tire rotation

[jester@westfailure.net (jester@westfailure.net)]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2002, Christian Els wrote:

> The reasoning behind his stance is that if your front tires slip, whether
> because you over power them, over load them (high cornering force) or
> because they have inadequate grip on wet of frozen surfaces, the car will
> always fail by sliding in the direction it is currently moving.
> 
> If the rear tires slip for any reason, the car is going to tend to rotate
> based on several factors including front grip, direction front wheels are
> pointed, cornering/acceleration/braking loads and surface angle. This
> rapidly makes for a hugely difficult vehicle to control, having to determine
> what each of those (plus other) factors are and adjust accordingly.

Ahh, oversteer Vs. understeer, the age old dilemma ;)

As to which is safer on a street car, depends on the driver & situation...

They say in racing, understeer scares the driver, oversteer scares the
passenger...

IMHO, it is easier to recover oversteer vs understeer & keep it on the
road, but then again, other drivers might turn oversteer into a
spin... which isnt good either.

Think about it this way for a moment, you are on a two lane road, you are
going into a curve, there is a car coming the other way, would you rather
slide your tail into their grille, or push through the corner and slide
your nose into their grille.

But, in the end it depends on the driver, road cars are generally designed
to understeer as *most* drivers can handle that better than oversteer,
you'll have to decide which is best for you in a street car, if you dont
know which you prefer, its probably best to stick with understeer until
you do know :)

A whole other can of worms is braking, if the rears lock up before the
fronts you most likely will go into an uncontrollable spin. So, if one set
of tires is enough worse than the others, either a) but another pair to
even things out, or b) put the baldies on teh front so you dont lock the
rears in the rain & go on a wild 360 degree ride or c) ???? im nto an
expert, just relating what i've heard, C is up to you & your priest.

So, i guess if you are talking about enough of a difference to affect
brake bias in the wet or dry, definitely put the meats up front, but
otherwise, its kinda up to you...

take care,

Steve

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