Posted by Ricky on Wednesday, February 05, 2003 at 3:53PM :
In Reply to: Townwagon tires posted by Ron in Indiana on Tuesday, February 04, 2003 at 8:50AM :
On my '68& my '65 W200s I put 12.50 16.5 tires with correctly back- spaced 13 x 16.5 f#%d wheels in place of the stock 9.50 16 tires. The wider tires steer much easier in the parking lot, although not as easy as power steering. On the road the big tires support the king-pin bushings ( trunion bearings ) from below rather than outboard like the narrow tires did,requiring less steering effort and causing much less king-pin wear. We've all seen the extreme negative camber splay of worn king-pin bushings ( in at the top,out at the bottom, as seen from the front). I used to replace king-pin bushings every 50 thousand miles on my '65 but now it's been 150 thousand. The '68 crew-cab is a big knuckle front axle so that's not a factor. I too plan to install a ProtoTech kit but mostly for a firmer feel on the highway.