Date:         Thu, 1 Jul 2004 21:25:28 -0700
Reply-To:     "Brian T." <nobleman36@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Brian T." <nobleman36@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      14,15,17 tires wheels my impressions
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

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