Your thoughts are still muddled here. A standard 205/70-14 tire will
have a load index rating of 93. The standard capacity is 1433 pounds at
35. Many tires are now rated to be inflated to 44psi but this does not
increase the load capacity. The higher inflation pressure is required on
many cars for handling and fuel economy purposes. The reinforced
sidewall option is how the get that size tires to carry both a higher
pressure, (usually 51psi) and carry a higher load. The reinforcement
gets it to the 96 or 97 load index rating or 1550 pounds. Note that if
you de-rate the standard tire 10% as required for real light truck
applications, you really only have 1290 pounds capacity. A standard
215/70-14 tire will have a load index of 96, or 1554 pounds/tire. This
will keep you close to 2800 pounds/axle.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Phil Zimmerman
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 11:19 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Another Stupid Tire Thread..was Re: 15" Wheel/Tire Report -

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 05:30:21 +0000, Mike Finkbiner
<mike_l_f@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

>My '87 Westy says 185R 14 C (which only means Commercial rated) at 48
psi on
>the rear OR 215/70R14 LR 97 at 40 psi on the rear (based on my best
>recollection).  They don't specify a load rating for the 185 because
one
>which is built to handle 50 psi is load range 93, so 48 psi is almost
max
>pressure.
>
>Tires can handle the rated load only at maximum inflation pressure, and
LR
>93 will carry a Westy, at full pressure.  Drop the pressure, drop the
load
>handling capacity.  The 215s at 40 psi would be at 80% pressure, which
means
>you couldn't expect them to handle the full load, so they specified LR
97.

>- Mike
>
>Mike Finkbiner
>'87 Westy (wearing Haaka CQs in 185R14)
>Moscow, Idaho
>mike_l_f@hotmail.com

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the informative post on: "another stupid tire thread".
Your insights filled in a few voids that have persisted in my
understanding of tires for a Westy.

The word "reinforced" especially. I still remain a bit puzzled as to why
the silver door sticker
designates "reinforcement" for the 205:70R X14 tire option. I follow
your description (and
surmised  this myself) as to why the 185X14 "C" didn't need to be
reinforced.... It already was....
so to speak!

A 205:70R X 14 load rated 97 tire at maximum inflation pressure still
needs to have a
"reinforcement" designation but, only if one were to run it at "lower
than maximum inflation
pressures".  Is my understanding here correct or still muddled ?

Phil Z.
'87 Westy
Campbell River, BC