Wide tires + rain + daily driver = what traction

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player1up

player1up

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So yesterday and this morning it's raining cats and dogs and my Duster is having huge traction issues. Now this is nothing new but it got me thinking about traction.
Currently it's got /6 pushing 205/60/15 radial T/A's on 15x7 wheels, 7 1/4 rear ( open, obviously )
I've got my eye on a set of the bullitt wheels ( 17x8 ), but this also brings up another issue....If I change to a tire that has a bigger contact patch it would effectively reduce the weight per square inch of tire touching the road, which would be WORSE for traction in the rain...correct??
( I had kind of the same issue on my ranger when I put 31's on it...got really crazy to drive in the rain )


Who is running fairly wide tires on a daily driver? and what kind of traction do you get on wet roads?
I've got to imagine that if my little slant is having trouble putting the power to the road that there's got to be others out there with daily drivers that are just SCARY to drive in the rain.
 
Even with relatively skinny tires most v8 powered A-bodies are pretty scary in the rain. I had 205/70 R14's on my 67 barracuda with a mildly built 340 , 727 auto and 3.23 sure grip 8.75 rear. It was always a handful (or even both hands frantically sawing the steering wheel) to keep it out of the ditches on wet roads!!

I would keep the tire width within reason and buy tires that provide excellent wet traction on any street driven A-body. You can always have a different set of wider tires for any trips to the racetrack.

JHMO,

Bob
 
Player,
Use tires with a treadwear rating around 200. They warm up and grip really good.
If you get anything over 300 treadwear, ya might as well use old wagon wheels.
I have 220s on my Mustang and they will sqeaul like a stuck pig in 1 inch of standing water.

Of course, they do not like cold weather and hate freezing weather.
 
Looks like the tread wear of the t/a's is 400... like a skateboard wheel.
No wonder the slant can boil the one tire even on a sunny FL day.

So it sounds like I'll be good with a wider tire if I go with something softer.
I guess I hadn't thought about the fact that once I go to a 17" rim all kinds of performance tires become available, not like the 15" hyper miler family car tires out there. Thanks
 
get all weather or even winter treads. i have 205/60/14's with a winter tread on the rear and have never lost traction unless i intended to and thats in snow, rain, dry whatever. im not sure what the tread wear is.

jmo
 
I have 245 60-14s on my 69 barracuda. 360/904/3.23 suregrip, fun in the rain. Whatever tires you get, have them siped, it helps quite a bit.
 
I like the BFGoodrich Radial T/A's the best so far. Even with there high 300 's ratings, they do give on the tread a bit for a decent grip.

A hard compound (Often seen with tread wears over 400) are a pain to drive in no matter how wide they are.
 
Tread pattern has a big influence on how well a tire works in the rain. Something that channels water away from the contact patch more aggressively helps a bunch, but finessing the loud pedal and not charging into turns harder than the tires/suspension can deal with are still factors. The pizza cutter tires on my dart have become horribly inadequate on anything but dry pavement with the addition of non-factory valve timing and the stuff to support it.
 
player1up said:
So yesterday and this morning it's raining cats and dogs and my Duster is having huge traction issues. Now this is nothing new but it got me thinking about traction.
Currently it's got /6 pushing 205/60/15 radial T/A's on 15x7 wheels, 7 1/4 rear ( open, obviously )
I've got my eye on a set of the bullitt wheels ( 17x8 ), but this also brings up another issue....If I change to a tire that has a bigger contact patch it would effectively reduce the weight per square inch of tire touching the road, which would be WORSE for traction in the rain...correct??
( I had kind of the same issue on my ranger when I put 31's on it...got really crazy to drive in the rain )


Who is running fairly wide tires on a daily driver? and what kind of traction do you get on wet roads?
I've got to imagine that if my little slant is having trouble putting the power to the road that there's got to be others out there with daily drivers that are just SCARY to drive in the rain.
Click to expand...


Weight on tire / weight per square inch is not as important as more surface area / contact area to the highway. I haver seen a posi duster and a truck, both with quite wide / radial street tires do well in rain with proper tread design and depth. Tread design and depth is really important in rain right? Also both did quite well in the snow, that was not full of ice or on top of ice. I suppose at some point, a massive width may contribute to hydroplaning at high speed depending on tread design when the water cannot be ejected from under the tire thru tread channels. How do modern vehicles with 305.35.18s do in the rain.. Quite well. I suggest BFGs all terrain T/As, deep tread!.. kidding.

Here is some info on the subject from the web..

Vertical load on the tires has an effect on the lateral cornering force generated at a given slip angle. In general, cornering force increases as the vertical load increases, but the increase is not proportional to the load. The tire's ability to develop cornering force, in relation to its vertical load, is known as its "cornering coefficient". Tire cornering coefficient declines as vertical load increases. However, the inertial forces of a vehicle in a turn increase in proportion to the increase in weight. Consequently, tires that are more lightly loaded can handle greater g-loads during turns, which is a feature that is especially relevant to the handling characteristics of low mass vehicles. The graph in Figure 2 shows the relationship between vertical load and cornering coefficient (click on the link to retrieve the image). The coefficient is determined by the percentage of rated load that is represented by the actual vertical load imposed on the tire. The graph in Figure 3 provides another way to view the relationship between slip angle, vertical load, and lateral cornering force.

Here is the site..

http://www.rqriley.com/suspensn.htm
 
Not an A body but my 1972 Coronet is wearing BF Goodrich Radial T/A's in 255/60 all around and that thing is fine in the rain and snow. Honestly it's amazing how well that car handles in the snow. I believe wider is better for traction, but as others said, tread design and compound is also very important.

Edit: actually that might be 245/60, I don't remember off the top of my head.
 
BFGs are a budget radial. Really they are a crappy tire but they look great.

If you want good wet weather traction get a quality radial made for wet weather traction.
 
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