Its not a very complete review, but here it its.

This, and last winter, I have been using Nokian Hakkapeliitta CS
unstudded snow tires (195/75-14) on my syncro. Its a very nice tire,
great load range (102/104) and very grippy in snow, slush, ice.
(Well, not as grippy as the set of studded earlier C series tires I
used on my 2wd westy. The studs were crazy good).

I bought these tires used, from a guy moving on to 15" tires (Van
cafe tire and wheel combo, Nokian WRC tires). They were affordable
that way, otherwise i would have to pay close Ca$200 a tire
installed. Its a real shame that in western Canada one tire store
chain has the monopoly on these tires.

If you can afford them, or find some special deal, I can highly
recommend these tires.

Just recently I bought a set of "gently used" Vredestein Winter
Comtracs (185/80-14) and I put them on the van a few days ago. These
are the tires sold by Ron (http://www.busdepot.com/details.jsp?
partnumber=COMTRACWIN).

They are quite similar in tread pattern to the Nokians, and also have
the high load index that I want.

-I'm not going to comment on the passenger tire on vanagon debate,
except to say that I use my vans hard, heavily loaded on logging
roads etc. I am not at all interested in tire failure on a camping trip-

While I have not had the chance to test the Vredesteins on snow or
ice yet, I can say that the feel just as secure on the hwy in (heavy)
rain as the Nokians. Perhaps they have a tad less road noise than the
Nokians (the Nokians are louder than my summer tires, Agilis 81s). If
they work in the snow as well as the Nokians then I have no
hesitation to recommend and favour them, esp. as they are less
expensive.

Over the next month or so, I hope to be able to take a couple of
trips into the hills around here. I should encounter some snow, as
well as rough roads, gravel, mud, puddles etc (gee it sounds like I
am a masochist) and I will report back on the snow performance of the
Vredesteins.

alistair

'86 syncro 7  passenger
'82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94
http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/
http://shufti.wordpress.com