----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Stevenson" <jstv4man@HOME.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 8:42 AM
Subject: Abnormal tire wear 1984 Vanagon

To the list at large-
I need help (yet again).  I need some ideas on what might be causing the
problem I'm having.  As the title suggests, I'm having seriously abnormal
tire wear, especially in the front.  I have a 1984 Vanagon (standard).  I
replaced the tires about a year ago, when I bought the vehicle.  Shortly
thereafter, I noticed accellerated wear on the insides of the front tires.
That was easily solved by having it aligned front and rear.  I then rotated
the front tires to the back, and vice versa.  It wasn't too long before I
began to see rapid wear on the fronts again (this time on the OUTside of the
tires).  I naturally assumed that they had simply not done the alignment
quite right, so I took it back, and they redid it free of charge.  They told
me when I picked it up that one side was off by 1 degree.  I remember
thinking that didn't seem like enough to account for that kind of wear, but
went on my way.
A short time later, I noticed still more wear, especially on the front
tires.  I'm now past the service warranty period on the alignment.  But I'm
starting to think that isn't the problem to begin with.  The most obvious
thing I can think of is shocks.  Does that sound like my best bet of what to
do next to the experts on the list?  Or should I be looking elsewhere in the
suspension/wheel location system?

Thanks in advance-
Jason Stevenson

Hi Jason,

Shock absorber related tire wear manifests itself as an irregular cupped
wear pattern.  Ypu can visualize the wear pattern as the result of the tire
bouncing as well as rolling.

When I set up the alignment on my 'gon, I load the van with weight
equivalent to how I plan to use it.  If the van is predominantly used for
camping, then I will load it with all my camping stuff.  If the van is used
for commutting, then I would only include the weight of the passengers.
This includes equivalent passenger weight in the seats, distributed as the
people are.  If a 250 pounder usually drives and the 95 pounder usually
rides shotgun, then 250#s in the driver seat and 95#s in the passenger.  If
the 75 pound dog usually rides in between the front seats, 75 pounds goes
there.  To load the seats, I use bags of water softening salt.  The weight
is known and so long as the plastic bag is intact, it is not messy.  In
addition I make sure that I have a half tank of gas when doing this.

This accounting for anticipated normal loading of the chassis does make a
difference in the suspension loading and resultant alignment.

If the loading of your van is not consistent, then some unusual wear is
inevitable.  Frequent rotation of the tires will help to extract the maximum
life from the rubber.  But as we usually have wildly varying loadings on our
vans, we will generally never see the rated life of the tire.  When setting
up the suspension you are striving for a weight loading that corresponds to
the predominant usage pattern of the van.

HTH
Joe