I had the nexen sv  820's  seemed to perform fine for me. I recently went
with the bfg all terrain t/a KO on the go westy 15" wheels. Smoother ride
than the D rated nexens

Velma 82 1.9L AAZ TD Westy
On Jun 12, 2014 11:02 AM, "Jim Felder" <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:

> I, too, liked my Kumhos, but for the money they did not last very long as
> you say. The main reason I went to Hankooks, though, was that I was told my
> my local Pep Boys that the Hankooks were NLA in this country. This was in
> 2012, I think.
>
> Obviously that is not true from reading your post.
>
> Jim
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 10:57 AM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote:
>
> > Dennis, your reply confuses me.  The 205/70-14XL that came on the vans
> was
> > the
> > General Alti-Max, iirc.  That tire was barely within spec, and lots of
> > people
> > reported problems with it deforming and not having good handling
> > characteristics, at least according to threads on the Samba and the
> Vanagon
> > mailing list.
> >
> > Do you have any  specific recommendation of 205/70-XL tires?
> >
> > The Kumho 857 tires that I have now have shown excellent handling
> > characteristics, and are well within spec.  Like the Hankook RA08, they
> are
> > listed on web sites in other countries as being for vans and transporters
> > but in
> > this country they are marketed for trailers (same as the Hankook),
> probably
> > because the size has such limited application otherwise.  I would buy
> > another
> > set of Kumhos, except they are quite pricey, and only ran for about 35k
> > miles.
> > I have run them on back country roads, very rocky, muddy, sandy, steep.
>  No
> > traction problems.  Though I would not consider them suitable for snow or
> > ice
> > conditions, I did drive from Dallas to Edmond, OK (OKC area) via a
> > roundabout
> > route following the Christmas blizzard of 2009 with no problems.
> > ---- Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > > That Nexen is a horrible tire, probably best suited to trailer use.
> > Either
> > choice is still a low performance tire. I would still go with one of the
> > 205/70-14XL alternatives just as the factory did 87 and later.
> > >
> > ---- Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > > That Nexen is a horrible tire, probably best suited to trailer use.
> > Either choice is still a low performance tire. I would still go with one
> of
> > the 205/70-14XL alternatives just as the factory did 87 and later.
> > >
> > > Dennis
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
> Behalf
> > Of Dave Mcneely
> > > Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 9:49 PM
> > > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > > Subject: ok, now a tire question
> > >
> > > Any reasons to choose one over the other:  Nexen SV820 or Hankook RA08?
> > Nexen is a little less expensive, but not dramatically so.   BTW, both
> are
> > available at WalMart, if ordered online.  Only Nexen if you go to the
> > store.  Hankook but not Nexen is available at Discount Tire.  I do prefer
> > to do business with Discount over WalMart.   Thanks, mcneely
> >
> > --
> > David McNeely
> >
>