Tires: tires for Honda Odyssey, odyssey lx, honda odyssey

Question
My 2004 Odyssey LX needs new tires.  I'm looking for tires that will be extremely safe and provide good handling, especially on wet roads, with long tread life.  The manual for my Odyssey says the tire should be a 225/60R16 98T.  The Michelin Harmony was recommended to me as a good tire for this vehicle, however it is a 97T.  One tire store tells me this tire is not appropriate for my car and another tells me it's fine and it's what they would put on the van if it were their car.  Can you enlighten me?  

Thanks!
Tracy


Answer
Tracy,

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.