Ivan,

When we first got our 86 westy if we had it out on the highway, it must
have looked like a drunk driver behind the wheel, The DPO had passenger
tires on it, (looked like the tread was ok for a few more miles) being new
to the westy thing what did I know. The force behind the new tires was my
wife taking the van on holidays and blowing one tire out!. lucky enough
someone pulled over that had owned a vanagon and knew where and what to
do.(I had 2 hours earlier gone over the tire changing saga with my wife,
then my 10 year old daughter).

ended up with a new set of uniroyal tires, I'd look at what they are except
the van is in the shop(re:shifting died). Night and Day difference, the new
tires are a 6 ply side wall and the van is solid on the highway as can be.
The reason the old tire blew was because of the side wall rolling and being
too hot! when you get a cross wind the tires are the absorbing factor. tire
were 480.00$ Canadian, they work great in winter and I feel like they were
a good buy(bought all season type because we get about 6 months of
bad/wet/snowy/yuckky weather. Fact is in Calgary(where I live) it has
snowed any month of the year in the past.

I have seen some threads on the 8 ply side wall, I just decided to go with
the 6 because of the passenger comfort.(a bit easier on them) any one with
8 ply walls care to comment on the ride comfort level?

Tony Mysyk
86 westi(dead in the shop)

----------
> From: Ivan Boyd <boyd@unm.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu>
> Subject: '85 Westi swaying
> Date: Tuesday, August 19, 1997 10:41 AM
>
> Hello out there...
>
> At highway speeds my '85 Westy vanagon seems to be swaying more than
feels
> right.  The load we were carrying included 3 adults, 1 child, lots of
> camping stuff inside, on the upper luggage rack and in a light utility
> trailer.  Sometimes the amount of sway was scarry on curves when going
> between 65 and 70 mph.  My questions are:
>
> 1.  Is this normal or seem about right?
>
> 2.  Can I beef up my shocks to improve the situation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ivan
>
> p.s., I have brand new tires if that's a piece of the puzzle.
>