Its not a very complete review, but here it its. This, and last winter, I have been using Nokian Hakkapeliitta CS unstudded snow tires (195/75-14) on my syncro. Its a very nice tire, great load range (102/104) and very grippy in snow, slush, ice. (Well, not as grippy as the set of studded earlier C series tires I used on my 2wd westy. The studs were crazy good). I bought these tires used, from a guy moving on to 15" tires (Van cafe tire and wheel combo, Nokian WRC tires). They were affordable that way, otherwise i would have to pay close Ca$200 a tire installed. Its a real shame that in western Canada one tire store chain has the monopoly on these tires. If you can afford them, or find some special deal, I can highly recommend these tires.
Just recently I bought a set of "gently used" Vredestein Winter Comtracs (185/80-14) and I put them on the van a few days ago. These are the tires sold by Ron (http://www.busdepot.com/details.jsp? partnumber=COMTRACWIN). They are quite similar in tread pattern to the Nokians, and also have the high load index that I want. -I'm not going to comment on the passenger tire on vanagon debate, except to say that I use my vans hard, heavily loaded on logging roads etc. I am not at all interested in tire failure on a camping trip- While I have not had the chance to test the Vredesteins on snow or ice yet, I can say that the feel just as secure on the hwy in (heavy) rain as the Nokians. Perhaps they have a tad less road noise than the Nokians (the Nokians are louder than my summer tires, Agilis 81s). If they work in the snow as well as the Nokians then I have no hesitation to recommend and favour them, esp. as they are less expensive. Over the next month or so, I hope to be able to take a couple of trips into the hills around here. I should encounter some snow, as well as rough roads, gravel, mud, puddles etc (gee it sounds like I am a masochist) and I will report back on the snow performance of the Vredesteins. alistair
'86 syncro 7 passenger '82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94 http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/ http://shufti.wordpress.com |
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