Date:         Tue, 9 May 2006 08:33:20 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: yokohama super-van tires no longer available?
In-Reply-To:  <445F2EAB.20007@verizon.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

> I think it needs to be said that a all-season tires
> are  neather a good performace tire OR a good
> snow tire but a compromise of both.


I would concur with part of that statement. An all-season tire is almost
never as good in snow as a dedicated snow tire. It will get you by in a
pinch, but if you are in a snowy region there is nothing like a set of real
snow tires, at the very least on the drive wheels. I put Vredestein snows on
my own Westy in the winter (and we sell them in the winter). But in cases
where an unexpected late autumn or early spring snow squall has caught me by
surprise, the Hankooks certainly acquitted themselves a whole lot better
than a summer tire would have, and got me home.  

Also, there are large variations in the snow performance of "all season"
tires. The "all season" designation is policed by the U.S. tire industry
itself, and needless to say, as with any self-policed standards, they go
pretty easy on themselves. Some tire manufacturers even sell the identical
tire as a "summer" tire in Germany (where the standards are stricter) and as
"all season" in the U.S. The Hankooks are pretty good as far as all-season
tires go, but some other "all season" rated tires are hardly better than a
summer tire in snow.  (The Bridgestone RD603's come to mind; lousy in snow,
IMO, although a good dry-road tire.)  Of course the Yoko's and Conti's don't
claim to be all-season at all.

As for an all-season tire necessarily being worse than a summer tire on dry
roads, that can depend on the tire. The Hankooks and Michelins, while
all-season, will hold their own performance-wise to most Vanagon rated
summer tires even on dry roads, as many list members can attest to.

> Further more the life of the tire can 
> be out lived in a specific application.

Theoretically this is true, of course, if you hardly drive your van and the
sidewalls start to dryrot before the tread wears out. But I would suspect
that most list members drive their Vanagons more than that.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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