Date:         Thu, 3 Nov 2005 17:29:25 -0800
Reply-To:     mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      safe tires ????
Comments: To: Larry Chase <roadguy@ROADHAUS.COM>
Comments: cc: Syncro@yahoogroups.com
In-Reply-To:  <006d01c5dd89$02e928e0$8ccd4e45@t41>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Larry, in spite of your great efforts there are still some problems with
your data as well as the interpretation. Looking at your various web
charts, the tire you list as the lowest load rated tire VW put on
Vanagons is shown as a PASSENGER tire 205/70/14 and was only sidewall
rated at 1580 lbs. Applying the 9% rule, as required for  passenger
tires (your Federal Regulations link mentions no exception for
"reinforced" models), brings that down to 1437 lbs corrected rating.
According to what you stated below that means that by your standards VW
fitted an unsafe tire to all the alloy wheeled models that came with
this tire. Also in your  web table shown below there is a significant
error in the Load 97 row, LT column, which should be 1463, not 1493.

respectfully yours,
Mark Drillock

  _____________________
 From Larry"s Web tire pages

Passenger Car Tire Table for Light Truck Usage

Load Capacity Conversion Table

 Load Reduction - 9%

Load Rating


Passenger Car

in lbs


Light Truck

in lbs

93


1433


1303

94


1477


1343

95


1521


1383

96


1565


1423

97


1609


1493

98


1653


1503

99


1709


1554

100


1764


1604

101


1819


1654

102


1874


1704


Therefore you would need a Passenger Car tire that meets or exceeds
these spec's,



* XL or RF designation.

* Load Range 100

* Max Load Capacity: 1604 lbs

* Max Inflation Pressure:: 40 psi



Larry Chase wrote:

>Dam it ... Choosing safe tires is SIMPLE!
>....
>You don't have to make assumptions, no guess work .. It's all supported by
>fact and data.
>
>What did VW do?
>
>- The lowest load rated tire was,
>
>* Max Load Capacity:1580 lbs
>....
>
>DOT Rule #  2
>
>"When passenger car (P-metric) tires are installed on an MPV, truck, bus,
> or trailer, each tire's load rating is reduced by dividing it by 1.10"
>
>- the 9% rule
>
>2wd  = 1433 + 6% = 1519 lbs + 9% = 1656 lbs minimum load carrying capacity
>for a Passenger Car Tire
>4 wd = 1521 + 6% = 1612 lbs + 9% = 1757 lbs minimum load carrying capacity
>for a Passenger Car Tire
>
>
.......