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Date:         Mon, 14 Mar 2005 12:09:33 -0800
Reply-To:     Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM>
Subject:      Re: 15" Wheel/Tire Report - Caution
In-Reply-To:  <6.2.1.2.2.20050314074005.02185870@66.51.205.14>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

From what GoWesty states, they've had good luck with this combo, HOWEVER, all it takes is one extreme failure and someone will own GoWesty due to the liability he's assumed based on his "explanation". IMO, that's too great a risk to take just to sell some tires.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of jbange Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 8:14 AM To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com Subject: Re: 15" Wheel/Tire Report - Caution

>I know that GoWesty feels these tire are appropriate .... > >They have a detial explanation on their web site that is very impressive.

In case anyone's interested, it's here <http://www.gowesty.com/tire_wheeltech.html>

> >But if the Manufacturing of the tire will not warranty it >for this application ... What does that tell you?

Lucas of GoWesty asserts it tells you that they didn't test it. The fact that they are applying a "one size fits all, specifics be damned" load reduction formula indicates this is most probably the case.

>Does GoWesty know more than the tire manufacturer?

In the case of HydroEdge tires on Vanagons, I'd say GoWesty probably does. As Lucas says, they've got over a million miles logged with those tires without a single failure. The best test would be true experimental "test to failure" or "test to maximum possible loading plus [x]%". In the absence of that, I'd accept continuous long-term real-world usage stats over a manufacturer's formula-based guess. Tire makers manufacture such a huge variety of tires that they CAN'T test each individual design, but instead must make an estimate. The estimate is, of course, invariably conservative for reasons of liability. With the exception of catastrophic design screwups (a la Firestone), you can count on everything being fine if you stay within the rating; But this doesn't mean that all conditions outside the rating are inherently dangerous.

John Bange '90 Vanagon "Geldsauger"


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