Larry, in spite of your great efforts there are still some problems with
your data as well as the interpretation. Looking at your various web
charts, the tire you list as the lowest load rated tire VW put on
Vanagons is shown as a PASSENGER tire 205/70/14 and was only sidewall
rated at 1580 lbs. Applying the 9% rule, as required for  passenger
tires (your Federal Regulations link mentions no exception for
"reinforced" models), brings that down to 1437 lbs corrected rating.
According to what you stated below that means that by your standards VW
fitted an unsafe tire to all the alloy wheeled models that came with
this tire. Also in your  web table shown below there is a significant
error in the Load 97 row, LT column, which should be 1463, not 1493.

respectfully yours,
Mark Drillock

  _____________________
 From Larry"s Web tire pages

Passenger Car Tire Table for Light Truck Usage

Load Capacity Conversion Table

 Load Reduction - 9%

Load Rating

Passenger Car

in lbs

Light Truck

in lbs

93

1433

1303

94

1477

1343

95

1521

1383

96

1565

1423

97

1609

1493

98

1653

1503

99

1709

1554

100

1764

1604

101

1819

1654

102

1874

1704

Therefore you would need a Passenger Car tire that meets or exceeds
these spec's,

* XL or RF designation.

* Load Range 100

* Max Load Capacity: 1604 lbs

* Max Inflation Pressure:: 40 psi

Larry Chase wrote:

>Dam it ... Choosing safe tires is SIMPLE!
>....
>You don't have to make assumptions, no guess work .. It's all supported by
>fact and data.
>
>What did VW do?
>
>- The lowest load rated tire was,
>
>* Max Load Capacity:1580 lbs
>....
>
>DOT Rule #  2
>
>"When passenger car (P-metric) tires are installed on an MPV, truck, bus,
> or trailer, each tire's load rating is reduced by dividing it by 1.10"
>
>- the 9% rule
>
>2wd  = 1433 + 6% = 1519 lbs + 9% = 1656 lbs minimum load carrying capacity
>for a Passenger Car Tire
>4 wd = 1521 + 6% = 1612 lbs + 9% = 1757 lbs minimum load carrying capacity
>for a Passenger Car Tire
>
>
.......