I am looking to buy new tires but dont want them to tramline like the Falken ZIEX series ZE-502 93H tires I have now do. Do tread designs (i.e. assymetrical, unidirectional) affect tramlining? If so, what tread designs are least likely to tramline? How about speed rating? I like performance tires but do not want to purchase a set then find out they tramline. Thanks for the help.

 

I don't know this from experience, but some people who seem knowledgable have said that tires with more continuous, uninterrupted ribs (like the Continental Contisport I think) tend to tramline more. Now that I think about this, I think this was in a thread somewhere comparing this Conti to other tires....

Tires with stiffer sidewalls are probably also worse for this because they have less compliance, so I would imagine that higher speed rated, higher performance tires would tend to tramline more than "softer" tires of identical size...

Sorry, no concrete info, but that's what I understand.

 

What's tramlining?

 

Source: Tirerack.com: "The term “tramlining” is being used to describe when directional control is disrupted by the vehicle’s tendency to follow the longitudinal ruts and/or grooves in the road."

Details: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...tramlining.htm