I know this has been a subject of discussion before, but I wanted  
to relay my recent experience.  As far as I understand (and I would  
be happy to be corrected), you need more than tires with reinforced  
sidewalls.  The main Conti distributor in Toronto gave me a set of  
Contis with the purported reinforced sidewalls.  He said that these  
were a newer design and very popular with people with VW vans.   
Unfortunately, I didn't jot down which tires they were.  When I went  
to mount them I noticed that maximum psi rating was 40psi, while  
for Vanagons recommended is 48psi in the rear!  I went back to the  
distributor and exchanged them for the more conventional ContiTrans  
(the new name for the Transports) which are rated for 48 psi.

I just wasn't comfortable with putting tires on that weren't rated  
for the recommended tire pressure.  Nokia makes a very reasonably  
priced tire called the Transpeed, but they don't bring them over to  
Canada any more.

My suspicion is that the tire people tend to group all VW vans in  
the same category and are pushing the new tire model.  I don't know  
what recommended pressure is for the Eurovan, but perhaps these new  
tires are suitable for the Eurovan.

On the subject of winter tires, I know that Nokia makes a Hakka 9  
model in the 195 width that is rated up to 55 psi so that works.  I  
don't know if Conti makes a winter tire which is suitable for our  
Vanagons.  Does anyone else have a line as to the correct Conti  
winter tire?

Cheers,
  - pavneet
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Pavneet Arora -- pavneet@cyantic.com ------------ Cyantic Systems