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Date:         Wed, 21 Oct 1998 13:02:20 -0700
Reply-To:     Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Subject:      Tires...again
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I should be slapped upside the head a few times, writing stuff without going out and looking!

This is a sample of one (me) and tires on my four Vanagons. I am quite pleased with all the tires I've run lately. Currently:

1986 Vanagon GL (2wd) Michelin X P215/70R14 M+S These are 215s, not 205s, which is why they work well, although they rob you of 5% of your accelleration and cause a 5% low speedometer reading (like mine is that accurate anyway...). This vans door placard shows 185x14 at 39/48lbs, pressure and 205/70 reinforced at 30/40lbs. pressure. No "P" series tires are appropriate at these pressures. The X radial has a 1660lb load rating per tire. I run mine at 30/36lbs.

1986 Transporter Kombi Syncro Michelin MTX LT195/75R14 M+S. Great tires, but a little small on this vehicle. Gearing gives great (for a Vanagon) acceleration but winds out terribly at higher speeds. The Kombi doorjamb placard lists three tires and pressures, unlike the GL. The two from the GL are listed, with slightly different pressures (40/48 and 36/43). Notice that the pressures are higher for the commercial version, as would make sense. Then they list a non-reinforced P series tire -- the P205/70R14, and pressures of 33/36lbs. 36lbs is normally the highest pressure allowed for most P-series tires. Again, this is on the sticker on the door-post. A little strange that the US-spec Vanagon fails to list this as an option. It also does not list the 195s that I run. Oh, well. I run mine at 40/48 on this guy. Rides terrible -- like a truck. The Kombi's springs are

really stiff, too, and the thing rattles and echoes like a big tin box (big suprise there, eh?). The sticker does not call out the 205/70 as a "P", but rather lists the variations as "205/70R14 6PR/8PR reinforced" at the higher pressures and "205/70R14" at the lower pressures. The "LT" designation seems to have replaced the "6PR", and "P" replaced the old 2 or 4 "ply rating" -- I think because no tires actually still use a bunch of plies.

1986 Transporter Doublecab Syncro Uniroyal Laredo LT215/75R15 M+S. Great tires and wheels (Audi Turbos, modified) but these were nicer on the Kombi where they originally lived, as it is geared lower. They rob too much power from the truck. The truck's door sticker is the same as the Kombi -- it too lists a P205/70 at 33/36lbs. This truck came with the Michelin's, and I traded with the Kombi. I have also run Yokohama's on the Kombi with good results, like others maintain. The Yokis are probably the best bet, but are locally hard to come by. This is a concern on a syncro, as it is hard to match a tire while travelling. The DC was missing its VC when I got it, and the one I put in is very mild. The Kombi, on the other hand, has a VC-from-hell -- it locks at the slightest whim, and squeals tires in any reasonalby tight turn. Odd that these should vary so much -- it is not broken, just far stiffer than the other VC. Anybody else out there with multiple syncros?

1980 Vanagon Westfalia Uniroyal Laredo LT195/75R14 M+S, running at 42/50lbs, slightly higher than the sticker wants, but I overload the silly Westy all the time.

In any event, *some* Vanagon door stickers list passenger tires as appropriate. Oddly for me, these are the two commercial ones -- where you'd expect the truck tires all the more. The pressures listed on the 185's spec'd are higher on the truck, as I'd expect. It is still my *personal* opinion that these P series should be alright on any Vanagon, but I tend to go with the LT's. The 215/70 is wider, and should have no problems since it should be run at a lower pressure anyway. It is pushing the maximum width tire allowed on the relatively narrow Vanagon rims.

Yes, I think you should run LT tires. Good insurance. If your van came with P205s or P215s, I *personally* would not panic. Others will disagree, but it appears tha VW listed a non-reinforced tire at 36lbs for the very-buff Syncro Doublecab Transporter truck, and your wimpy Vanagon ought to be able to survive with them, too.

I know I'll get flamed -- there are horror stories of tires disintegrating while driving, and this is a really scary prospect. So use your own judgement, my opinions are my own, based on flimsy evidence, and I'm a computer geek, not a tire designer.

Malcolm H.

any other sticker info out there? Perhaps we should get together a page of all the variations, and get Coyote to put it on vanagon.com.


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