Our "new" Tiger...

UHAULER

Explorer
Looking good.

How is the siping on those tires ? Do most of them go the full tread depth ?
I was looking to put them on my 2wd chevy silverado to replace some cooper H/T's. The cooper sipes go most of the way into the useable tread depth unlike some all season tires where the sipes are only about 1/8" deep.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
Very nice looking vehicle. II bet you wish you had waited to install that rear pergo until after you had pulled the front carpet, so you would not have that small strip, but still, the floors look wonderful. I am sure they will be better for you with dogs as well.

Super clean looking rig you have there.

Sorry, but I have to say, I am not a fan of the soft 8's on there. It just looks nicer with chrome wheels in my opinion. Never the less, not mine so I can't complain.

Just curious why you want to swap out the leafs when there is nothign really wrong with them. Why not wait until they show signs of wear before you worry about that? Do they not ride as well or something?


I would be grateful to you if you would please include some detalied shots of the interior. I would love to see it better. Also, can you give me a measurement, how tall is it on the inside? IE Could I stand up in there?

Thanks for sharing all of this, really cool stuff

Brian
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
How is the siping on those tires ? Do most of them go the full tread depth ?
Here's the best pic I could get showing the depth of the siping:
802143669_SqZ2Q-M.jpg
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
Very nice looking vehicle. II bet you wish you had waited to install that rear pergo until after you had pulled the front carpet, so you would not have that small strip, but still, the floors look wonderful. I am sure they will be better for you with dogs as well.
That small strip of carpet was a tough area to figure out. Provan uses a thick plywood floor in the camper area while the front cab has the factory steel floor below the carpet. There's a pretty significant "step" (~1") where the wood meets the steel floor behind the front seats. There's also a small amount of movement between the wood and metal while driving. Look at this pic, again, and you can see the line where the two sets of carpet come together (between the fridge and fire extinguisher):

789606046_PfuaH-M.jpg


Provan dealt with the junction by splitting the carpet between the wood and metal floors rather than using a single piece of carpet from front to back. I couldn't figure out how to extend the Pergo into that area without a noticeable difference in the "feel" underfoot and I was also worried it would creek while driving. As it is, the Pergo goes to the very edge of the plywood floor and then I used 1"x1/2" strips of wood and layers of carpet padding beneath the carpet to create a smooth transition:

791741578_xMYYW-M.jpg


It looks good (at least to us) and feels "right" when you walk on it. We thought about doing the whole cockpit area in the new carpet but decided not to bother as it's going to end up covered in dirt and dog hair, anyway, while traveling.

Sorry, but I have to say, I am not a fan of the soft 8's on there. It just looks nicer with chrome wheels in my opinion. Never the less, not mine so I can't complain.
It's funny, those stock rims with the chrome hoops really grew on us. They look pretty cool when shined up. We would've gladly kept them if I could've found a decent tire to fit them (argh!). We're currently getting quotes for an exterior restripe. We'll be changing the colors and the Soft 8's will be a good match for the new look.

Just curious why you want to swap out the leafs when there is nothign really wrong with them. Why not wait until they show signs of wear before you worry about that? Do they not ride as well or something?
Excellent point. I'll address this soon with my new tire review...


I would be grateful to you if you would please include some detalied shots of the interior. I would love to see it better. Also, can you give me a measurement, how tall is it on the inside? IE Could I stand up in there?
I'll take some better interior pics soon. We're still removing and replacing items so it's a bit of a mess right now. Here's a link to some photos of a 2005 model that gives a good idea of the general layout. The interior height is listed at 6'3". The problem with the Tiger for anyone over 5'11" is the limited room in the driver's seat and the length of the beds (6-footers would have to sleep on their sides with knees bent). I'm 5'9", 150lbs and fly an airplane for my day job (I'm used to working in small spaces) so the Tiger seems pretty spacious to me. :)
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
New Tire Review...

I wanted to put a few miles on the new tires before I shared my opinion of them. All I can say is "WOW"! The Tiger tended to wallow a bit on the freeway and required constant attention to keep it in it's lane. It wasn't too big of a deal on the open road but threading between big rigs at freeway speeds was more excitement than I bargained for. I chalked it up to a combination of weak suspension, "C" rated tires and driving an 8' tall toaster.

