That's the exact spare tire I have on my '82 T3 here in Australia. :)

I've only owned it since September (it's my first 'car'), and was surprised to learn that 'rotating the tires' doesn't involve moving the spare through a period of service - it just sits there (across the decades, it would seem)

-Dan

Sent from my iPhone

On 02/04/2013, at 1:51 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I am finding a lot of these 14 inch original tires in the spare tire
> holder of vanagons.
> Specially ..
> The Contental 185R14 C  TRANSPORT RS 771.
> 
> I am removing one from the rear of an 85 Westy right now ..,
> there are huge chunks of tread missing, and obviously splitting cord
> structure below that.
> 
> Lucky no one got killed !
> These people had a rear tire go flat about 6 months ago ..or some tire
> failure ..
> so they put this spare Continental on ..
> and drove it for 6 months.  They are very lucky  their Westy stumbled
> under power recently ....otherwise this tire failure wouldn't have been
> discovered until total failure and some possible serious mishap. .
> I could tell on the test drive there was a thump from a tire, but they
> couldn't.  I think they drove from Oregon to LA or something out of town
> like that...very lucky the van didn't run right.
> 
> IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE TIRES as a spare, I would not drive it more
> than 10 miles at 40 mph.
> I have seen many of this exact brand and model of tire fail ..
> as in tread separation, even when only one year old.
> 
> and ......
> I have seen a whole rash of people driving vanagons when they are not
> working right ..and they have no idea lately.
> I have also seen a whole rash of really bad vanagon and car work lately.
> I promise you ..
> if you take your van in for 4 brand new tires and alignment ...odds are
> 95 % they won't even check the spare tire pressure.
> and ...
> there are hundreds of vanagons right this very second with very low
> spare tire pressure ..
> and hundreds with original spare tires.
> Plus................., Tire shops are not smart enough to sell you a new
> tire or decent used spare when they put 4 brand new tires on your Vanagon.
> 
> It's fine if people run their vanagons into the ground..
> but when it comes to bad tires, or poorly working brakes ..
> you are not the only person you might hurt.
> 
> I just had another van ...gorgeous 86 Syncro Vanagon ..if the oil
> warning buzzer had not gone off on them ..
> the people driving it had no idea the brakes are working only about half
> of normal performance.
> Very old male driver .....shouldn't really be driving ..
> his partner can't see very well, so she doesn't drive ..,,,
> it's a good thing they had an engine problem ..
> and besides the operator of that van being clueless about it not working
> right at all ..
> his fairly fresh engine rebuild had about 20 workmanship mistakes on it
> ..missing parts, wrong parts, wrong fasteneers, etc.
> And the guy who did the engine job is 'a VW trained german certified
> mechanic with 30 years experience' ..........Totally sloppy work IMO>
> 
>  The vanagon people with the failed tire ...their friend asked me who
> to take their Jeep Cherokee to for good work ..
> I honestly could not think of one shop in my area that could be trusted
> to do good work on it.
>  Dang ..
> 
> 
> 
> .