Lloyds96Max

I have a set of Z-rated Falkens 235/45/17R that pull my steering wheel in the direction of the grooves and dips of the road. Is this because these tires are high performance? I need a new set and dont want to buy tires that perform the same way. Can someone explain this...

Bman

Did you just have the 15" stockers on your car before this? If so, then I am pretty sure this is to be expected to some degree. The difference is that you had tall, poofy sidewalls on your old tires, but now have short, stiff, high performance sidewalls on your 17's. The tires are also wider. The effect of pulling the steering wheel which ever direction the ruts and bumps in the road go is called "tramlining" (lines and ruts usually) and steering kickback (sharp bumps usually).

flanker

Tramlining is a common issue with tires. It mostly depends on design of the thread. Some tires are worse than the others. Do your research and read reviews. When designing the thread, tire manfacturers have to make trade-offs between wet/dry performance, rolling resistanse, speed rating, wearability, etc, tramlining included. You can't have a perfect tire, so decide what's most important to you.

Lloyds96Max

okay, thanks for the explanations bman and flanker...I dont mind giving up a preference or two to reduce the tramlining. does the probability of tramlining increase with speed rating? thanks for any info from the org

Jon91SE

Stick with a non-directional tread pattern and you should be much happier.

Bman

From what I've read it seems that tramlining is worse with tires that have a tread design that incorporates more continuous, uninterrupted ribs, like some of the touring high performance tires. (Recently one of those Continental tire models comes to mind.) Also, stiffer sidewalls seem to make a difference because it's less compliant, so to a certain extent speed rating has a little to do with it because higher speed rated tires tend to be more reinforced all around. You could maybe try a softer more comfort oriented tire and see if that helps, but I have no idea how much of a difference it would make. Maybe try asking for advice and some suggestions from the experts at Tires.com or the Tirerack?

boyzindahood978

I recently had my tires mounted, balanced, and an alignment at town fair tire. I bought falken ziex 512 215/60/15 from discount tires. I took it on the highway and the car still pulls slightly to the right when I let go of the wheel. It's pretty annoying. Could this be a tramlining or the alignment wasn't done right? I want to bring it back to town fair tires to get it aligned again. What should I ask them/ tell them?

limsandy

iTrader: (1)

First of all, make sure that all 4 tires have the same air pressure in them. If that doesn't fix the problem, then you're probably looking at getting alignment done.


~limsandy

SterlingMist00

I have experienced tramlining with the S-03s. When I first put them on the car in May of 2002 I noticed that they tramlined more on a road that had certain types of ruts or bumps. This actually caught me by surprise the very first time (even though I had read the reviews on the tire on TireRack) as it was quite violent and the steering wheel was jerked hard to the left. Going forward I paid attention to where these tires would tramline so that I could be better prepared in the future.

The tramlining effect now has greatly diminished as the tires have worn down.
So...would I buy these tires again?? They have tremendous dry and wet grip and as someone else on the org has said and I quote "shed water like moses", but my first experience ever with a tire tramlining will lead me to go with another tire when these wear out. Who knows, I may eventually come back to this tire after I try others simply because it has tremendous grip but I am willing to give up a little grip for no tramlining whatsoever.... and I do mean a little..

boyzindahood978

Ok so I set the pressure of my tires to 33 psi front and rear yesterday. The car still pulls to the right. So today I went to get a re-alignment. I was told that my tire pressures were all different. hmmm??? Strange because I just checked them a day before. Anyways he inflates it all to the same psi and the alignment is in factory specs but the car still pulls. He said something about only the toe and be adjusted. What else can cause this pulling? Maybe the tire was inproperly installed and leaking air?

Bman

Did he check all 4 wheels, or just the fronts? Did he check for worn or bent suspension or frame components?

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

It's the tire width.

THEKNITE

iTrader: (1)

Where there are grooves on the road my Kumhos are the worst. Mad pullage from side to side. My brother with all season Sumitomos HTR+ seems to never experiance this, so that's what I'll go with next time I'm buying tires.