Larry Dunlap

I just got these Drag Radials from Jegs/Hoosier. One has perfectly formed, perfectly spaced little divots near the outside, and the other doesn't. Weird. Its got to be a defect. I called Jegs and the Hoosier guy that they need to talk to is out to lunch so Im calling back later.

It looks like some kind of manufacturing defect to me, and that it could cause a failure. What do you all think?

Also, these Tires are DOT but "Not intended for highway use". What does that mean exactly. My car is not a daily drive, hardly, I only drive to club meets or the strip, or occasionally down to the corner store just to run the motor. I think this means DONT drive in the rain, which I wont, and the tires will wear out fast if you drive it all the time, which I dont. Is there some other reason not to, for example drive it to the strip?

Larry Dunlap

forgot to attach the pic

Larry Dunlap

Here is a closeup of the little divot thingy

85SILVERBULLET

dot = department of transportation. If they are not dot approved they are not
street legal. Have you ever driven with a pair of slicks on your car esp. at highway speeds? Its kind of scary because they do not have much sidewall strength so the *** end of the car will be very mushy and it will feel like it wants to walk. changing lanes is really fun. If you plan on driving the car to the strip put a little extra air pressure in the tires and when you get there set it to where you want to run them and before you go home fill the tires back up. good luck!
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o yeah i wouldnt worry about the little divot. It will be gone after the first burn out. Then you will find lots of other divots in the soft rubber.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the tires to me.

also, if they are dot approved and are in fact a radial tire, the only difference in street driving those and a regular 275/50/15 street tire would be wet traction. the radial bands in them make them act like a regular radial tire and are much more stable on the street than a regular slick or street slick (et streets, quick time pro's, etc.)

Larry Dunlap

They are definitely DOT approved tires, it says so right on the tire. And they are definitely Radials, again, says so on the tire. So I will drive them to the strip (when there is no chance of rain). I have driven with Nitto Drag radials for several years and not really noticed any difference on the freeway when going to the strip or a meet, but these have less tread.

I just showe the tires to a buddy of mine and he guesses the little divot is probably a design change that HOosier made to check tire wear, like checking tread wear. Sounds reasonable.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Both sets of Hoosier Quicktime Pro DOT tires, and the non-DOT MT ET Drags I've owned had similar "divots" on the outer face. They're wear indicators. The DOT-required wear indicators are the bars in the grooves, the ones on the outside are their gift to the racer.

Maybe I'm not seeing it right, but it looks like the other tire might have one, too.

brutalform

Here is some advice. All drag tires,(except radials AFAIK), can be formed at slightly different circumferences. What you need to do, is mount them, and inflate them with equal pressure. Take a measuring tape, and measure their circumference. Its not uncommon for them to be off. The tire with the smaller measurement, pump it up to the max. pressure, let it sit in the sun for a bit, and remeasure it. You want to get both tires the same. Real important for straight launches, especially with a Locker, or spool rear. BTW, this all must be done "BEFORE", the initial burnout is ever done to them. Once you light em up, you will never get them correct, as the rubber tends to take a "set".

Even if you do have radials, it wont hurt to check. Otherwise, they look fine to me.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The circumference was grease-pencilled on the set I just bought. 87-1/4" on each.

Not radials, admittedly. But, good advice!

brutalform

Yes, I have not heard of any problems with radials, but this happens quite frequently with slicks, and D.O.T. slicks.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Well, I was referring to my latest QTP DOT purchase.

But,

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i'm gonna say that a radial tire won't have this issue since the radial bands are easier to make all the same...don't you think?

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I would have to concur, the steel belts will hold/retain a better tolerance than the nylon cords in bias ply's.

The tires are fine, your just missing wear indicators on the one tire...that set is pictured is the exact reason I do not buy tires from speed mag's since 1. they are sitting on a shelf aging and aging leads to harder rubber and 2. very rarely do you get a matched set-obvious again from the picture. The guy I've been using the past 2 years can guaruntee matched sets's (poured in same mold) and all under 30 days old. I've never got a set of tires from him with less than brite white lettering, when I used to buy from the speed mags seems every other set the lettering was brownish or anitque white in color...sign of sitting from oil's leaking into the lettering.

