Date:         Tue, 20 Apr 1999 12:13:32 -0400
Reply-To:     Martin Jagersand <jag@CS.YALE.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Martin Jagersand <jag@CS.YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Tire recommendation
Comments: To: most@ucla.edu
In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SOL.4.05.9904200117350.11692-100000@margay.noc.ucla.edu>
              (message from DAVID MOST on Tue, 20 Apr 1999 01:19:35 -0700 (PDT))

   From: DAVID MOST <most@ucla.edu>

   Hi.  I use the 70k mi version of these tires (futura 2000 or something
   like that), but the list seems to agree that such tires are not really
   sufficient.  I recently obtained another vanagon that has some truck tires
   (load rating c), and the ride in it seems firmer and nicer.  It could be a
   suspension difference though.

   What do you think?

   David

Notice that the Futura metric and the Futura 2000 are infact quite
different tires in terms of nr of plies, thread pattern, load rating
and max psi. (See my previous post for the figures)

Making blanket statement about passenger car tires is not so easy
as it may appear when reading the vanagon list archives. Of paramount
importance is that the load rating is sufficient and that the tire
can be inflated sufficiently for good handling. Many performance import
cars come with tires that can be inflated to 44psi and generally have much
higher load ratings than a domestic 35psi tire. Some domestic makers
(e.g. Futura is made by Kelly) have started making replacements for these,
often called "metric". The big brands (michelin, yokohama etc etc)
also have plenty of 44psi passenger car tires.

/Martin
--
Westy 1.9l Turbo Diesel
Quantum 1.6l Turbo Diesel

Martin Jagersand                 email: jag@cs.yale.edu
Computer Science Department             jag@cs.rochester.edu
Yale University

        Slow down and visit the VW diesel Westy page:
          WWW: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/vw
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