Tires: 2003 Honda Odyessy Tires, honda odyessy, load index

Question
In Jan. 2009 you were asked about using 97T vs 98T load index tires for a 2004 Honda Odyessy. You gave the following answer and explained it was OK to use a 97T because of an exception to the rule. Could you explain that rule exception. I would like to use 97T's on my 2003 Honda Odyessy.

Thanks - Scott

ORIGINAL ANSWERS GIVEN:                                        This is one of those "rules" sort of thing.  The rule is: Do not install tires with a lower load carrying capacity than the original tire.

There is one exception.  It's a little difficult to explain why this situation is one of the exceptions, so just take it on faith that it is an exception.  It's obvious that the shop that said that the 97T would not be appropriate is not familiar with the exception and the other shop was.
    So it is OK to put a 97T tire in place of a 98T in this situation.

Answer
Scott,

There are 3 major tire standardizing organizations in the world, and they each have a slightly different take on how to express the load carrying capacity of a tire.  The bottomline is that if you are using the same size as the original, then for practical purposes the load index doesn't matter.

The problem is that expressed this way, there is the possibility that folks will overlook the differences between Standard Load and Extra Load as well as the differences between P type tires and LT type tires - so I don;t like to state it this way.

In your case, a 2003 Honda Odyessy EX's and LX's came with 225/60R16 98T, which is the way the Japanese tire standard is done.  But if you use the US standard, the same tire size comes out with a 97 Load Index.  Nevertheless, these tires are equivalent.