Summer tires mess up handling

[Tony Hoffman]

I've had tramlining problems on several cars, so here's what I"ve found.

It started with a 1981 Audi 4000 5+5 with 14's on it. With the old
worn out tires, it was very bad. With the new (don't remember)tires on
it, the problem was solved.

My 1998 Mustang was so bad it was downright scary when the
"Gatorbacks" in size 245/45-17 were worn to their limits. To be
honest, it wasn't that great when they were new. I had the alignment
checked three times by different shops because it was so severe, and
they all said it was within specs. Some new Summitomo HTR+'s fixed it
completely.

My 1991 V8Q (current) Came with 235/45-17's on S4 wheels, and
tramlining was pretty bad. It had brand new Summitomo HTR2's on it.
With snows, none whatsoever. When I replaced the 17's with 16's, I put
Kumho 711's size 225/50-16 on the car. No tramlining, which somewhat
surprised me. The car has over 300K and worn suspension will
definately make it worse. Anyhow, now the tires are pretty worn (about
35K) and it definately tramlines again.

So, different tires, even from the same manufacturer can definately
make a difference. I guess I'd probably try the HTR+'s or Kumho ASX's
and possible the SP 5000's if they are still available, as they are
all season HP tires and may hove more give in them to help. This is
just an SWAG, though.

Just my .02,
Tony Hoffman


On 4/21/07, Ed Kellock <ekellock at gmail.com> wrote:
> Correction... the tire size is 225/50-16 not 60 series.  I'm sure most just
> assumed it was a mistake but wanted to be sure.> >
> > I believe it's a function of width and tread compound and
> > design.  On my Avant I'm pretty well limited to 16's or
> > bigger due to the brakes.  It came with 16x7 Dunlop SP8000's
> > 225/60-15's which tend to run fairly large for that size, so
> > they tramline pretty significantly also due to their large
> > longitudinal grooves.