posted 06-11-2002 04:26 PM                  

Ride was REAL ROUGH for the next 2,000 miles.

Theory is that the wear patterns take a set and took a while to get run-in at the new location. After that, the ride is smoother than before. My guess is that I added 50% to their life by remounting/rotating.

A better question is, DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHY THEY WEAR THIS WAY?

Also, take a look at your rear tires. Although the wear was even, the left was much more worn than the right and I had them "rotated" as well.

posted 06-11-2002 07:46 PM                  

Feathering is caused by the tire sliding, scuffing or skidding on the road surface.
Only two things will make a tire feather a tread from an outside to inside direction.
The number one mechanical reason is excessive toe in and the number one non-mechanical reason is aggressive cornering. This can also be caused to a degree by low tire inflation which will contribute to the tire rolling over, and again back to the original problem of sliding across the road surface causing the tread to feather.
The Prowlers have a tendancy to understeer (in NASCAR terms,,,It's a little tight) and this sometimes will cause your front tires to slide across the road surface under hard cornering.

Too much toe out will cause the tire to feather from inside to outside.
Hard braking will cause the top of the tire to feather from the rear towards the front and burnouts will cause the tire top to feather from the front towards the rear.

Agressive driving is usually the culprit when you see feathering of a tire. Cornering feather can usually be corrected by the camber settings of your car but everything is a trade off. If you set the camber or air pressures for the best cornering, you will not get the best wear while traveling straight ahead. Suspension travel will also have an effect on your camber, caster and bump steer. Way too much information here. Sorry if I confused the matter.

Racers read the tires just like a weatherman reads the sky.

posted 07-09-2002 04:10 PM                  

quote:

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the number one non-mechanical reason is aggressive cornering

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posted 07-15-2002 10:49 PM                  

I think the rating of 180 would mean a soft tire that would wear relatively fast on a standard weight car. The heavier the car the harder the rubber needs to be for higher treadwear mileage. The larger the footprint of your tire, the softer the rubber needs to be to make good traction with little weight on it. It's all about pounds per square inch of weight on the ground. The more pounds per square inch of rubber on the ground, the harder the rubber needs to be. This will also help to explain the need for offset tire sizes on the Prowler (front vs rear).

I believe that I once heard that the Goodyears were designed for the Prowler. Maybe not, but since our cars are so light, the softer rubber compound is helpful in getting extra traction and the tires still wear well because of our cars light weight.
A harder rubber compound will decrease the traction capabilities of your tires while improving the treadwear mileage.
I think the Dunlops have a higher treadwear rating but I also think it was GaryC that said he lost quite a bit of cornering capability when he put on his Dunlops.

posted 07-17-2002 02:35 PM                  

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GaryC@ProwlerOnline.com