Date:         Tue, 2 Nov 2004 22:51:41 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Largest diameter... tire failures
In-Reply-To:  <41873F40.30703@mchsi.com>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

I have run car tires exclusively on my Type 2s (84 Caravelle
included) since 1976 and never had a structural failure... even after
demolishing a concrete traffic island with my 57 and clipping a curb
with my 75 hard enough to bend a tierod. Most of these were
run-of-the-mill radials of the older style ie 80% profile, with the
standard sidewall-flex. My "new" XLWB Hiace is my first van with LT
tires... and then only because they were already on it. 65PSI?
Ridiculous when a car tire of same load rating goes to a mere 40PSI,
and gives far superior handling.

On the other hand I HAVE had a HD 4WD tire fail catastrophically on
an 82 LandCruiser wagon... tread and belts all left the tire
entirely, and all that was still on the wheel was the two sidewalls.
There was no warning... it suddenly went flat (felt the LR corner of
the car drop) and we stopped immediately (duh). We had just left town
and were accelerating from 70 to 110kph at the time.

I have also had a recently-retreaded radial fail, again without
warning, but that's par for the course for those horrors (which
should be banned). I didn't choose the tire... it was on the Fiat 128
(yeah, a horror all in itself) when I bought that.

Put it this way... the lower the profile/larger the wheel diameter
you can afford, the better the handling will be... and as I keep
saying, the difference could well save your life in an emergency
avoidance situation. The only problems are expense and possibly risk
of tire-sidewall damage in large-sharpassed-rock offroad situations.
According to enthusiast (nonVW) magazines, the better of such tires
won't cause a degradation of ride comfort (I'll be able to report on
this from personal experience once my van's back on the road).
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut