Does this happen a lot, I was told by Sears when I had a couple of alignments that told me I had a tire pull when they moved the tire around.
Radial Pull: Let's talk about it
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He was suggesting what as the fix to your problem?
I don't know what you are referring to. Can you be more specific?
It is a thing; I've felt it. Cured it by unmounting a tire and flipping it around, so it countered another tire that also had it. But as Ronnie Reagan says, "trust but verify." If your car has camber issues you'll have a pull, and it takes creative aligning (camber bolts, hogging holes, shims) to get it to go straight. Sears might be blowing smoke.
Nick1994
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I had that on my Camry, steering wheel to the right, pulling left. Swapped the RT43's left to right and the steering wheel was to the left, pulling right. Discount Tire put on a new tire and it's straight as an arrow now. Or it should be, it's been hibernating since February...
Conicity. One sidewall of the tire is taller than the other. It happens.
Have them verify the lateral force measurement on every tire using their RoadForce balancer. Keep in mind that it can’t be corrected, just minimized by installation on a certain corner of the car. When it comes time for rotation, you’re back to having pulling issues.
Have them verify the lateral force measurement on every tire using their RoadForce balancer. Keep in mind that it can’t be corrected, just minimized by installation on a certain corner of the car. When it comes time for rotation, you’re back to having pulling issues.
Ive had it happen as well. Its very annoying to diagnose which tire is causing the problem.
Look up the Hunter GSP 9700 machine- they have some good notes on this problem, and how a "road force measurement" tire balance can solve them.
Originally Posted By: rubberchicken
Look up the Hunter GSP 9700 machine- they have some good notes on this problem, and how a "road force measurement" tire balance can solve them.
Ah ...... Mmmmmm ...... not exactly. That machine can only tell you where to place the tire, so you can't feel the pull - BUT - the tires have to stay in that positon and can't be rotated!
Where the machine is helpful is pairing tires on an axle.
First, it is conicity (root word: cone) that is the issue here. Conicity is the sideways force that a tire generates, and it can be pushing in or pushing out (or not be there at all!) (IF I remember correctly positive is pushing out and negative is pushing in.) Every tire has conicity to some extent - and it is the vector sum of BOTH front tires that is important.
Example: If you have a vehicle that is sensitive to 6, then a -4 and a +1 (vector difference = 5) does not produce a pull. But a -3 and a +3 do! (vector difference 6!) So it isn't a single tire - although changing a single tire might change the vector sum.
- BUT -
Conicity can be worn into a tire due to alignment. What commonly happens is that a rear tire will develop uneven wear (and conicity) and when it is rotated to the front, it causes a pull.
Look up the Hunter GSP 9700 machine- they have some good notes on this problem, and how a "road force measurement" tire balance can solve them.
Ah ...... Mmmmmm ...... not exactly. That machine can only tell you where to place the tire, so you can't feel the pull - BUT - the tires have to stay in that positon and can't be rotated!
Where the machine is helpful is pairing tires on an axle.
First, it is conicity (root word: cone) that is the issue here. Conicity is the sideways force that a tire generates, and it can be pushing in or pushing out (or not be there at all!) (IF I remember correctly positive is pushing out and negative is pushing in.) Every tire has conicity to some extent - and it is the vector sum of BOTH front tires that is important.
Example: If you have a vehicle that is sensitive to 6, then a -4 and a +1 (vector difference = 5) does not produce a pull. But a -3 and a +3 do! (vector difference 6!) So it isn't a single tire - although changing a single tire might change the vector sum.
- BUT -
Conicity can be worn into a tire due to alignment. What commonly happens is that a rear tire will develop uneven wear (and conicity) and when it is rotated to the front, it causes a pull.
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I just flipped the summer tires on the rims for the Focus as they were getting worn on the outside edge from autocross and a little "conical". For a couple weeks (600 miles) I could feel the front being a little darty as the tires were effectively adding positive camber but now they seem to have settled in almost as they were before. I used to be able to not need to move the steering wheel to keep going straight for quite a long time, now its a bit less.
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