Date:         Mon, 8 Sep 1997 20:02:54 -0700
Reply-To:     David Bayer <bayer@SYBASE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         David Bayer <bayer@SYBASE.COM>
Subject:      larger tires under the front

Hello-
        On a recent trip to Neveda (where I saw a greyish silver VW with
Washington plates and a little VW @lenti sticker in the lower driver side
corner of the rear window - HI), I found that the new 27x8.5 Dunlop Radial
Rover RVs I had on the spare was rubbing on the lower hose to the raditor.
It seems that this was causing a small leak from (I am guessing) the union
of that lower hose to the radiator. Has anyone with oversized tires run into
this problem?

        As for the tires, they seem to have sufficient bite on dry dusty
steep hills. When fully pressurized, they seem pretty stiff to cross winds
(as stiff as the 195/75r14 Goodyear Wrangler ATs that were on the van
before). They did reduce my mileage a fair amount about 2 mpg (down from 19
to 17), but I think that is due to a combo of the more aggressive tread,
suppositely "sticky" rubber, and larger tire size (in the calcuation,
I am adding in the extra one mile for every 24 registered on the odometer).
They are not too noisy, and in fact seem to be quietier than the Wranglers.
I am waiting til the snow starts falling now to fall to see how they grip
on snow and ice...

dave