Ok I know the wider the tire the more they tend to steer themselves with the major grooves in the road. I recently too a trip and took off my winter wheels and tires for my stock 275/40/17s as they handle interstate speed better then snow tires.

The deal is since I have had the car, which is a year now, its had two different sets of tires one set of two on the front and one set of two on the back. The rear came with Kuhmo Ecstas and the front I had to buy cheap to just get it on the road so I went with some Rikkens from Summitt. All summer last year I had the Rikkens on the front. For this trip I stuck the Kumhos on the front and the Rikkens on the back. I got such monster Groove steer that thought somthing was broken in the front suspension of steering. I could go down the road and literly swerve back and forth with my hand off the wheel, it would drift hard to the center line hit the lip of the SEMI groove and then go back the right where you would hit the lip of the right groove and then go back to the center line. I could do this for a mile without taking my hand off the wheel.

I was in Indiana and hit a BRAND NEW section fo I-69 and it all went away. When I got home and swapped them around the way I had them in the summer and it was fine.

Just wanted some input on what you guys think is going on here, could different tires have different side bite that they grip the groove in the road more than another tire would?? Sorta like crotch rocket tires how there rolled more on the edges if you get a racing tire??

 

I've got a set of 275/40/17 Falken Aziens 615's on the front of my Z28. I love the look of the tread but man do they grab every little grove and bad spot in the road. It really sounds to me like it's probably just the tires causing it to walk around the road like it is.

 

I've got 275/40/17 nitto 555 street tires on all four and it tracks the road grooves too. My dad keeps telling me it's in the front suspension and that something is worn out, and I try to tell him it's because of the wide tires, but he doesn't think so.

 

Well I guess for what its worth, Rikken 275's work pretty good. I would like to know what the BF KDW tires do with the grooves.

 

I have the BFG KDW 275/40-17's in the front, and never noticed anything out of the ordinary with the degree of tramlining. Its there, but its not severe.... same as the 275/40-17 GS-C's.

A good reference from Tire Rack:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=47

 

good read there Injuneer, and I did have my frnt end set up with a little bit more negative camber than stock specs, might be why it's more noticeable now than when I first got it.

 

Very good read indeed. I guess what I was really asking, as I knew from the start that wide tires would do this. Is why do different tires with the same size do it worse than others?? What is this telling me about the tires I have on the car albeit there two different set front and back.

Here is a pic of what I got. The Kumhos is on the right the Rikken is on the left, the Kuhmo is WAY worse, were the Rikken you have to have a ground out flat out gouge in the road to notice it.


see the Line on the edge of the tire on the right where the ware pattern is?? I,m thinking thats the difference, as these tires have never been on the front of ANY CAR until I did so the other day.

 

Tread pattern, how square the sides of the tread are, actual tread width, ridgidity of the belts and sidewall, inflation pressure, etc would all affect how the tire reacts to the grooves. I suspect some are significantly worse than others. Maybe a belt is starting to seperate.... who knows?

 

Ack!!! Dont say things like that.

Well see when it warms up and I stick the summer rubber back on. Thanks guys.

 

Sounds like what I've been dealing with on my car for the last few years driving around with blown front lower control arm bushings, the car felt fine, handled ok, no clunking or noises or anything obvious, buy horrible tracking of things on the road, etc..

After doing some serious research, price checking, etc. I found Speed Engineering and the Spohn Del-Sphere Adjustable Front Lower Control Arms, I ordered them up and got them installed without air tools in about 4 hours..

I seriously cannot express to you how night and day better my car is now, it's a completely different car, I had no idea how bad my handling truly was until the new LCAs were installed, it handles like a dream and corner grip is insane!

I couldn't be happier with the Spohn LCA's and Speed Engineering, my item shipped immediately, arrived without any issues, and the price was the most competitive I was able to find (and I'm good at finding deals).

FWIW, http://speed-eng.com/store/spohn-tub...02-p-5930.html

 

Thanks, I dont know how many miles my LCAs have on them, the rubber around the nut on the uppers looks brand new. The car has 185K too by the way.

Ive had the front suspension check withing the last year when I had the alignment worked on, they said and I conguered that it looked like it had new upper and lower ball joints on it. Not to mention it does come standered with Energy suspension sway bar bushings and every other bushing on the suspension.

One of these days I need get some good pics up of the car.

 

I have some 315 30 18 perellis on the front, with -.5 camber and +4.5 castor, 1/16th toe in. On reasonably smooth roads it's fine, but on the heavily ran NYC area roads it takes a lot of effort and I really have to just get it settled in the "groove" and wait until I get to a decent surface. For a point of reference 0 toe and +3.5 castor made it nearly impossible to control in the more grooved roads.

alignment can play a big role, just as much as the brand and width of the tire.

 

Well I was actually referring to the control arm bushings where the control arm meets the K-member (the camber/caster adjustment bolts). My old ball joints were fine, a little worn but ok.

And what do you mean by it comes standard with Energy Suspension sway bar bushings? As far as I'm aware all Camaro's came stock with all rubber bushings and mounts?

 

I think the SS cars come with performance bushings all the way around, at least thats what the SS manual said, and the bushings are all yellow.

Oh and I,m pretty sure this problem has nothing to do with anything suspension relatedas I have since swapped my tires around and had no issues what so ever. So its got to be the difference in tires as some others have suggested.