Itinerant Air-Cooled

The Douglas P205/75 R14 tires I had gotten with the Bus were pretty scary looking even though the date codes indicated that they were only about five years old.
Plenty of tread left, but all were cracked around where the tread meets the sidewalls. The sidewalls also had random, radial indentations.
Slipped belts?
I'm beginning to wonder if the load rating was the reason.
Anyway, I got the 4 new 185R14C mounted yesterday.
Looking forward to a highway cruise later today. The in-town handling seems great. Easier to steer.

More to come...

Rob

You're gonna love 'em.

vdubyah73 wrote:You're gonna love 'em.

So far, I do. I miss the retro, white wall strip on my old tires, but these are awesome tires by comparison.
I had a great test drive last night to a friends house out in the country. About 60 miles total in cross-wind, no wind, highway speed on pavement, in town driving, and gravel roads. I couldn't have designed a better road test.
They do help hold a straight line in the wind and are very quiet.

I am also pleased with my home balancing job.
No shop in town seems to still has the spin-balancer adapter for wide fives, so I did them on the car by rotating each tire/wheel assembly through the right front position with the wheel bearing loosened slightly and the brakes backed off for an easy roll.
I already have a couple buckets of wheel weights sitting around.


Rob