Vague on-center steering feel - Kumho Ecsta 712

Scott Herstad shersta@ilstu.edu
Thu, 2 May 2002 10:36:08 -0500


Carson,

Coincidentally, I just swapped my 185/60 artic aplins for 205/50 kumho
ecstas. I bought the kumhos during the winter, so this is my first
experience with them and my first experience w/ 205s on my classic.
Although I've only put about 10 miles on them so far, I've noticed the
same effects you've described. Most of the list discussion so far has
concerned alignment (and they might be right), but I'm more inclined to,
at least partially, chalk this up to "tramlining," the tendency for some
wider tires to follow grooves and imperfections in the road. The fact
that your car sometimes wants to pull right and sometimes left and that
these tendencies directly correlate with the shape of the road surface
would seem to suggest tramlining rather than alignment problems (unless
castor was _way_ out of whack?). Are your kuhmos mounted on B15 rims?
Mine are. Maybe it's a combination of rim, tire, and alignment.

Scott
93 classic--a little darty in the straights, but lots of fun in the
corners