I do not know of what relevance this is, but . . . Yesterday I was at the
ballfield talking to another baseball dad (a baseball dad is like a soccer
mom with a set of balls and who thinks winning the game is more important
than just having fun) when the subject of tires came up.  We ended up looking
at the ratings on our respective cars.  He was surprised to see that the
Hakka's on my Syncro were rated for 1850 lb.  I was more surprised to find
the Goodyear's on his full-sized Chevy 4X4 pickup were rated only for 1160
lb. max.  This really puzzles me because they are the original tires.  He had
about 30 kMi. on them and they were wearing well with at least 1/4 inch
remaining until the tread wear indicators would be reached.  He did say that
they spin easily on wet asphalt macadam.  Why would such macho-looking tires
be, in reality, so wimpy?  And, could it be we Vanagon owners are too
obsessive about the ratings of our tires?

Rich