Hello, I almost made that mistake and have our local Costco (Wholesale warehouse store) to thank. When my original tires on my 87 Vanagon had to be replaced, I thought I found a good deal on a set of 205/70x14 tires at my local Costco Wholesale stores. I purchased them and lugged them to the back of the store where they had a tire installation operations. As soon as I aproached the counter, I saw a big sign "We DO NOT install tires on VW VANAGONS." I was suprised. What's wrong I asked the counter man.. I bought the right size. He then proceed to lecture me on the fact that Vanagon requires especial sidewall reinforced tires which they don't carry and don't sell. He also told me that light truck tires may be used but is really not a good subsitute. He said that the only "for Vanagon tires" I will find are from Michilen. So I returned the tires and went hunting for the right tires. You will be suprised how many tire dealers I went to do know about and cannot get the correct Michillen Vanagon tires but was prepared to sell me any brand name time with the right size. If it were not for the Costco man I would have bought a set of non-rated tires. I finally found a tire dealer who knew about the Vanagon requirement and it took 4 weeks to special order them..that was 5 years and 45K miles ago and I am still riding on them. That's my story.. Yau-Man Chan 87 Vanagon
>>> Don Gibbons <dgibbons@PRESRAY.COM> 08/18/98 12:41pm >>> Do you know what the blown tire was? Brand? re-inforced? size? Many Vanagon owners use normal passenger tires with good results. Not me thou. I had a 195/70-40 Michelin snow tire (non-reinforced) go years ago while on the hiway No big deal but from then on I always use re-inforced tires. |
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