Wider Tires & Alignment Problems
Putting wide tires with the appropriate wheels can provide a fantastic sense of control and grip on the road. Of course, nothing comes without a cost. Wide tires can be difficult to align and wear quickly.
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What is Involved in Alignment
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Whatever kind of tire you are using, you should keep your car well aligned. Alignment is the adjustments done on the wheels so that they are perpendicular to the road and parallel to each other. Of course, they should also be facing exactly straight ahead. To keep your wheels well aligned, you must adjust things such as: toe, steering axis inclination, included angle, scrub radius, camber and toe out on turns to mention a few.
Balancing Alignment
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Alignment is not as precise as you may want it to be. Sometimes the mechanic has to balance many of the factors to get the best results for wear on the tires combined with the handling ability of the car. He may have to give something up in one area to have a better result in another.
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Wide Tires Make it Hard to Align
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Wide tires give more surface area on the ground and provide good braking and turning capabilities. Nonetheless, they make it harder to balance all of the necessities of an alignment. To have good handling, you may have to give up the absolute flatness of a wider tire. This means that you will have excessive wear on the outside of the tire.
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- Photo Credit tire treads close-up image by Kathy Burns from Fotolia.com
