The latest Car And Driver Magazine did a head-to-head of 10 comparably rated
tires from competing manufacturers. One of their goals was to find out if an
off-brand tire with the same tread pattern and sidewall specs (traction,
load capacity, speed rating, etc.) as a name brand tire would actually
perform as well (or at least close).

In the end they rated a Dunlop tire #1, closely followed by a Hankook that
was half its price and the cheapest of them all (besides the off-brand
tire). As for the comparably-spec'd Chinese off-brand tire?  It scored so
poorly that "we had to round up its score to zero to keep it from being
negative" and could not recommend it even at the $57 "bargain" price. Even
the second worst tire in the ratings almost tripled its score.  (As an
interesting aside, the Kumho tire was highly rated on dry roads, but was
undone by wet-road handling that was "nothing short of diabolical.")

How does this relate to Vanagon tires?  Of course the results cannot be
applied directly, as these high performance tires are not Vanagon tires. But
it clearly illustrates that you cannot go by sidewall specs (such as load
capacity) alone. Those specs are important in order to rule out tires that
are simply underrated for the vehicle and must be dismissed out of hand ...
but the remaining tires can still vary from "excellent" to "diabolical."  In
Vanagon speak, this means that a cheap tire with a C or D load rating may
still be a lousy tire, not remotely comparable to a quality tire with the
same load rating.

Choose wisely.

See http://busdepot.com/details/tires.jsp for more on Vanagon tire safety.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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Toll-Free for Orders by PART # :  1-866-BUS-DEPOT