185R14 Tires

[longwater]

So how old was your tire that blew out?

It was made in 1999,it looked like new,the center of it blew a piece out of it and it split up to the rim.It was on a sunday and my spare is just a 5 lug,so there wasn't any place open to have it switched over.I just limped on home on the back roads.I could not drive over 30mph because the tire would flap and hit my fiberglass wheelwell.

Jim

[elderthewelder]

I just had 6 Hankook 185R14 tires installed on my rig from Discount tires $557.45 out the door, what I did was find the cheapest place to buy them online, than went to discount website there is a " found it lower" icon to click and you fill in the price and place where you found the tires at the low price and they will match it, I found my tires for $75ea + shipping, so Discount will charge you that shipping fee also, than the mount and balance and local sales tax, anyway it all came to $557.45, I was happy

[Derek up North]

Thanks. Care to share where you found the 'Best Price' that they matched?

[elderthewelder]

Thanks. Care to share where you found the 'Best Price' that they matched?

I used these guy's, they are just over $70 ea + shipping, put 6 of them in the shopping cart and get a shipping quote

http://www.onlinetir...08+n%252Fa.html

than go to discount site, here is link. you need to change the "area selected" at the top to your zip code, it is set for Seattle right now. the Seattle price is $97ea, if you look just under the $97 there is a " found it lower? let us know icon to click on. make sure you change the location at top to your area as the icon goes direct to the store nearest you

http://www.discountt...|98203&pc=11011

Edited August 15, 2010 by elderthewelder

[Derek up North]

Wow!! 185/00-14!!! That's the lowest profile tire I've ever seen.

Thanks for the info. I'm sure others will find the information very useful.

$544 for 6 shipped to 12901. Not bad at all.

[elderthewelder]

Wow!! 185/00-14!!! That's the lowest profile tire I've ever seen.

Thanks for the info. I'm sure others will find the information very useful.

$544 for 6 shipped to 12901. Not bad at all.

$496.07 for 6 shipped to me at 98203, that is what I gave Discount tires, however looking at my receipt they gave them to me for $456, not sure why

[Derek up North]

Christams comes early!

[bfrey66]

7 new Hankooks for around $90 a piece after I complained about 3 bubbles from 5yr old low mileage Nan Kangs.

As far as I can tell driving my Warrior once a week helps the tires from getting bubbles. Unfortunately, during the last 18 months I haven't kept up weekly drive. As a matter of fact it didn't get moved for 6 months at a time. Another friend said if you can jack it up and take some load off the tires it might prevent the bubbles.

[heyheymymy]

Hi folks,

Wondering if I can get a bit of clarification on the load range issue. I picked up my Toy a couple of months ago and have been slowly getting it ready for a trip from Canada to Texas and back. After reading through this thread, I went out to check what tires the previous owner had installed. Here's what I've got:

Fronts: P185/70R14

Rears: LT 195/75R14 Load Range C

After reading this thread, it's the Load Range C part of the rears that's making me nervous. Folks have been saying Load D is the way to go. Is it a must?

One other thing. I went underneath to check out my spare today, just to make sure it was in good condition. It's brand new, which is great, but it's on a 5-lug rim, so it's only good if one of my front tires goes. What do others do when they've got the 6-lug, one ton on the back and a 5-lug on the front? Carry two spares?

[Derek up North]

Hate to be the one to give you the bad news, but it's the front tires that would concern me more. The 'P' designates that it is a passenger car tire. In fact that's the perfect size tire to install on an MGB!

You'll find that there's very little difference in cost between a 'C' and 'D' tire in that size. Might as well go for the 'D'.

As for your spare, who knows, it might be the one it left the factory with, so well past the 'Sell by date'! I'd feel safer (for you) if you used one of your 10 year old 'C' tires as a spare.

