Date: Wed, 18 Dec 96 19:10:29 EST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: jag@cs.rochester.edu
Subject: Basement bargain bus tires!?!
Oh no not another tire post! ... Well I hope this one brings
up a new tire alternative. I've been in the market for a set of new
sneakers for a while now. Attempts to find the praised Yoko's
Y370 in LT's failed. Sears is the only Yokohama dealer around
here not yet put out of business by the Tire rack, and Sears won't
special order these. At the around $80 other listmembers have paid
they are also a bit hard on my student budget.
A cheaper Yoko alternative would be the Y356 at $54/tire for 185R14
C-load rating by mail order from Tire rack. However Pep Boys has
a 1600 lbs load rating 205-70 R14 at $34/tire which in many respects
looks appealing:
Name "Futura metric" 205-70 R14
+ Load rating is ok (>1500lbs)
+ Can be inflated to 44psi (I run 45 front and 50 rear on current
Sears trailhandlers LT 195/75 R14)
+ Threadwear rating DOT 340, 55 000 miles warranty
+ All weather radial type thead good for traction in the winter.
(The Y356 has "highway rib")
But also some possible downsides:
- Only a P tire, not LT or reinforced. Bob (I think) noted that on
the inuvik trip it was mostly the P tires that got flats.
- With wider and more aggressive thread and at 44psi instead of 50 it
is likely to have more rolling resistance than the Y356. (Matters in
for my diesel. At 60 mph 30 hp is needed to overcome drag. Nearly
half of that is tire friction. The rolling resistance of tires can
vary by a factor of almost 2. (See article in Road and Track in their
tire series)
So what do you think about these? Anybody has experience with them?
Perhaps on another car? Since they are rated for 44psi pressure they
ought to have slightly better sidewalls than a 35psi tire, right?
Futura is Pep Boys in house brand. The salesman claims they are
manufactured by Kelly. We put another Futura tire (the "2000", a
80 000 miles "touring tire") on SO's car (pl*mouth reliant), and those
are doing fine. I can't use the same on the bus, because the "2000"
is only inflatable to the standard 35psi, and doesn't have the load
rating I need for the bus)
Martin (and '82 diesel westy, excited about possible christmas presents)