Date:         Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:32:15 -0800
Reply-To:     David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Michelin Agilis 51's for sale
In-Reply-To:  <CANrF1zjCn4P=7_X7faNXQ9RXz2gpKVss7Y-1bcHznfeGz=hZXQ@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Ha, I love it.  Wish I could craft posts like this.  
 
Those are good tires.  Just put em on craigslist.  They cost around 175 each new, so a set is worth 250 would think.  Those are about as sturdy and high quality tire as you are going to find used.  4 years old is halfway to start thinking about replacing them, so if if half the tread is left, everything checks out to me.  Those tires are not likely to explode the day they turn 7 years old.  Arizona road heat can shorten a tire life, and it is legitimate to look a the age of a tire, especially a marginally strong tire from a cheap manufacturer.  
 
A not so interesting aside, tires are tested for failure by the gobermint.  New ones virtually never fail to exceed the stated ratings.  Usually they make it to about 150-200% of stated load in sustained load tests before eventually having tread separation or sidewall problems.    When they test used tires they see failures happening sooner and by around 5-7 years old, most tires are failing around the 100% of stated load capacity.  Southern states show faster failures due to the road surface heat.   You can find the test procedures and results on the NHTSA site.
 
The danger is in getting a weak cheaply made passenger tire with a load index of 95 or lower and running them for 10 years and not checking tire pressures regularly.  Even then, if you are checking pressure and looking at the tread, you will normally notice see some signs before getting a blowout.  Anywya the Agilis doesn't fall into that category.  My question is why doesn't Michelin make the LTX M/S C load tire in our sizes instead of the Agilis.
 
Dave

--- On Fri, 2/17/12, Joe T. <vanagon85@GMAIL.COM> wrote:


From: Joe T. <vanagon85@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Michelin Agilis 51's for sale
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Friday, February 17, 2012, 7:40 AM


Dear Esteemed Members of The Vanagon List House Subcommittee on Classified
Advertising and Tire Safety Regulatory Adherence,

After spending some time on the web researching my pre-owned
Michelin Agilis 51 205/65R15 tires' shelf life, as well as anectdotal
evidence regarding treadwear and real-world life span, it seems to me that
they're universally considered a long-wearing, long-life tire.

Now if I lived in the desert and left the sidewalls exposed to the harmful
UV rays of the sun at all times, ran them over every rocky trail at Moab,
and shot at them randomly with my pellet gun while keeping them inflated to
only 15 PSI at all times, then I could see their safety being a major
issue; however, these ran on my lightly-loaded Wolfsburg Westy for 5000
miles and were rotated once in that span.  They were bought by me from an
extremely meticulous Syncro owner who rotated them religiously.  He bought
the pristine Syncro GL upon which they were originally mounted from a
powder-coating shop owner in Oregon who used said pristine Syncro GL as a
second vehicle.

I'm not an insurance expert, nor do I claim to be.  I could not find any
real linkable information regarding a uniform policy of paying out or not
paying out insurance claims based upon the age of tires, Michelin or
otherwise.

I've represented these tires as best I can, and appreciate the assistance
regarding discovery of their manufacture date and location.

I offer humble apologies that my original advertisement did not include my
location; however, as has been pointed out, my Samba ad, the one with
pictures (everybody likes pictures,) did note that I am in Denver,
Colorado, and the tires are here with me, stacked gingerly (in the
industry-standard one atop another method) my garage just to the left of my
workbench and in front of my deep-fryer.  It should be noted that the
deep-fryer (a Bayou Classic 700-701) is currently out of service for the
winter, so no transfer of pontentially damaging radiant heat has
occurred.  Also of note is that they are stacked in proximity to my bench
grinder, but I have not used the bench grinder since the tires' placement,
and do not plan to until after they are gone.  They will be moved to a
safer location should any emergency use of my bench grinder be warranted.

While the vetting process has been thorough and at times trying, I'm
satisfied that I have met all requirements of the Subcommittee regarding
full disclosure of the condition, age, location, and use of the
Michelin Agilis 51 205/65R15 tires in my possession to the best of my
knowledge and without any nefarious intent whatsoever.

I'd like to close by saying that as a member of this venerable group for
thirteen jovial years now, I now am kicking myself squarely in the ass for
forgetting the one, unmistakable, cardinal rule of this particular faction
of the Vanagon community:

Never bring up tires.  Never, ever, ever bring up tires, even if
you're just trying to unload a set because sucked in the snow, they're
taking up space in the garage, and you acted both in the hope that another
Vanagon owner could get some good use out of them and in the possibility
that you can balance the Vanagon budget a bit after dishing out
precious cash for a different set more suitable for your current needs.

Sincerely,
Joe T.
'85 Wolfsburg Westy Subie 2.2 (Brown Beige Metallic, Mftr. Date March 1985,
currently running Yokohama Geolander 215/70R15, Mftr. Date August 2011.)




On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Joe T. <vanagon85@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Miguel, good information there.
>
> I wrote down every little number on one of the tires last night, but
> apparently not in any real legible way.
>
> I'll need to take a closer look now that I know what I'm looking for,
> because according to my crack code-breaking skills, these tires were made
> in 1967.  Something tells me that's incorrect.
>
> --
> Joe T.
> '85 Wolfsburg Westy Subie 2.2
> Denver, Colorado, USA
>
>   On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 11:28 PM, miguel pacheco <mundopacheco@gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> Here's a good link for determining tire manufacture date :
>> http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11
>>
>> Miguel
>>
>
>
>


--
Joe T.
'85 Wolfsburg Westy Subie 2.2