warrior4jesus

Bought some new tires OEM size for my 84 and I hate them. They are just enough wider that the car no longer sits in the travel lanes other cars have worn into the roads around here leaving me constantly adjusting for it. It's not major changes but just enough to be annoying. I'm happy with the sticky feel and the traction I receive but overall Status : Annoyed. Oh and because of the texture of the lettering it will be difficult to white letter them. I probably won't attempt it.

Hot Rod Roy

How is your front wheel alignment? The caster spec for '84 was 3 deg. but later 'vette's are spec'ed at 6 deg. I set my '84 to 6 deg. and that provided a significant improvement in the tracking stability, and eliminated its sensitivity to road irregularities like you are struggling with!

warrior4jesus

I'm not sure but I'll check with my alignment guy on Monday. It was just done a couple months ago.

Joe C

just curious - what brand tires, and what size?

Churchkey

Tires should become more compliant after 4-500 miles of use.

mikem350

New tires also will always feel more responsive, especially if the old ones were very worn and hard and dry

Hot Rod Roy

You should have been given the print-out from your alignment job. What do the results say? Unless you instructed your alignment guy to do anything different, he should have set everything to factory specs, including the 3 deg. caster. Several people on this forum are using the 6 deg. caster on their '84 - '87 'vette's, and have reported improved handling.

warrior4jesus

BG Goodrich Sport Comp 2's. Size 255/50/ZR16.

Dt86

Check your tire pressure. Too much air will create a harsh ride in these cars. Also if your alignment is off you will get really bad bump steer. Did you have uneven wear?

drcook

Don't be so quick to blame the size. If you can swap the fronts to the back and see if the problem continues. My wife's new car was twitchy like you described. It was a bad tire. Over the last few years I have gotten quite a few bad tires. Goodyears and Firestones.

xrav22

I just decided on Toyo r888 (255/50/16) after tons of shopping . It seems the BFG 255/50/16 is the goto tire). I just put them on last week after getting my rack rebuilt, with new tie rod ends,havent grabbed alignment yet but no tracking problems at all. I would really check the joints front and back.
Mine is 85
Good luck

warrior4jesus

the suspension is good no problems, no uneven wear and tire pressure is 33psi. I wss not able to talk to my alignment guy today and i don't have a printout so I'll eventually figure it out.

hcbph

I have BFG's 245x50r16's and they're fine. Now having said that, I did have something of a similar problem on my T-bird after having the damaged springs replaced with oem ones and aligned to factory settings. It was actually dangerous the way it handled, would throw the car to the side if you had any kind of seam, depression or line in the road. I finally found a shop that did race car work including alignments. Even though it had been aligned 3 times by the dealer and a separate alignment shop, this was the place that solved it. They tweaked the alignment a little and it totally settled it down so it drove and handled the way it should have.

warrior4jesus

mine handles nothing like that. Like i said it's just an annoyance more than anything. Car handles great like it's on rails. Just on some roads it doesnt sit in the tracks right.

jay1055

Just a thought here but if your 84 has the Z51 make sure the wider wheels are not on the front ? I had this happen once. Jay

warrior4jesus

Good thought i had not checked but it's not a z51

exitwound

what are the tracks like? Is this a normal thing in the USA?

I have 255/50x16 Kumhos and 295/50x16 Coopers on 10"x16" rims here in the UK and it drives perfectly. I also pulled the shims to increase -ve camber and increase +caster. Pressures are 32 all round. Perfect wear and handling.

JrRifleCoach

All things considered, why would new tires cause the car to behave this way?
They're wider? No. Its because the edges are still sharp.
This is where the flat tread part curves/turns towards the sidewall.
Go out and carve some turns and knock those edges off.

Hot Rod Roy

You have/are a talented alignment technician! The roads in the USA are typically pretty good.

whalepirot

Mine is and I never found that to be an issue. I did find some brands tended to follow wear 'ruts' or those rain grooves, more than others.
Umm, maybe. The best road for me of late was the remote Cassiar Hwy. in the Yukon; way better than a number of California highways, especially some heavily trod sections, like in the East Bay! That is with a total lack or hot/cold deterioration in CA, unlike the northern tier.

Put that in your moonbeam and smoke it!