tires tracking

**purplebat66** · 06-30-2011, 03:26 PM

Has anyone experienced their front tires runningwith the grooves of the road , i feel like the car wants to go in a different direction.I have 275 40 17 good year .

**ls1camino** · 06-30-2011, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by purplebat66

Has anyone experienced their front tires runningwith the grooves of the road , i feel like the car wants to go in a different direction.I have 275 40 17 good year .

Yes...it happens when you have wide front tires.

**purplebat66** · 06-30-2011, 04:03 PM

is there anything you could do to make it better

**ls1camino** · 06-30-2011, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by purplebat66

is there anything you could do to make it better

Petition the government to maintain the roads better.

**purplebat66** · 06-30-2011, 05:19 PM

thats funny

**purplebat66** · 06-30-2011, 05:20 PM

specially here in ny

**pajeff02** · 06-30-2011, 05:30 PM

Just depends on the tires and the roads. It is a weird feeling.

**BRANDON** · 07-01-2011, 03:52 AM

Originally Posted by purplebat66

Has anyone experienced their front tires runningwith the grooves of the road , i feel like the car wants to go in a different direction.I have 275 40 17 good year .

yes and i hate it,makes me feel like im swerving back and forth to stay straight,its really bad here when you are slowing down coming up on a red light

**nichoLaS1** · 07-01-2011, 11:20 AM

Tramlining is the word youre lookin for. I had it too, and hated it; I felt like I was gonna lose control of the car sometimes it was so bad. After switching to konis/stranos the problem has almost vanished though.. so apart from narrower tires, improved suspension can help aleviate the problem.. worn tires are the main culprit though (i replaced my front tires around the same time I threw the konis on)

**Z28_Driver** · 07-01-2011, 12:11 PM

Saw the topic and had to see if you were local. There are a few roads around here that I have to ride on the high spots or I scrape the exhaust the ruts are so deep.
If the road is bad enough the car will follow the grooves even with new tires in stock size.

**2K1SOMWS6** · 07-01-2011, 05:38 PM

My handling improved drastically when I replaced my original tires after 31K miles. The car had become somewhat of a handful to drive on rough roads where it didn't track straight. New tires brought back the new car like handling.

**slimss** · 07-01-2011, 07:35 PM

according to the slp supplement manual that my car came with its called trough wander. and its common for these f bodies with wide front wheels. especially on worn roads that have ruts.

**Firebirdjones** · 07-01-2011, 08:04 PM

Yes, perfectly normal. Wide front tires track, then you couple that with a front wheel that has massive inside offset which creates bumpsteer.

There is a way to fix it.

Cheapest way....

Toss the wide front tires and wheels in the trash and throw some pizza cutters on there

More expensive...

Completely redesign the front suspension geometry.

**RyanJM** · 07-01-2011, 09:30 PM

This is why I ran 18x8.5 up front it is annoying. After driving a few cars with wider rims and tires up from I went with 10's out back and staggered front and with the new shocks and springs the car rides better than new.

**Firebirdjones** · 07-02-2011, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by RyanJM

This is why I ran 18x8.5 up front it is annoying. After driving a few cars with wider rims and tires up from I went with 10's out back and staggered front and with the new shocks and springs the car rides better than new.

That would make it better, but even 8.5 inch wide is pretty darn wide for a front wheel. It still becomes an issue because of the massive offset these 4th gens use on their wheels. Creates bump steer.

**Too Fast** · 07-02-2011, 01:00 PM

It's mostly a function of wide, high performance tires. The belts under the tread inside these types of tires are there to try to keep the tread flat to the road, and the tramlining problem is from ruts in the roads, mostly caused by old roads and lots of heavy vehicles (think of all those semi-trailors that have passed before you!).

I saw a huge change when I put some HP 245/50/15 Gatorback tires all around on my '67 GTO (now deceased), from the smaller 14s that were on it. Suddenly the car wanted to follow all the road ruts, where before it never did. So this condition is mostly caused by tire design, and some do it worse than others. It's all compromise, do you want that last .01 of G-force when going around the corner? Or you can have different tread compounds that may be stickier but not tramline, but you won't get many miles out of those.