Date:         Sat, 9 Sep 2006 08:58:45 -0600
Reply-To:     George Thorburn <thorgk@ACCESSCOMM.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         George Thorburn <thorgk@ACCESSCOMM.CA>
Subject:      Re: directional tires and spare
Comments: To: markmcculley@GMAIL.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Mark wrote;
>>before I spring for a set of Nokian Hakka's I'd like to hear how
>>others with these tires have solved the spare problem (the Hakka's are
>>directional and can't be moved from one side to the other after they
>>are mounted on a wheel). 

Mark,
I used your solution of buying 4 directional tires for my Vanagon.  I kept one of the 185R14 tires under the car for a spare.  The circumference of the spare is similar to the Nokian 215/65R15 tires (much closer than the space saver tires sold with new cars).  For rotation I move the 4-15" tires back and forth.
On a different vehicle that wore the right rear tire more quickly than the left the tire shop took two tires off the rims and switched sides while keeping the direction correct.  This was done near the end of the life of the tires and did not seem to cause any problems.
George,
'85 Westfalia