Itinerant Air-Cooled

I have small tires, yes it is true. The PO had put the size on, and when you only replace 2 at a time, it lengthens the time for the day when you replace all 4 at the same time. I replaced the front drivers tire last weekend before going camping, it was worn on the inside and there was a bump I could feel while driving.

One issue I had with the steering was I was always correcting with a left side pull on the wheel. Making sure the tires were the same pressure up front would help, but the drivers side had a slow leak due to the rim. So I had to be vigilant but was not enough. Until recently.

When I had a new tire put on at the tire shop, they finished and told me they inflated all the tires to 40 PSI. The tech said they were rated to max 44PSI, and I should use 44 in the summer, 40 in the winter. I duly noted it and drove away. I had kept it to 34 until that day.

And into steering bliss. I no longer have the pull to the right. I can STEER with one finger now, instead of that damn pull to the right. It is beautiful thing to go down the highway now, especially with the Solex and SVDA doing 65 with no backfire, sputtering, etc. Ignorance is not bliss apparently.

Careful there, you've gotta set your tire pressure based on what VW wanted, not what a mechanic recommends:



You don't have much weight riding on those front tires, too much pressure and you're contact patch shrinks.

sped372 wrote:Careful there, you've gotta set your tire pressure based on what VW wanted, not what a mechanic recommends:

You don't have much weight riding on those front tires, too much pressure and you're contact patch shrinks.

Well isn't this a quandary? I am not running the tires VW recommends anyway, so with a smaller tire all this PSI should go out the window, should it not?

From my illogical side:

But but but, it steers so nice! Don't take that away from me!

Take a piece of chalk, draw a line across your tread. take a very short ride and observe where the chalk has worn off if it has worn off in the middle tires are overinflated for that load. If it has worn on the edges the tire is underinflated. You can do this with average around town loads and then again with a full "going camping" load and take note of pressures for each application.

A troubleshooting softball...

it was worn on the inside

Do you figure the new tire will wear out there also? I would fix that problem first.

Randy in Maine wrote:A troubleshooting softball...

it was worn on the inside

Do you figure the new tire will wear out there also? I would fix that problem first.

Indeed, it has needed alignment for some time, trouble is I have not found the shop that can do a Bus yet. I need to ask the ACVW shop in Cumming what place they recommend, if any. And it was weird, I have never seen wear like that, only 2" on the inside of one tire. The rest of them and the rest of that tire was fine, less than 10,000 on the front tires.

Your camber is off on that side. The question is whether it's simply due to adjustment, or if something's bent...

tristessa wrote:Your camber is off on that side. The question is whether it's simply due to adjustment, or if something's bent...

Bent, huh never thought of that. Gads how can you bend something without clocking it front end on a rock or a curb?

I do 35 front, 45 rear. Sue me ya itinerant-lackeys.

Sylvester wrote:

tristessa wrote:Your camber is off on that side. The question is whether it's simply due to adjustment, or if something's bent...

Bent, huh never thought of that. Gads how can you bend something without clocking it front end on a rock or a curb?

<shrug> You been babysitting that Bus of yours since it left the factory in Hannover? Someone could have crubbed the wheel doing 40MPH back in 1981...

But adjustment is more likely. Got Bentley?

Sylvester, it is important to keep a pressure differential between the front and rear tires for emergency handling. And it just so happens that the front end on these cars is laughably light, and you really do have to keep the front tire pressures down to maintain the correct tire contact area.
Tires are an important part of the vehicle's road irregularity absorption as well. They need to be able to flex to not only absorb punishing roads before the car does, but that flex also helps the tire itself survive. Overinflated tires are more likely to suffer impact damage in the belts (under-inflated tires will suffer cuts at the beads and a softer sort of heat related delamination damage), think of karate chopping bricks versus plywood. If you want to loosen the spot welds and bang the hell out of everything, rock hard front tires will certainly help.

Your tire guy is a bit behind the curve here.

Please do get the alignment checked sooner rather than later. You likely have a combination of excessive negative camber and toe-out to cause one tread sipe wear. Excessive negative camber with decent toe-in will cause a general loss of tread depth across the entire footprint from outside to inside.
Colin