I'd been told upgrading to "D" rated tires would help a bit but I had no idea what a big difference the stronger sidewalls would make. I cruised around some slow, curvy back roads for awhile (big difference) then headed for the highway. I set the cruise control to match the traffic flow on I-5 (75MPH in the slow lane) and was very happy to see the Tiger tracking straight down the road. It drives like a heavy Astro van now instead of an overloaded motorhome. We're pretty surprised at the improvement. The change is so great that it has us rethinking our need for a custom suspension setup. We're going to put a few hundred more miles on it in the next week including some mild trails before we make up our minds but if it continues to ride like it has so far, we might have to put the $1200 we budgeted for suspension towards something more useful... like matching, satin, "Tiger XL" sweatsuits. :)

Some more tire pics (still waiting for center caps):
802144352_pwAPD-M.jpg


802144063_ADfbg-M.jpg
 
Last edited:

ihatemybike

Explorer
781210243_8RP6P-M.jpg

When I had my 1994 the silver grill stripes annoyed me. A little Goof-Off and some scrubbing removed it. I'll try to locate a pic.
 

Ford Prefect

Expedition Leader
We're going to put a few hundred more miles on it in the next week including some mild trails before we make up our minds but if it continues to ride like it has so far, we might have to put the $1200 we budgeted for suspension towards something more useful... like matching, satin, "Tiger XL" sweatsuits. :)

As long as those sweatsuits come with photos of yall in them, then I am all for it... ;)

Thanks a lot for answering my questions. I have seen the tigers with the pop tops, but very rarely have I seen the ones like yours.

I am 6'5, and clearly that would not work out too well for me. Though I always wanted to fly airplanes, still would love it, but the first time I sat in the F-16 I was seriously reconsidering that idea. Same with the little private jets, wow those can get tiny!
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
I spent the past 2 days playing with different airbag settings. The van is riding/driving great. I'm still scratching my head over what a difference the stronger sidewalls make. I've never experienced such a big improvement on any vehicle after a simple tire change.

I went shopping for front seats today. The nice thing about the Astro is they made a couple million of them. Parts are easily found and cheap compared to our other vehicles. I found a bunch of Astro/Safari seats but none in the correct color. We also found some seat covers we like so we might just buy the nicest used seats we can find and get covers in the color we want. We're trying to get the interior finished in time for a trip next week. Still have a lot to do but still having fun doing it.
 

slooowr6

Explorer
I spent the past 2 days playing with different airbag settings. The van is riding/driving great. I'm still scratching my head over what a difference the stronger sidewalls make. I've never experienced such a big improvement on any vehicle after a simple tire change.

When I had my VW Vanagon I've experienced the same. Originaly I got a new set of P rated tires and thinking the the load capacity is more than enough so how bad could it be. It was scary to drive it on the freeway, with strong side wind the van literally wants to change lane. Every 10 wheeler past by I need to hold on to steering wheel to make sure the van track straight. At one point I was scare to drive it on freeway. So I got a new set of C rated tires, I was so stunned at the difference. Everything in the suspension is the same, a stiffer sidewall made all the difference. Now I've D rated tire on my Tacoma.
 

ntsqd

Heretic Car Camper
FWIW Approx 2 years ago a local upholstery shop (Mac's there at the top of San Jon) quoted me about $200 each to rebuild & recover a bucket seat.
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
Found my seats!

After visiting more salvage yards and crawling through more junked Astros/Safaris than I can remember, I finally found a perfect set of seats in the correct color and with the correct number of armrests.

Here's a test fit of the driver's side:
806726599_2fuLz-M.jpg


The passenger side will require a little modification to fit the swivel mount. Here's a view of the bottom brackets.
I need to fab something up to make the new seat rails match the old ones:
806724240_KW8k2-M.jpg


ntsqd- Thanks for the reminder about Mac's. I haven't been there in years. Cool shop.
 

HMR

Rendezvous Conspiracy
We also found some fabric we like for the rear bench/bed. Not sure if we're going to just tuck it in on top of the old fabric or actually have the sections recovered.
Hard to tell from the pic but there are 2 separate types of fabric shown here:
806729122_HhEzU-M.jpg


The one on the right did better on our "dog hair test" so we'll be using it.
 

suntinez

Explorer
I can't get over how good the Pergo looks on your floor back there, nice job!

I'm rethinking the lift + new shoes now, based on your input it sounds like with new tires (mine has 16" rims already) I may be able to get the kind of ride I'm looking for with just tires. But did yours come already lifted? I think I recall that.

Congrats on finding the seats you wanted, I know what you mean about hunting for them.
 

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