The solution to a mixed 5/6 lug setup like yours that I've read most often is to limp to the nearest tire store when you get 1 flat rear tire. The only problem I see with this solution is that it assumes that you're aware that one of your rear tires is low on air or flat! I've bought a set of those tire pressure sensors that will (hopefully) sound and alarm when one of the rear tires get too soft.

[powdrhound]

HeyMy,

You need the full set of seven.

Without a doubt get the D load rating.

And get the correct tire size.

No, there are not a lot of choices in 185R14.

We use the same tire size and rating as the VW camping vans. Lots of good info out on the net.

There are many threads in this forum talking about tire size, age/code dates, brands, etc. Read them.

Age and overloading are your concerns. Your tires fail the load test.

[heyheymymy]

Thanks, Derek and Powdrhound. Since I'd (foolishly) assumed the tires were fine until yesterday, I've spent the last day reading through all of the tire threads on this site and on a variety of VW sites. Did some calling around to local tire shops and nobody has anything suitable. One person told me that in 17 years on the job he'd never heard of 185R14 tires with a D rating. Needless to say, I won't be going back to them with any future tire questions.

So now I've been looking online at places in the U.S. that will ship to Canada for a reasonable fee. BusDepot for the Hankooks, TireRack for the Yokohama 356, etc.

For weeks now I'd been planning to leave this weekend to start my 6-month boondocking trip, but it looks like for safety reasons I should postpone until I get some tires.

Edited September 29, 2010 by heyheymymy

[heyheymymy]

Found a local place that has the Hercules G4000LTs that Maineah mentioned. They've also been mentioned on a bunch of the VW sites that I've been reading.

1875lb load rating

Load range D

65 max PSI

$76 per tire, Canadian.

For seven of them, it would run me CDN $740 mounted, balanced, out the door.

As a comparison, TireRack would charge US$750, including shipping, for 7 Yokohama Y356 tires. Then I'd have to pay someone to put them on my rims, install them, etc.

The Hercules seem like a pretty good deal, relatively speaking. It's still a stink load of money. But if I'm going to be traveling around and living on these tires for the next 6 months, it's probably a good investment.

Edited September 29, 2010 by heyheymymy

[Derek up North]

So it was an independent tire seller? Too bad it's not Cambodian Tire so I could get some locally. Sounds like a really good deal.

[heyheymymy]

It is an independent dealer, but I think they're part of something called the Tirecraft network. Or something like that. Based on the website, it looks like Tirecraft is associated with shops across Canada. The local dealer said that there were 20 of these Hercules tires in the warehouse when he checked it. So, if it's a national distribution network, I would think that you should technically be able to pick some up through an affiliated dealer in your area.

Here's the link to the Tirecraft website: http://tirecraft.com/Default.aspx

Hopefully there's one in your area, too.

Oh, and if you call a local dealer, tell them just to search for 185 R14 in the Hercules system, rather than 185 70 R14. For some reason, when the guy was including the 70 in the search, the Hercules system wasn't finding the G4000LT. When he just searched 185 R14, it was showing up. I verified the same issue with another local Hercules dealer, so it seems to be an issue across the Hercules dealer network.

Edited September 29, 2010 by heyheymymy

[Derek up North]

Just checked their site. None in Quebec so I'd have to do some 'cross border' shopping in Ontario.

[heyheymymy]

Got 6 new Hercules G4000LT tires put on a couple of days ago. Noticed a big difference immediately. Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. I feel a lot better knowing I've got the correct tires installed.

I'll post an update a few thousand miles down the road, letting people know how well the tires have worn.

[mule]

this made my day

http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=RA08

thanks

new shoes for th littel mule

[Wayne & Irene]

I recently put a set of Hankook 8 ply tires on my 81 Warrior. I got them for $72 from Discount Tire on the internet. Had them delivered and WalMart installed them for me for around $60 complete. I like the way they drive. I agree that finding 8ply tires in the 185-14 size is difficult and the Hankook's were about the only reasonably priced tire I could find. So far they seem very good.