 |
|
I have been running R-888s for a few track weekends doing HPDEs. The outside edges are getting pretty beat up. Is is ok to run them opposite of the directional arrows? I mean when there is no rain of course. I wasn’t sure if there was a balancing reason for the directional arrows. Also wasn’t sure if the car would act funny after running on them for some time the other way.
Any advice is appreciated.
Jason
[quote]I have been running R-888s for a few track weekends doing HPDEs. The outside edges are getting pretty beat up. Is is ok to run them opposite of the directional arrows? I mean when there is no rain of course. I wasn’t sure if there was a balancing reason for the directional arrows. Also wasn’t sure if the car would act funny after running on them for some time the other way.
Any advice is appreciated.
Jason [/quote]
Most guys here agree that running them non-directionally will not affect performance. From my experience this is true but I have also been told by experts that they will not perform correctly that way.
Yes, when you first rotate them after a long time running them the other way the car will act funny. You will loose grip more abruptly in corners and the car will wander a lot under braking. Give it a session or maybe two of hard running to wear in and they should run smoothly again.
jls8177 wrote:
Jason -
From what I understand, once the R888 is shaved you don’t have to worry about the directionality. I have run 4/32nds and 3/32nds and have rotated the tires all around with no ill effects.
Are you running full tread? If so, by “beat up” do you mean they are chunking or just wearing faster than the inside?
If you are running full tread, I would recommend flipping them side to side to balance out the wear.
Steve D.
I am running full tread. The tires aren’t chunking, just wearing on the outside edge. Do I need to actually flip the tires on the rims?
Jason
I’ve run full tread R888s for two HPDE weekends. The first weekend, I ran them in the proper direction, the second weekend I put them on the other sides and ran them in the “wrong” direction. They worked fine for me in the wrong direction (I really couldn’t tell any difference; may car seemed a little less steady under hard braking, but I also had new rotors, pads, tierods, and I’m not sure I fully trust that I was feeling any diff at all… certainly not anything I could attribute to the tires or their direction), but like you, I’m getting more wear on the outside than the inside. I’ll probably be flipping them (turning them inside-out) on the rims over the course of my next weekend before they get too lopsided. At the track I think the tire dude charged about $20 per tire to flip and re-balance when I did this with some old RA-1s last year.
jls8177 wrote:
[quote]Do I need to actually flip the tires on the rims?
Jason[/quote]
Yep. Just moving it from one side of the car to the other will still mean the outside edges are on the outside. You need to actually flip the tire on the rim to get the outside edge on the inside.
We just flipped our R888s after cording one of our tires… we should have done it a little sooner. Oh well.
drumbeater wrote:
[quote]Gilles wrote:
Is it just me or does $80 sound like a lot to flip 4 tires?[/quote]
Maybe $5 per tire too high. If you deliver the wheels to the tire guy after you have cleaned all the tire boogers and brake dust off, they will be happier with you. Show up with cash and a clean stack of wheels and you should be out for $50-60, IMO.
Steve D.
Hmmm, I thought $20 per tire flip was a bit high (made me think about going into the track tire dude support business), but there was only one tire dude at the NASA-SE Barber event last year, and that’s the price he told me… now I know to clean the rims and haggle.
Going rate around here is generally $12-$15. I get the local greasy rag garage to do it for $40/set.
Gilles wrote:
Hence the $20 upcharge from a ‘real’ shop.
Gilles wrote:
Or even better: clean the rims and ask nicely if he has any racer-takeoff R888s you can have from the used tire pile.
That’ll cover a lot of $5-too-expensive mountings!
Steve D.
Phil’s quoted me at $25/tire. I just got them done for $5/tire at the auto skills center at Ft. Meade.
Just a thought on the original topic of the thread - anything wrong with flipping the tires and running them.
I was always told that you can run these or most any R compound backward if you want - but you don’t want to do this in the rain. If you think about it - you would be pumping water into the tread vs. pumping it out (look at the tread and image this).
As the wife said earlier - we flipped ours - but by flipping them on the rim and swapping sides, they will still be pointing the correct direction. I wouldn’t hesitate to run them “backwards”, but this scenario only plays with us on tires that are getting pretty smooth.
I’m not 100% sure that “what I heard” maps to that’s really how it works, but it made sense to me. You won’t catch me out in the wet with full tread R888s running backwards.