Vanagon EuroVan
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Date:         Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:10:21 -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: What tires for 91 Westy?
In-Reply-To:  <71d9cdf90610182022i194c18f0ka651e54672d8ba7a@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

> Hey Ron! Have you ever driven a Westy with > modern 15" or 16" high-performance tires?

> 15" yes, 16" no.

> And? Was it scary?

I did not like it as much as on my own Vanagon with 14" Hankooks. My van seemed to have less sway. But to be fair these were two different vans, so it was not a direct comparison.

But that's not the point. It might handle great under normal driving, and that still wouldn't necessarily make it a safe tire for emergency conditions (when I need it most). It is under adverse conditions (i.e. evasive maneuvers to avoid an accident) when sidewall strength matters the most. During sudden swerves most of the weight is transferred to one side of the van (or one particular tire) and your sidewall has to handle this with ease. VW (and the U.S. D.O.T.) says the tire has to meet certain minimum specs to do this safely - specs which most standard-load tires fall short of.

I certainly would not want to bring my Vanagon to the very brink of losing control to find out if the tire can handle it. (Especially if it didn't!) And anything less than that only tells me that the tire is fine for non-emergency situations. So what?

VW set their standards for a reason. Usually vehicle manufacturers do a lot of track testing to come up with engineering standards like this - a lot more than anyone on this list has or could. They don't just pull the specs out of thin air. The fact that VW "massaged" the PSI recommendations for the Vanagons over the years shows that they continued this testing an ongoing basis. Yet they never once wavered on their requirement for extra-load tires, all the way through the Eurovan (which was made in the era of modern performance tires). VW could have saved a TON of money equipping their Vanagons and Eurovans with lower-cost standard load tires. Why didn't they?

Better to simply use a tire that meets VW specs, then spend the last 30 seconds of my life wishing I had.

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

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