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Date:         Thu, 20 Nov 2003 14:10:59 -0800
Reply-To:     Ben <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Subject:      winter running gear for my westy
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

after spending the summer in my westy, i have come to the conclusion that i am much to attached to her to part ways just because winter is upon us and i plan to live in south lake tahoe and drive regularly up the mountain to kirkwood. not only that, but my trips up the mountain are going to coincide very closely with heavy snowfall. so in short, i'm going to need to do the best i can to make sure that this van can take whatever the plows leave behind.

in other words, i want the best snow tires that i can afford. i spent a couple hours last night checking out the archives, and it looks like i have a couple options. right now i have the stock 14" steel wheels that came on the van, but after what i've read, it seems like upgrading to 15's would be well worth it. so here is what i'm wondering.

would i be better off getting snow tires for the 14 inch rims that i have now and then getting some 15's in the spring for my summer tires? or should i just get the 15's now and then have summer tires mounted on them in the spring. i know that i'm going to want to be driving on 15's some summer, and i think i'd appreciate the improved handling over the winter as well. i guess it comes down to how expensive and difficult it would be to get nice solid 15 inch steel rims right now, and what kind of snow tires are available in the 14 inch size with the correct load rating.

i was unalbe to determine from the archives what the deal is with 15 inch steel wheels. i don't want to deal with changing lug studs or drilling out the centers of any wheels right now, so i want wheels that just straight up fit. i saw a lot of posts referring to having to drill the passat wheels, but then i see vendors like go westy selling vw looking steel wheels.... what are those? i'm certainly not willing to pay $100 + shipping for a steel wheel, but if those are just the passat rims i'm sure i can find someone selling a used set or a junkyard that has them or something. so if anyone knows what car the go westy 15" steel rims are from, please let me know.

as for tires, are there other good snow tires with a suitable load rating for the 14" wheels besides the nokian hakk's? i see that the CQ and CS tires meet specs, but i couldn't find any blizzak's that have a high enough load rating. what else is out there for the 14's?

as for the 15's, what tires to people like? i found a post referring to nokian hakk "nhr2" tires with a load rating of 100, but i couldn't find those on their web page. i did find some "van" tires, the C2 and CQ that have a load rating of 100 also. back to the blizzak's, i found a "dueller" in 205/75R15 (almost the right size) with a load rating of 97... that's enough, right? are there any blizzaks that are the correct size and load rating? what other good snows will fit the 15 inch rims and carry the weight of my loaded down westy?

thanks for any info.... any of y'all gonna be at kirkwood this saturday?

Ben.


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