Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 23:43:24 -0800
Reply-To: Richard & Anita O'Halloran <ohalloran@IATRONET.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Richard & Anita O'Halloran <ohalloran@IATRONET.NET>
Subject: Michelin Agilis 61 (185 R14 C) tyres available at Costco!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Apologies for starting another tyre thread but my 90 Westy needed new tyres
and after a little persistence I found that my local Costco (Burnaby BC) was
able to special order them for me from their warehouse in Edmonton Alberta.
I am sure that this is the correct replacement tyre for the Vanagon. Here
is the info from the sidewall of the tyre. It's a 185 R 14 C. Max load
single = 1710 lbs at 54 PSI cold. Max load dual = 1610 lbs at 54 PSI cold.
Agilis 61 M+S. 99 / 97 R at 54 PSI.
It's a 6 ply radial (tread = 2 polyester plies + 2 steel plies and sidewall
= 2 polyester)
And it says Made in Italy so it's close to the birthplace!!
The sticky label on the tyre says Agilis 61 Light Truck / Commercial
185R14C 99R.
I put my order in at Costco on last Friday evening at 6:30 pm and I got a
phone call the following Thursday that they had arrived (and this is all
pre-Christmas so I was really surprised how quick they arrived.)
My Costco special order sheet gives the Michelin PN 78012 and also a REF #
42026 which I am guessing is the Costco article number.
They cost me CA$113.99 each tyre (~US$73.00) and an extra CA$10 per tyre
(~US$6.40) to mount, balance and install and it includes lifetime rotation,
free flat repairs etc. etc. There were no charges to order or deliver etc.
etc. The only other charge I had to pay was an environmental levy of
CA$3.00 per tyre (~US$1.90)
I'm really happy. You wouldn't believe the bad tyre advice out there. One
guy wouldn't tell me what kind of Continental tyre he had but said I should
trust his 20 years in the business. Turns out it was a passenger tyre - not
reinforced at all!!
Just for comparison, I checked the sidewall of my original Continental spare
which came with the Westy (probably still has original German air!) and
found the following ...
Continental Transport RS771
185R14C 6 PR N
max load single1710lbs @ 55 psi cold dual 1610lbs @ 55 psi cold
99/97 N
Tread 5 plies 2 rayon 2 steel 1 nylon
Sooo ... the Michelin Agilis 61 just has to be the OEM replacement for our
vans and Westies.
By the way, the Costco Kirkland tyre is no longer available. Only one VW
dealer here had Continental tyres and that was the Continental Contact CR 21
with load rating 1540 lbs at 40 PSI and 94R rating. Kind of marginal I
thought for a Westy although he assured me that this was the recommended
replacement. He wanted CA$140.00 just for the tyre!!
Good luck
Rich
90 Westy
Vancouver BC Canada
