ALT-6 Tips for Buying Low Profile Tires
I skimmed through the articles on buying low profile tires and saw nothing that actually fit the real world. Low profile tires do not generally wear out faster than regular height tires IF you be sure to take the car to a GOOD alignment shop right after the tires are installed. Softer rubber compound type tires do not wear out faster than regular height tires either, as long as you do not regularly travel gravel roads a lot. If on a gravel road slow down to 20-25 mph to prevent small chunks of rubber from being pulled off the tread by the rocks.(it's even dangerous to travel gravel roads much faster than 25mph anyway as stopping distances, curve handling capabilities, and traction are greatly compromised).
Also make sure the width of the tires match the width of the wheels that you intend to mount the tires on to prevent bulging of the tire tread by wheels that are too narrow, etc. Now to back up and talk about possible wheel alignment changes. If the outer diameter of the low profile tires you are putting on the car is different than the outer diameter of the tires removed, there may be some tendency of the car to drift (probably to the left if the replacement tires are shorter). This drifting is caused by the camber settings. To make camber clearer, the necessary camber settings that allow the car to travel down most roads in a straight line without assistance from the driver, while using a particular outer diameter tire, is the optimum (or desirable) setting. A taller tire requires a more aggressive camber setting and a shorter tire requires a less aggressive camber setting.
There is a toe amount for the left tire and a separate toe amount for the right tire, this is called individual toe. Total toe is the amount of overall toe (both sides added together). Too many alignment people use published total toe specs which may be too wide for the wider tires you are installing. Setting toe at a more specific setting may be required, as well as narrowing down the tolerances allowed (especially where the vehicle is rear wheel driven). Softer rubber compound tires to my notion is preferable when driving normally and avoiding hard braking or excessively fast acceleration. I have a 4x4 truck which gets well over 100,000 miles out of Michelin or B.F. Goodrich all terrain tires (B.F. Goodrich Co. is owned by Michelin), which are softer rubber type tires.
NOTE: Sometimes softer tires will require a less aggressive camber setting than hard tires of the same outer diameter. This is especially true of larger tires such as what you would find on a medium/heavy truck, and even on my 4x4 truck that uses large 16" tires. There is a whopping difference in quality from one tire to another too. So comparing low profile to non low profile tires in terms of wear ability, without the comparison being of only one particular brand, is like comparing apples and oranges. I could go on and on about tire performance and wear, etc. But I would rather everyone buy my ebook and learn for themselves. The ebook primarily deals with medium/heavy vehicles, but a lot of it can be applied to even the smallest of cars. It's not on the internet just yet, but should be in the next few weeks. Watch for hastprotrucks.com if you're interested in learning more.
