Personally, the 356's are just lousy tires but they alone should not be
scary to drive on. Was the suspension properly inspected for loose/worn
components and properly aligned? In particular, the front radius rod
bushings need to be checked carefully. The radius rods are the rods that
attach� the lower control arms to that front sub-frame. The bushings may
look OK but can still be bad. These bushings set the front wheel caster
angle. Caster is one of the most important but miss-understood angle of
the front suspension. Caster gives the vehicle that "go straight" feeling
and returns the steering to center after a turn. Caster angle differences
from side to side, (cross caster) is what often causes that sideways pull.
The caster is also affected by different size tires front/rear and vehicle
loading. A really good alignment guy will also consider tire width when
adjusting within the allowed range.

Dennis

Note new e-mail address.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
mad madeline
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 2:20 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Tire Choice Question

Irecently purshased a new set of Yokohama 356s @ 185
r14 8ply. Since the first moment I drove the van it
wass all over the road. Like a pick-up with a load of
gravel in the back. We changed the tire pressure from
38/43 F/R to 44/44 to 43/53 and the handling did not
change. Gets worse with speed. It was so bad that we
aborted the trip. So now the tire dealer has offered
to put whatever tire we want on it.
I have always had good luck with michelins and Have
never had good results with any other brand. So I need
to decide between the 1)Agelis 185r14 or 2) LTX 195 70
14 (dont have my notes in front and may be 195 75 14).
The previous tires were 205 LTXs which seem to not be
made now. The van drove nicely with those. Does it
steer so bad because of the 185 size?? Thoughts?

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