Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 23:23:55 -0400
Reply-To: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: Re: Oh no, not tires again
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Thanks to one and all for the quick responses to my questions. I haven't taken
the van in to have the tires checked, but given the consistency of the
responses, I'm not taking any chances. I won't be driving the van except to get
it somewhere to get the tires replaced. I'm going to get all 4 tires replaced
and, if the spare is like the other three inappropriate tires, I'll keep the
Conti for a spare.
I'm going to check with the local tire dealers first, but I want to check
something. Is it true that Michelin does NOT make the LTX M/S in a 185R14
size? I've been able to find the 195/75R14C . . . is this size acceptable?
A quick search on TireRack for All-Season, Light Truck tires came up with
Continental Contact CR21 Reinforced, which are on backorder, and Michelin
RainForce MX4s. Does anybody have any experience with these two tires?
The irony of all of this is that 31 years ago my little brother was killed in a
car accident when one of the wheels on the car he was riding in locked up. It
was a bias ply tire, on the same axle as a radial, and it was sold to the driver
by . . . you guessed it, Sears.
Thanks again for your help,
Marc Perdue
"W. Silva" wrote:
> You wrote:
>
> "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. "
>
> I just went through the same thing. They took the tire of my left front and
> put it on the balancing machine and called me over to look at it. While it
> was turning you could see a definate hump and hollow in it. He said this
> was actually the steel cord on the inside of the tire and it was separating,
> getting ready to blow apart, very dangerous. He took it off and put my
> spare on. I'm taking it back to Sears and argue with them, they don't want
> to stand behind it but I don't even have 30k miles on it and it was a $100
> tire to begin with. By the way, we just ordered a new set of Michlen's so
> I'm taking off all the Yokos I have on there now. My $0.02 worth is check
> out the bad tire very carefully before you drive on it any more.
>
> John & Wendy
> Cape Cod, MA
>
> '85 Westfalia "S-Cape"
> '98 Passat "The Doo Dah Machine"
>
> CAMPERS ON CAPE COD
> A LiMBO sponsored VW camping event
> SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 1, 2000
> http://members.xoom.com/Cape_Westys/index.html
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