Mcikey's ET Street R - Vibration/wobbling
 

Made a few hits today and these tires vibrated like crazy over the last 1/8.

Anyone experienced this problem? They had 20#.

Yes. They are impossible to balance, and even if you do they are still hit or miss. The last 17" set I had vibrated bad at 90mph. They are notoriously bad balance wise.

I agree they are unraceable. What are my options? Toyo or Nitto?

Are you sure they’re not slipping on the rim?

Beadlock or no? If you so need to go over the beadlock flange about 4 times to make sure all the ninety zillion bolts are all correctly torqued. Then road force balance the complete wheel & tire setup. Most people I spoke with thought it was overkill but it worked out perfectly.

I don't believe so, it's an F14 bead lock. Should have marked them.

I called the shop where I bought them who said they will credit their price against new tires, so ... I would prefer to try a different drag radial.

I am running those tires and had no issue to 140

I would put them back on a road force as mentioned. Mine were road force balanced at a Firestone

I am surprised you want to jump ship so quickly they are one of the fastest radials. I love them drive 50 min to the track and feel excellent on a launch and on street

Ditto on the (nearly) impossible to balance M/T's. I've returned 3 of them in the past three years. Frustrated me, the tire guys, spent hours chasing vibrations that, every time, ended up being the tires. Currently running the Hoosier DBR 28"X10.5"X17R. Love it! And, it is 8 lbs. lighter; each tire. It is a racing slick and not a drag radial DOT. My only complaint is Hoosier does not make a 28" X 10" or 10.5" X 17" street drag radial DOT. They make 26" but not 28". Turned best 60', best 1/8, best 1/4 and best MPH on this tire. Of course there were other circumstances like some really good air, but traction and a smooth trip were not an issue. Had to add an engine diaper for one track, but that was no biggie.

Road raced motorcycles for 20 years and balanced hundreds of tires. M/C tires come with a marker indicating the lightest spot on the tire. The tire is mounted with the spot at the valve stem which places the heaviest spot on the tire opposite the valve stem (heaviest spot on the wheel). You never wanted the heaviest spot on the wheel and the heaviest spot on the tire adjacent for obvious reasons.

Car tires don't come that way. Carrying that procedure to car race wheels and tires, I always get the wheels balanced naked and put the weights right in the center of the wheel and mark or tape them. Those weights never come off so the wheel is always balanced. Then, mount and balance the tires. In theory, "heavy" wheel locations and heavy tire locations will never match up. Overkill? Maybe, but I overkill everything anyway. :)

One other comment on slick vs drag radial. My local track (NHRA sanction) told me, for the new car rule (which allows us to run under 11.50 without installing a roll bar in the car) to be in effect, that we could use DOT radials, but not slicks. Meaning, some tracks might flunk you from the new car exception for having drag slicks on the car instead of DOT radials, just a heads up.

That sucks

King says the same about MT balancing. I may have gotten lucky

I'll walk around the pits next week to see what other street cars are running. I saw a bunch of MT, Toyo, and Nitto yesterday

Yup...myself and others have had nothing but problems getting Mickey DR's to balance properly. Back when tires were plentiful it wasn't "AS" big of a deal to return MT's until you got a good set. With tire shortages you might waste half the season screwing around with that.

I would try the Hoosier DR2 for a "street legal" track tire. Back in the day over on LS1tech guys were having much better luck with them and they are much lighter. For a drag radial used primarily on the street, I don't think you can beat a Nitto 555r2.

Edit*

Looks like Hoosier doesn't offer the 305/45/17 that many like to run. Be nice if they would off more size options.

MT's traction is fine, but I can't live with the shakes.

I need a drag radial primarily for the track, and occasional road use. No errands.

Also, these big ass 305 Michelin fronts caused the car wander around going down the track. I'm not interested in real skinnies, but maybe narrower fronts, like say, 275/35/19

I’ve only used them with fr245 rear275