I mount my own tires also, have one of those tire-changing fixtures (Brey-Krause?) where you use a bar and some tire irons and muscle power rather than compressed air. I have yet to work up an adapter to allow Vanagon wheels to work on it... It has a hub-centric lock that holds down the wheels and the Vanagon's are, of course, the bolt-centric style with the center being odd shaped. The tapered hold down "washer" is meant for a much smaller round hole in the wheel.

I also balance my own wheels, after watching the tire guy's at Thunderhill Park Raceway in Nor Cal. do my Porsche 928 wheels with one. But again, won't work with standard Vanagon wheels because they are not hub-centric.

I was amazed, at first, by the perfect balance that can be had using the simple "bubble-stand" style wheel balancer...actually much smoother running wheels than using a fancy computer wheel spinner one like most tire service shops use. When running at near 200mph, depending on some possibly bored or inattentive tire store worker for your tire safety is not as appealing as doing it exactly right, yourownself.

Les Schwabb it is, this AM. Thanks for the responses all.

Don Hanson

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 10:09 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans < scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

> how strange. > I've never seen a flat for no reason. > I'm very nutty about tires, even mount my own by hand sometimes... > even balance my own tires .. > and fix my own flats..or at least always find it leak before I have someone > fix a flat for me. > Les Schwab sometimes, or used to for sure, fix them free....just show up > with a flat tire, they fix it free no questions - sometimes. > > A > >> Seems I came into a good deal on some Hakkas that have the holes in them >> for studs but don't have the studs. I've been driving these now for a few >> hundred miles. >> >> The dumb question? Are tires that are molded (drilled?) for studs more >> prone to flatting out? Maybe by getting rocks into the holes where studs >> would go? Or can you just ignore the stud holes? I think I have seen >> tires >> that have the option to be studded or not...pay extra to have the studs >> installed.. >> >> Just curious, since I had a flat for no reason I can see on one of these >> pretty good tires today... Plus a flat on my wheelbarrow and another on my >> bicycle...my day for flats.. >> >> Don Hanson >> > >