On

   There is waaaay more to vehicle handling than simply the tires...It all
works as an integrated system and when you alter just one aspect of that
system....every other thing changes along with the single change you may
have made...  A couple of PSI difference in air pressure at the front or
rear is enough to change how a vehicle will behave...Change a sway bar or
the alignment...another vehicle behavior change....Change the sway bar and
the tire pressure....a different behavior...Change the sway bar, the TP and
the ride height?  A different behavior..When you change one thing in the
suspension, you can often benefit from slightly changing everything else to
work better because of the single change you made in the first place...It is
an art, rather than a science, getting the best possible handling from a
vehicle's suspension System.

  Lookit them NASCAR teams...they're stuck in overweight over powered
virtually identical Spec racecars.  They all are regulated down to the very
millimeter in every aspect except....sway bar settings, ride height (limited
to  a few millimeters allowed to change) and tire pressures...Yet they are
always talking about "Oh, it's loose...or Tight..." and come in to the pits
for fresh tires and an adjustment to the sway bar, or a tire pressure
change....then they go back out and start passing everyone with the new
settings....  Imagine when you have a 'free hand'....all the adjustable and
changeable parts you have to mess with and how much that can affect the
handling...

  Vanagons in simple form are supposed to be close to 50:50 weight
distribution...Mine is within about 100lbs, front and back by some highway
scales.  That would indicate the same size tires, front and rear would
maximize the traction when cornering at a steady speed....totally
oversimplified, of course...  factor in some braking force, or some
acceleration force and the weight transfer that creates and things change
again.

  "Understeering Pigs"...That behavior is probably caused by too stiff
suspension at the rear....but I can't explain here why that probably
is......It all works as an integrated system..
   Me, I have never ever been tempted to try to drive my vanagon like a
track car...why do that?  It ain't that kinda vehicle...They handle quite
well for a big top heavy utility vehicle and I have done some amazing
maneuvers in mine missing road hazards and avoiding drunks in my lane
etc...So finding the best tires for safe and crisp handling is important...

   I like to have the same tires front and rear (when I am doing normal dry
season driving) so I can swap around without problems..