My rear tires are just about bald. They are 245/60r15 BFG T/A radials, and I am definitely into the wear bar. I was wondering...since there is more rubber on the ground than there would be with good tread, shouldn't these grip better?
Smooth tires virtually never grip better. The tread is what gives you traction. The cuts in the tread (sipes) channel water away to give you beter traction on wet roads.
Most tire manufacturers will produce the tire in such a way that they become harder and wear slower as the tire wears down (safety reasons for people who run them down to the belts instead of replacing them like they should). Even though a completely bald tire will have more rubber on the road, it's probably hard as a rock and wont' do much for traction. They also tend to wear round instead of flat, which only diminishes your contact patch. There are lots of reasons why bald radial tires are not the best for racing. Get new tires, you'll notice a big difference.
people say that the tires are now like slicks but they fail to take into consideration that the slicks are a soft compound and don't last very long on the street. street tires do not get better as they get older.
definately about what it is made of and what it is made for. a racing slick is made to grip across the whole surface. street tires are not.race drivers wouldnt spend the big money for racing slicks if they could just used the tires that a street car discarded and get as good of traction. new tires are worth the investment.
I recognize that the bald tires are nothing like slicks, being much harder rubber. And, this question was intended for drag racing, not driving in the rain, which I do not do, even on good tires. I was thinking that I had lost traction due to either the rubber hardening over time, or the compound being harder under the tread. I ask because I took off from a light today and they broke loose but didn't try to hop or even grip at all. They just made a bunch of noise and spun until I dropped the rpms to where they could grip. When they had even a little bit of tread, they would try to hop and smoke, but they aren't doing it anymore. I tried a burnout a couple weeks ago, and no smoke. They broke loose and the rear swam side to side, but not the effect I used to get when they had tread.
Age kills a tire as well as heat cycles, heating then cooling. Years ago i ran a class requiring street dot tires (road racing) and we shaved the tread down to 3/32 to reduce tread flex. They performed awesome but lasted about 3 races. They still had tread but no grip. I mounted a set and took them to the strip, they sucked. Im guessing that The tread flex in fuller treaded tires absorbs the shock of accelleration.
That makes sense. I have sure noticed that these baldies (as opposes to "slicks") have no gription at all. But it was sure fun wearing them out Last thing...Now that I have "throw-away" tires...Can you really do a burnout that will blow them up? I keep reading about it, but I would guess that you would do fender damage with the tread flying off. These would be great tires to burnout down to the steel belts. I would hate to throw them away before all of their potential use is gone
Yep, you can do it but I wouldn't. I don't know if it would hit the fender hard enough to mess it up, but I wouldn't want to take the chance.
if your doing a burnout at 4500 rpm for example. you tell me if a steel belt comes off at about 75 mph wether it's going to do any damage or not?
the 69 staion wagon i had years ago lost the front tire doing 50 down the highway. the belt only hit the fender one or two revolutions but it really mangled that fender bad. wouldnt want that damage on any vehicle.
Dirt Racer is onto it. For dry pavement - a shorter tread gives better traction. Wet and ice traction is better with lots of small sipes. Hydroplaning is better with tall deep treadblocks and straight grooves. Aromatic oils and other chemicals in the rubber keep the tire soft. The more heat cycles the tire goes through the more oils come to the surface and are lost, also the more "vulcanized" the rubber becomes. The tire eventually becomes a dry hard brick. Cleaver
a tire blew on my dually at about 75mph. almost $1200 damage. +the tire. luckily it was all covered at the big O tire shop.
Use other gas instead of just air... Nitrogen or Cardon Dioxide are much more stable and decrease heat and the wear associated with it. Up to 10% on fuel cost, lasts 6x longer and so on: Good information. Definately worth the investment! http://www.tirelast.com/id5.html
