Tire Slip - anyone notice their rear General RT43 slipping in the rain?

[CBXBob]

Anyone notice a 215/60r15 general RT43 slipping in the rain ?

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Anyone notice a 215/60r15 general RT43 slipping in the rain ?

I just posted a lengthy answer about this ( thread " Brand New Tire - posted by JayBros. ) .... The short version is ALL Tires can and will slip / hydroplane on wet surfaces..... Some are better than others .... The Altimax is # 2., on my short list of really good tires ..... Mike

[Peter Aawen]

Anyone notice a 215/60r15 general RT43 slipping in the rain ?

What pressure were you running in that tire?

[PW2013STL]

I had that issue with that tire. Started at 12,000 miles and was not safe at 17,000 miles. I think my issue was to high air pressure. I was running it at 25#. I have since learned to run car tires at no more than 18 -20psi.

[CBXBob]

21 psi

[Peter Aawen]

21 psi

Yup, that'll do it! At anything much over 18 psi, it's almost certainly too high for that tire unless you/your load weighs in over something like saay 500 pounds, the ambient temp is over about 120°F, &/or you are travelling looong distances at very high speeds; so therefore at that pressure it'll be more prone to poor wet road traction than it need be!

That said (& I'm only trying to remind people here ) please do remember that EVERY & ANY TIRE WILL HYDRO-PLANE regardless of its pressure if you are travelling too fast for the conditions! So if it's wet, slow down! The wetter it is, the more you should slow down! Stay Safe!

[Flamewinger]

I remember having to fill a bladder with water attached to the bed of my mid size truck to give the rear tires better traction in the rain. I fail to understand how a tire for a 2 ton vehicle works on a half a ton motorcycle. More weight - better traction, less weight - less traction. Kinda why MC tires have a softer compound so the light weight (500-1100lb) motorcycles have the traction they need.

[Peter Aawen]

I remember having to fill a bladder with water attached to the bed of my mid size truck to give the rear tires better traction in the rain. I fail to understand how a tire for a 2 ton vehicle works on a half a ton motorcycle. More weight - better traction, less weight - less traction. Kinda why MC tires have a softer compound so the light weight (500-1100lb) motorcycles have the traction they need.

Simple, within the constraints of the load you're carrying, instead of adding weight you could've lowered your tire pressures & achieved the same result!

The other bit only applies if you DO NOT change the tire pressure; the expansion/extrapolation of that equation is that less weight NEEDS less air pressure or you'll end up with less traction; so within the constraints of still being able to carry the imposed loads, if you drop your tire pressure you'll increase or regain your traction.

I know it's a complex thing & difficult for some to understand, but the science of adjusting tire pressures to match the load & optimise traction given a particular set of conditions etc is not something that's new or un-used - Tire manufacturers pay people to work in the field & do a lot of testing to confirm it; F1 Teams use it & pay big money for the most skilled practitioners; most successful race teams use it; anyone in the transport industry who wants to minimise costs & maximise tire performance and life uses it; and as at least a couple of us here know, there's even a whole field of study that encompasses it.

But at the level that applies to our (lightweight) Spyder/Rykers, it's a fairly simple thing to understand - if a given tire is capable of carrying a 2800 pound car when it's inflated to saay 36 psi (ie roughly 700 pounds per tire) then when you're only asking that tire to carry 1/2 the weight or thereabouts, it only needs something closer to half the pressure in it to do the job. If you DON'T drop the pressure to suit the lower loading, amongst other things you'll lose traction, especially in the wet.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I remember having to fill a bladder with water attached to the bed of my mid size truck to give the rear tires better traction in the rain. I fail to understand how a tire for a 2 ton vehicle works on a half a ton motorcycle. More weight - better traction, less weight - less traction. Kinda why MC tires have a softer compound so the light weight (500-1100lb) motorcycles have the traction they need.

What you did .... adding weight ( probably quite a bit ) ... caused the " sipes " in the tire to perform better. It would work for the Spyder also, but the passenger would have to weigh about 300 lbs..... Auto tires work on the Spyders ... ONLY ... if the PSI is based on the WEIGHT of the Spyder. When I " drag raced " my Spyder ( at Spyderfest ) at an official race track... I lowered my rear tire to 12 psi and raised my front tires to 45 psi .... This increased my rear traction by quite a bit ( I actually had difficulty breaking traction at start ) .... also the front traction was reduced a bit.... Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd I took in class. .... Mike

[AtomicEd]

I just posted a lengthy answer about this ( thread " Brand New Tire - posted by JayBros. ) .... The short version is ALL Tires can and will slip / hydroplane on wet surfaces..... Some are better than others .... The Altimax is # 2., on my short list of really good tires ..... Mike

So what's #1 on your list?