A-Wandering we will go

[Family_Dog]

I fitted two new tyres to Shorty last month and the Tyre place fitted them to the rear wheels. Shorty is the 4x2 SWB Hilux I use for work commuting. All's fine and dandy. Then last week I went to Potch, some 45Km away, and I could not hold Shorty on the road, a dual carriageway. Travelling at less than 80Kms was fine, but anything over that and Shorty wandered all over the road. I got some weird looks from drivers of other vehicles as they passed me, but I was stone cold sober - s'true as Bob!

Before I left Potch to return home, I checked the tyre pressures, all were fine. Built up speed again, and the drifting started again. But now I found that if I pushed it up to 115-120KM/Hr, there was no more wandering over the road. Slow down to 80 again, and I had to fight the steering, as if the rear wheels wanted to overtake the front wheels. This was scary, and I stopped at the tyre place in Stilfontein to ask them to check Shorty's wheel alignment and suspension as I described the problem to them. They put Shorty on a lift and rotated the tyres, new tyres to the front, old tyres (which still have plenty of tread on them) to the rear, and bade me farewell.

OK.... thought I'd humour them, but was sure I'd be back for a full wheel alignment checkup. Not so! The wandering and stability problems were gone, Shorty sat glued to the road no matter what speed I put his chubby little legs through. They Tyreman explained to me that this is a fairly regular occurrence; they always fit the newer tyres to the front wheels and was very distyrbed to hear that one of his workers had not done so.

Anybody else had this not-so-lekker experience?


-F_D

[CasKru]

Eric.. if I had to guess. I would say if you drove for another 300km or so that the problem would have disapeared. IF you speak to old Engel he believes a tyre must cure for sometime before you fit them. I believe it is for this exact same reason that you experienced the drifting. I think the tyres have some sort of wax or something on them to protect them while they are stored.

I had a similar effect when I witted those Maxxis. I just though it felt like that because I was used to the all terrain tyres and not the mud terrain. But after about 300km or so, that feeling was gone and it handled as previously. If you fitted all 4 tyres at once... you probably wouldn't have noticed at all :)

[Family_Dog]

Hi Cassie,

The tyres only had about 200Km on them, half of it from short trips around town, the rest to Potch & back, which was just under 100Km for the return trip. This is one of those stories that I would never have believed, had I not experienced it myself. Interesting thing is that only at a certain speed, drive above and below that speed and you're fine! I must admit it gave me quite a scare, one holds the steering wheel straight and the bakkie drifts all over the place!


And so we learn....


-F_D

[Family_Dog]

Now the boss of Michelin contradicts my findings!

http://www.michelinman.com/tire-care/ti ... re-change/


My findings were exactly opposite to what they state in the short video, and that was without rain. I would hate to have driven that day in the rain.


-F_D

[hilex08]

eric,

i had the same thing years ago when i fitted re treads.

you didnt mention the brand of tyre, and obviously you didnt fit re treads .

its odd, it should be doing that

[Family_Dog]

The tyres were new, Regal, IIRC. They are supplied by Dunlop. No problems with the swap from rear to front, but a disaster to hold the bakkie on the road when they were on the rear axle.


-F_D

[CasKru]

Eric. On dry road it's a different story al together. The less tread, the better grip.

According to what I know is that it's always better to put the tyres with the best grip at the rear. The reason is that almost all drivers knows instinctively how to correct under steer but do not always know how to react when they get over steer. m2cw


When the guys swapped your tyres around, did they maybe check the tyre pressure again or did it stay the same?

[Family_Dog]

I checked the pressure at Potch before returning home, they were all at 2 bar. The guys simply swapped the tyres around, but Juan said this does happen with some vehicles and therefore they always fit new tyres at the front (well, nearly always... )


-F_D