oh Dave, you're gonna star a lot of trouble here...........lol

never use 'P' tires on a vanagon. That stands for 'passenger car ' - not
stiffed-walled enough at all for a vangaon.
seriously.
yes, you want LT tires, or C load rated tires.
look on your tire sticker right where you open your driver's
door..........where you swing your feet in.
on my 86 GL it says :
185 R 14 C 6 PR   ( six ply rating )
that is the dead perfect tire for your van.
there are also 185 R14C's that are D load rating, also called 8 ply rating.
some people run thouse.
I think they're a little stiff, and like the C load rating 6 ply rated ones
more......or .......don't tell anyone this, I might run D load rated in the
rear, and C load rated in the front, and NEVER the other way around !
< there are 195 R14 C's too........but I don't especially recommend going to
that bigger size . )
 Be sure to see what your spare is........if it's  25 years old........toss
it and save one of your current tires for a spare. Tires deteriorate with
age, from a safty point of view.  No tire, even if it's never touched the
ground is really safe, if it's over two decades old.  )

here's a great, great tire resource.............www.tirerack.com.
you can search there by tire size, or brand or whatever.
lots of specs and reviews. I'd go there and search for 185 R 14C in 6 ply
rating.   Last time I bought a set of studdless winter tires from them ,
they charged me a super reasonable. 40 bucks shipping for 4 tires from Las
Vegas to Southern Oregon. I just have them sent directly to my tire shop.

And 'tires' ...........vanagon people can go nutty about that subject, and
go on and on and on- so it's always a somewhat inflammatory subject to bring
up !
you can also read reviews of various tires for vanagons at raodhouse.com .
scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur,Dave" <Dave.Arthur@NSCC.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 2:31 PM
Subject: T3 (Vanagon) tires

Any suggestions from the list as to what tires to use on a 1986 Vanagon
Westfalia?

I have seen discussions about a load range C being required, which is
understandable. However, how does this relate to the current sizes and type
of tires on the North American market? I�m guessing an LT class tire should
be acceptable, but what P size?

Thanks

Dave