Date:         Fri, 29 Sep 1995 18:58:24 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         kdisse@detroitlakes.cfa.org
Subject:      RE: Snow Tires??

On 9-26-95 SSGSPEAR@aol.com wrote:
 
>One of the TV stations in either Minneapolis or St. Paul (KARE, KSTP or WCCO)
>did a story on the Blizark WS-15.  This is important around here since we've
>already had snow (last week)!  They said that the reason these tires are so
>good is the very soft compound they're made off.  The soft compound also
>means that they don't last too long.  They also said 10,000 miles would be
>about the most you could get on them.  You do not want to use them on dry
>pavement!

I have a set of Blizaks on my Audi 4000S Quattro that I drive only in the winter.
These tires are truely amazing on compacted snow and ice, especially on a full
time four wheel drive car.  Blizaks' give a weird feeling while driving around
corners on dry pavement.  It's hard for me to describe this feeling but, it seems
like these tires are sponge rubber and allow some side to side movement.  It's
not the kind of feeling I would want to have on any Vanagon.

Once the tires had 10,000 miles on them, this weird feeling seemed to start going
away.  I believe this is because the rubber compound used on the outer circumference
is softer.  Once the soft compound is worn away these tires turn into all-season radials
and lose their snow tire rating.  These tires seem like they will last about 40,000 miles
on my Quattro - 10,000 miles as amazing snow tires and 30,000 miles as all-season
radials.

Kevin Disse
'87 Syncro GL (for sale)
'91 Vanagon MultiVan (wrecked)
'91 GTI (for sale)
'87 Honda Prelude Si (for sale)
'85 Audi 4000S Quattro 
'81 VW Rabbit Pickup Turbo Diesel