Date:         Tue, 9 May 95 15:27:10 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ja@decws3.coe.wvu.edu (John Anderson)
Subject:      Re: Speaking of Vanagon Shocks

> 
> On tires.  When I bought the thing it had 80K miles and new Michelin
> radials.  Three out of four split their bands.  Fortunatly I felt the
> vibration before they blew up, but I'll never buy a Michelin again.  
> Now I'm running Perelli P44 M+S without problems exept that they are a
> bit noisy and I now get 300 miles per tank instead of 350.  My fuel bill
> is 15% more but I sleep better at night.
> 
> Lee Thompson
> 
Lee, Not to be negative, but how long have you had the P44's, a
friend had a set on his '79 Dodge Challenger, bought them at
SAMS (discount warehouse place) they had a "40,000" mile treadwear
warranty, and he paid a bit more but felt great he was getting
Pirelli's instead of cheapo Generals, at 15,000 miles they were
totaly gone treadwise, might have lasted another couple thousand,
he went back to SAMS and complained they said everyone had these
problems and they were not reccomending them.  They gave him a
generous prorating (more than he deserved) he got a set of General
XP2000's and with 10,000 miles they look brand new.  I note the
wear on the P44's was even across the tires, on all 4 and not due
to alignment problems, etc.  Frankly I am steering clear of Pirelli
in general as a friend had bad luck with P6's on a CRX.  On the
subject are the non-reinforced P44's a wise choice anyway, though
since they are S rated probably do have stiffer sidewalls.  Plus I
have never had a problem with Michelin's the only one we ever had
break internally was one mom hit a deep pothole with doing 65 mph, enough
to bend the rim slightly as well.  I went with 6 ply Yokes on my
Westy recently because they were locally available and have been
doing nicely so far.  In fact the Michelins I took off still had 50%
tread but were over 10 years old and cracked up quite a bit on
the surface (2nd set of tires the Bus had had) so to calm my fears
about their looks I bought the Yokes.  On dismounting they still
seemed fine internally and I've kept them as spares.

Anyway a few thoughts.
John Anderson
ja@coe.wvu.edu
'71 Westy, '90 Corrado