put
back on... since one may be not on securely..... those are my two guesses...
>From: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@adelphia.net>
>
>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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