Hi All, Here's my 1.5 cents on the whole thing. I've run three diameters of wheel and tire packages on my 85' Westy weekender and here is what I know so far. 14" 195/75-14LT Cooper Discovery tires -- Great all around tire. Stiff sidewalls and all season driveability. I have run three sets of these and averaged over 30K a set. 15" 205/65-15 Nokian (unpronounceables) They are 8 ply I believe and rated as all season. They are directional and a minor pain to rotate. I have around 25K on the set I just pulled off. I have them mounted on Carat II wheels and the packege works really well. Bar none the best wet weather tire I've ever driven. Outside of the directional tread the only issue is they are a tad loud for my liking. 17" 225/45-17 Kumho ECSTA ASX tires on Ronal RT 17x7.5 wheels. I've got a week on them so far and the word that comes to mind is smooth... handling, road noise WOW! I went with this setup after driving Eric Didiers wolfsberg with Miglia 18" cup III wheels and tires (Porsche Boxter & 993 package). I did some searching and found that the Kuhmo has a reinforced sidewall and are used on the hot sport trucks you see around. They also have a wear rating of 420 which made the leap to low and fat earier to swallow. Time will tell if this is folly or fantastic, but hey it's my hobby & I got nothin' better to do! Oh, almost forgot... I put a set of H&R springs under the van prior to going to the 17" wheels. I am running too little in the way of shocks (KYB -- not nearly enough rebound control). I am going with the Koni specials here soon and a set of sway bars from Aircooled.net (Yep, John I'm going to spend some $$$ soon). Cheers, Brian |
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