Putting much wider tires on the front of a road car can put really high
stresses on the steering box of a road car, creating play very quickly.
Andy Cost probably won't run into this, as his autox uses seldom stress the
steering gear in the highest way with wide tires, which is the 'turn the
wheels while stopped or at very low speed' maneuver, typical parallel
parking kind of stuff. Going up from 165 to 195 tires increases tire patch
18% (presuming all else being equal), going from 165 (approx stock that
steering gear was designed for) to 235 increases the patch 42%. At Andy's
autox speed, this makes little difference, especially if he is sliding! at
slow speeds and high turn rate, or no speed and turning the wheel, this
makes a huge difference as this is the patch you must 'break loose' from
pavement.
When I bought an old VW years ago, the PO had put 10" wide tires all around,
and the steering had 180 degrees of play in it....... yep, I could drive
along next to folks, catch their eye and then whip the wheel completely
towards them and the car wouldn't move. I won't share how long I drove like
that, let's just say my things are much safer now.
Fergus O, 69 2000, HB,CA
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