Volks, Wendesday I started calling around trying to find a pair of tires for the back of Da Boat. My wants were the following: Larger than 195/75/14 Aggressive tread Stiff Sidewall Cheap I couldn't find anything that satisfied all of the above. A few months ago I bought two of the Sears Trailhandler 195/75/14 6-ply C-rated tires. Put them on the back, replacing a pair of Michelin 215/70/14 MXL's and the handling has been worse than horrible ever since. Any little cross- wind and I had to turn the wheel to correct. So, my plan was to move the Trailhandlers to the front, and get some larger tires for the rear. Auto Parts Club had some pretty nice tires in 205/75/14, with a nice, aggressive tread similar to the Trailhandlers. They were $52 each, and would have run me $126 for a pair, out the door. The only reservation I had about them was that they were more "rounded" than street tires, and the sidewalls were not very stiff. They were only 4-ply. So, I called all of the big name tire places, and none of them seem to have anything like I want. I call this place I have never heard of (but they had 3 locations in San Diego) and they said they had all kinds of good tires, and since they were real near where I work, I decided to run over there during lunch. I looked around and found a tire with a really stiff sidewall. Why is it so stiff? Oh, it's HR rated! 205/70/14. How much? Two mounted and balanced with tax for $96. Sold! They didn't have the aggressive tread (these were street tires) but I figured I would be spending most of my time on the pavement anyway, and the price was definately right. These were 4 ply tires, but the sidewalls on these pups were stiffer than any I had seen so far, even the 8-ply reinforced tires that people told me I had to have for my bus. Oh, these tires were an off-brand that I have never heard of, made in Indonesia. For some reason that doesn't bother me. Friday, I took all four wheels off, sanded and masked them, and gave them a fresh coat of Krylon gloss white. They be looking mighty spiffy! Too bad the rest of the bus is so ugly. How do they handle? Lousy. It's a VW bus, after all. But considering that before I got them the handling was worse than horrible, I am happy. In fact, I think the bus is more stable on the road now than it ever has been since I got it. But then this is the first time it has had new tires (I always got used before). -David ============================================================================ David Schwarze '73 VW Safare Custom Camper (Da Boat) SAIC Comsystems, San Diego Calif. '73 Capri GT 2800 (Da Beast) e-mail: schwarze@nosc.mil '87 Mustang Lx 5.0 (Da Sleeper) http://papaya.nosc.mil/~schwarze '93 Weber WG-50 (Da Piano) ============================================================================
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