Quote:
Originally Posted by Off in the Bushes
I purchased these tires in a LT version, my initial thought at first driving made me think i was driving a boat. I dropped the pressure 10PSI in the front and 30Psi in the rear and it improved, plus i think that tires needed some driving to stiffen the side wall.
|
Honestly I think that is more a case of getting used to characteristics of a specific tire rather than them actually stiffening the sidewall itself (other than playing with air pressure of course).
This said, people often forget that a tire wears gradually in the reality of time. When a tire is brand new and the tread is very deep, it is natural to feel more flex (or sway or as you described "being on a boat" etc) as the taller tread blocks will squirm more under load, but as they slowly wear over time they don't feel the transition to them becoming less forgiving and more stable, so by the time it is time for new tires they might notice a dramatic difference between the old and new tires, especially when going to something with a very deep lug and higher sipe density.
Think of it to the extreme where they shave down race tires to a minimal tread depth, or run slicks instead of having any tread in the dry. That gives a tire the absolutely most stability when pushed to the extreme (along with a larger contact patch on the slicks). Even though it may not be as dramatic with street tires, it still is a very real effect.