As far as driving slicks (mainly bias ply since that's the only tire this car has ever worn) there is nothing scarey about it unless your trying to drive at race psi. When I get home from the track the slicks get pumped upto 20-25psi and they dont give any hint of tail wag or anything else that would make them "scarey". Considering I have a 98lb sub woofer box in the back if it was gonna be squishey that would make it worse than most...but it does'nt. With any racing tires (drag slicks) your not gonna set slamon records but they are not designed for that, all it takes is common sense...which I know is often not common at all. Just stay outta the rain...that's a thing I never want to do again

Larry Dunlap

Thanks to all for the good advice. I think I will try the measuring procedure mentioned, since the tires are obviously not matched since one has the wear indicators and the other doesnt'. They are supposed to be 25.7" according to the specs. I measured them not mounted last night and they are like 24". I assume the proper measurement is mounted and inflated to normal pressure, measuring from the farthest points on each side when looking at the tire from the side.

The "Hoosier" white lettering actually looks quite nice, very white and bright. Maybe they hadn't sat around too long. Good point about buying tires locally from someone you can trust, I think I will take that advice next time.

Im gettting my car back from having a cutout installed tomorrow and will mount the tires tomorrow too. I won't be able to get to the strip til next Friday. Ill post my comments about how they perform on and off the strip.

brutalform

That was a good point that IHI brought up. I've seen LOTS of tires with an off white, to a tan lettering. I never thought about it before. The oils staining the lettering makes perfect sense to me now.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Same here until i started buying from a guy in IL. and he explained everything to me, then I was like duh...no wonder all these summit/jegs slicks in the past were brown-overstocked and sitting not that having a sister set is going to do me any good at my level, but i suppose there's the cool factor of having matched tires LOL!!

88IROC350TPI

Those Hoosier drag radials look pretty serious... I've been thinking about getting a set but I dunno of many people running them. Apparently they are bigger and lighter than ET Radials... let us know how they work out for ya.

Larry Dunlap

OK, I got them on the car but haven't had a chance to get to the strip. Im heading to the nearest 1/8mile strip this Friday. They are light, 22 lbs compared to the MT drag radials at 30 lbs. I didn't see a weight for the Nittos. One thing I did notice, the treadwear rating is like 040 compared to 100 on the Nittos. Shouldn't be a big deal for me since I only drive the car occasionally, but they are actually a little more $ than the Nittos and I will need to replace them more frequently. I hope they are worth it at the strip.

see pics of them on the car in this thread

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/sout...dangerous.html

Trevor86TA

IIRC, the treadwear rating is "0" on my ET Street Radials.

Larry Dunlap

Any idea what those treadwear numbers mean? I remember being told that the expected miles on the nittos were like 5000 to 8000. So by that the miles on the Hoosiers should be like 2000 to 3200. What would a Zero mean? never drive them on the street or something

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

From TIRES :
"The treadwear grade is based on a standardized government test with a base index of 100. A tire with a 320 treadwear rating would wear 3.2 times better than the government's "base" tire."

A "zero" would mean it hasn't been rated. Light truck tires do not have to be treadwear rated, so they zero it out. (My Hoosiers are LT sized, meaning light truck, for which the standards are not as rigorous.)

Larry Dunlap

Went to the 1/8 Mile track near my home last night. Here is the results

reaction 60' ET MPH
.0198 1.8735 8.4452 81.30
.1037 1.8575 8.3874 81.74

Best ET ever, but not 60' time or mph.Close on 60' time tho.

I had a run in the middle of those two where I shifted from first to third, Geez, I need a ratchet shifter. 60' was 1.8508 best of the evening, and I still ran a 8.53 which surprised me. 79.79 mph though.

Well I need to figure a way to get the cutout off without having to jack up the car. There is no way I can spin these tires if I heat them up and then run on a sticky track. I did notice a difference that Im shifting to third somewhat before the finish line, where as with the 3.23 gears I was shifting (or not) right at the line. I was about 4500 rpm at the finish. It will be interesting to run the 1/4.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

just fyi, i've got probably about 100 passes on my m/t's and about 4000 miles and they still have about half the tread...been 1.64 on them too with old motor.

Larry Dunlap

Well thanks, are those MT drag radials? what is the tread rating on them? THese are Hoosier drag radials and they, from what Ive seen, the most extreme drag radials there are. There are only two small grooves around each tire for tread on each one. The treadware rating is 040. What is it for your tires?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i'm not sure on the rating, though both m/t and hoosier both have full drag slicks (ie no grooves) that have radial bands in them that i would call the ultimate "drag radial" but they are not DOT approved...

Trevor86TA

From above:

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