[T3] Tires

[Bobsnotch at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/31/2012 5:12:31 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
mountainvw at hotmail.com writes:

Hallo  again,
I would say that I would be very much afraid of riding wide tires  like 
205/15 in winter!!The rule always was: the thinner, the better, summer or  
winter!!Also for gas consumption!!
165/15 is a real big size already,  175/15 is max. this is for rear tires!! 
front , I would go with max. 145/15 to  155/15!!! much better steering 
response in ALL situations!!!
This is just  my opinion after driving Volkswagens for over 30 years in all 
 conditions!!



Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but the 165-15 was the radial option  
supplied by VW at the time. VW used a 600-15 bias ply tire on our cars, with 
the  165's as an option. The 155 is actually too small for our cars, but ok 
for bugs,  since they used a 560-15 bias ply tire (a little smaller for a 
lighter car). I  really feel that a 145 is absolutely too small for our cars, 
but it doesn't stop  people from using them. 
 
That said, I use my cars from mid April thru to the end of September, as I  
like to keep them out of the salt. I've run without issues a wider tire on 
both  ends of the car, and have found that it handles very well, and doesn't 
affect  the ride quality. I'm running 195-60-15's on the front (with a 2 
inner spline  drop), and 205-65-15's on the rear (with 40+ year old sag in the 
torsion bars).  Since I'm mostly driving in dry weather, I like having the 
extra width,  especially for stopping. And stopping is where I noticed the 
165's falling short  on dry pavement. As others have found, sometimes having 
the extra width, helps  stop the car, as the brakes on a t-3 are far 
superior to a bug, you can actually  over power the tires. I know I'm not alone in 
this thinking either, as others  have gone to the wider tire for better 
braking.
 
Just my take on it. YMMV.  

Bob 65 Notch  S with sunroof and IRS (Krusty)
64 T-34 Ghia  (Wolfie)
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