<VV> Tires and an ad

[James P. Rice]

All:  This advice about putting new tires on the back was reported in (I
think) Car&Driver many years ago.  Michelin did a whole lot of testing on a
wet skid pad with lots of tire combinations on lots of cars.  They found
that all cars, regardless of FWD or RWD, were most controllable with the
best tires on the back.  Current new cars with traction control might modify
the results somewhat today, but lots of us do not have it on our vehicles.

It makes sense, regardless of the info source, when you consider the
difference in tire grip on wet or snow covered surfaces based on tread
depth.  With the most worn tires on the front you can feel thru the steering
wheel and how the car is behaving the loss of traction, and slow down
accordingly.  When the back looses traction, the first warning to most
people is when the car starts to go sideways.  Since most of us have not
either been trained, by others or ourselves, to anticipate rear end
breakaway, the best thing to do is put the most traction on the end of the
car most folks are unable to control.

Rotating tires in the typical "X-pattern" really can mess up the tire
adhesion balance.

For those of you who must see or know about all Corvair sightings in the
media, in the Nov Road&Track on page 155 there is a LM vert with a young
enough to be my granddaughter person draped over it in a car wash/wax ad for
"Addicted To You Car" line of products.  It's not worth the effort to retain
the ad or even this information, unless you absolutely must.

Historically Yours,
                   James Rice

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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:43:22 -0700
From: Chris & Bill Strickland <lechevrier at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: <VV> rear brake bias
To: Virtual Vairs <VirtualVairs at corvair.org>

Jim Houston wrote:

> There are some current recommendations by a couple of major tire
manufacturers


I believe that it is the recommendation of *all* tire manufacturers and the
RMA (Rubber Manufacturers Association) that winter tires only be installed
in matched sets of four. The only exception is if winter tires are applied
to the rear axle of a RWD vehicle but even then 4 matched tires is
recommended.

http://www.michelinman.com/tire-care/tire-saving-tips/replacement-questions/
#install-tires
--

If you're replacing only two tires, be sure to have the new tires
installed on your vehicle's rear axle. Here's why:

    * New tires will provide better wet grip than your half-worn tires.
    * When new tires are installed on the rear, it helps reduce the
      potential for your vehicle to fishtail or hydroplane in wet
      conditions.

click the website link to view the Michelin video

Bill Strickland

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:56:07 -0500
From: "J R Read_HML" <hmlinc at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: <VV> 2 - 4 tire recs - was rear brake bias
To: "Chris & Bill Strickland" <lechevrier at earthlink.net>,	"Virtual
	Vairs" <VirtualVairs at corvair.org>

When a "vested" interest is involved in a recommendation it always makes me
skeptical.
Later, JR