Date:         Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:34:59 -0500
Reply-To:     ron ourada <ronourada@EXCEL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         ron ourada <ronourada@EXCEL.NET>
Subject:      tires and weight rating
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Just to add my experience with tires, I have to admit that I was unaware of
tire needs of the vanagons until I signed on with the list. I have to
confess that I have used passenger tires ever since the originals wore out.
I do not have a camper, but I routinely have the middle seat removed and use
it as a multipurpose van. Of note on this topic, almost every year I use it
for "wooding", which entails driving into a nearby woods, sawing down and up
some trees, and hauling the wood home. I limit the height of the load to
just below bottom of windows. With two of us up front, I've been concerned
about overloading the suspension, but now I feel I've been darn lucky to not
have a tire blow out. The travel distance is short, 25 miles or less, but
there are hills and turns. I promise to get better rated tires in the
future, but I did want to back up Jeff Stewarts question with my experience.
Have also done long distance travel with the passenger tires and have not
had a problem.   Ron O.