Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 10:40:18 -0400
Reply-To: Alan Pickersgill <alanpick@MAGMA.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alan Pickersgill <alanpick@MAGMA.CA>
Subject: Re: More Rim - Less Tire
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
John:
I know full well there are strong views on the subject of reinforced
sidewalls vs. not reinforced. So what I'm about to say will lead to a host
of opinion about the risk of using non-reinforced sidewall tires. My
experience has been that non-reinforced are safe and that they handle OK
too.
I've had two sets of un-reinforced Pirellis about 40,000 - 50,000 km from
each and have used a number of other un-reinforced used tires. Recently
1,000 km ago bought a No Name brand recommended by a shop that also sells
Nokia and a Yoko ,who has sold me a number of sets of tires.
These are called Sports IV made in China for a Korean company. In my first
1000 km I had cause to drive 10 hours towing a trailer in v. high winds and
they were fine. Next day low wind but monsoon rain - deep puddles - no
aquaplaning. Tested them under hard braking on wet pavement - very
impressive wet stopping. To me wet performance is the most important test of
any tire - as one is foolish to take a West to the limits in any other
regard. But sooner or later we may all need to brake really hard on wet
pavement and it is best if the vehicle slows down - preferably without
drama.
These tires were bought (a Mazda dealer) to be used as an inexpensive tire
to put on their used cars. The dealers mechanics and others started buying
them because of the low price and they began to rave about how good they
are, long life good handling in all conditions and have a road hazard. I
decided to try them - at $70 Canadian installed and balanced before tax -
so far I'm very pleasantly surprised.
Alan Pickersgill
'85 Transporter converted to Westfalia
Ottawa Canada
----- Original Message -----
From: John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 12:21 AM
Subject: More Rim - Less Tire
> Recently I was over to my local tire shop and Michelin dealer to have my
> tires rotated, balanced and front end aligned. My M Michelin MXT 205-75
> R14's are getting worn and knowing I can't get the Ultimate Michelin for
> the old Red Brick next time, I needed to start considering what to
> replace them with. Right off the bat the dealer suggested I look into
> going up to a slghtly bigger rim. That would give me more options. Of
> course that led to a discussions of rims.