VANAGON archives -- October 2005, week 5 (#40)

Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:20:18 -0700 Reply-To: TJ Hannink <tjhannink@YAHOO.COM> Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> From: TJ Hannink <tjhannink@YAHOO.COM> Subject: Re: Oh Boy! Tire Thread! (was RE: Michelin LTX/MS 215/75R15 tires...) In-Reply-To: <015a01c5dcc7$9a73cc50$0a0ba8c0@RON> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM> wrote:

I don't know of an "official" VW spec for this. So let's err on the side of the most lenient possible spec, and forget about the 94% safety margin entirely. Then we end up with a more lenient requirement of about 1500 lbs (the approximate GAWR of a Vanagon; slightly less for 2wd, slightly more for a Syncro) for a light truck tire, or 1650 lbs for a passenger car tire (since 1650 / 1.10 = 1500). These numbers are arguably lower than VW felt was safe, as VW themselves never used tires rated this low on any Vanagon, Eurovan, or T5 (with 14", 15", or 16" tires). But even using these more lenient (perhaps even too lenient) requirements, a passenger car tire rated at 1510 lbs (such as that on the GoWesty site) would still fall significantly short. So while the numbers change slightly, the conclusion remains the same.

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Just so I am clear on this, the actual GAWR of the rear end of my Camper is 2,866-lbs so by the Federal guidelines, I would need a light truck tire with a 93 load rating (1,433-lbs) or a reinforced passenger car tire with a 97 load rating (1,609-lbs/derated to 1,463-lbs). I'm pretty sure my door jamb sticker calls for a 97 load rating in the optional 205-70R14 size.

Remember we are talking about the minimum amount of tire required to support the maximum amount of weight the vehicle designed for. I wouldn't consider minimum rated tires a safety issue unless you are consistantly overloading your vehicle (which by Larry's stats seems pretty likely among Westy owners). My camper weighs around 3,800-lbs empty. With six passengers and their luggage I still am under the 5,160-lb GVWR.

I do disagree with GoWesty's tire recommendation; I see he has added my email on his tire & wheel tech page and I appreciate that. I'm more concerned about the lack of sidewall reinforcement than the load rating though. According to my research, the derating of passenger car tires in light truck applications was done since these vehicles, by design, have a tendancy to be overloaded, and the Federal standard was enacted to protect us from ourselves and our ignorance.

Thanks for listening.

TJ Hannink Goldibox - 1987 Vanagon Camper, Wolfsburg Edition 1981 Bluebird Wanderlodge, FC-33 Winter Park, Florida http://home.earthlink.net/~tjhannink/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wolfsburg_campers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FC_wanderlodge FAVOR website: http://home.earthlink.net/~clubvanagon

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