Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:47:14 -0700
Reply-To: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: Old Spare Tire
In-Reply-To: <6da579340511140908x65f687e4rf739619dbd43edf8@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
John - and all,
I had put well over 300,000 miles on several sets of tires before I
first needed to use my spare. A few summers ago on my way home from
points east, I had a major tread separation with lots of shaking, etc.
Pulled off I-40 in OK somewhere and dropped the spare (which I had
dutifully inflated to 50psi before we left Phoenix).
We got maybe a mile down the road before the old spare (Conti 185R14C,
just like yours) started slinging large chunks of rubber, making
horrible noises when they hit the insides of the wheel wells. Turns out
that not only had I never used the spare, I had never even had it out;
the same portion of the tire had always been right behind the hot
radiator. The rubber was about as resilient as anthracite. About half
the width of the tread was missing for about a foot of the tires
circumference, but we were able to limp in to Amarillo at around thirty
mph.
Discount Tire had a couple tires that fit, and we were on our way again.
Karl Wolz
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
Behalf Of
> John Bange
> Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 10:09 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Old Spare Tire
>
> I backed over a piece of angle iron in my mom's driveway last night
and
> flattened my right front tire. So I jack it up, pull the flat off and
drop
> the spare. It suddenly occurs to me that I ought to LOOK at the spare,
see
> if it's decent. In a year of ownership, even pulling that spare out a
dozen
> times to get at stuff underneath, I never actually checked the tire.
It had
> plenty of tread and held air OK-- just never occurred to me. It's a
> Continental 185R14C, and from the look of the rubber, I bet it came
with the
> van when it was shipped from Graz. I drove home on surface streets,
keeping
> it under 40mph, at it still seems OK-- but I'm definitely replacing it
> tomorrow when I get the flat replaced. Just thought I'd mention it, in
case
> there's some other dunderhead on the list like me, driving around with
a 15+
> year old tire under the nose.
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
| 
