Tires causing a pull

[wbwanzer]

Four or five years ago I had a Chevy Equinox that I bought a set of aftermarket wheels and tires for. I had Altimax RT43s mounted on the new wheels. I kept the OE wheels and tires. I would switch off about every six months with the wheels. I found the RT43s to be better in snow than whatever the OE tires were, so I would mount the new wheels with TR43s for winter months and go back to the OE wheels/tires for the rest of the year.

I wanted to set the scenario, now I'll get to the point. When the TR43s were on the road there would be an ever so slight pull to the left when going down a straight level road. When the OE tires were back on the road that ever so slight pull to the left was gone.

Now fast forward to current situation. I very recently had Firestone Destination LE3s installed on the factory wheels on my '23 Santa Fe. I now have an ever so slight pull to the left when driving under the same conditions as described above. I did not have this pull with the OE tires. So I'm concluding that it's something about the tires that cause this miniscule pull. Is it tread pattern? Something else?

Have any of you ever noticed something like this? I'm not going to get an alignment because it ran dead straight before the new tires were mounted. I'm not looking for a solution. I just thought it was an interesting tire situation.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Absolutely. Shop replaced the tire on my pilot with the wrong version. It was pulling to one side. They even checked the alignment and it was perfect. They figured it was the tire as the tread was a little different. We found the original tire, it went on and drove like normal.

 

[CapriRacer]

Long Version: Barry's Tire Tech: Drifts and Pulls

Short Version: There is a tire property called conicity (root word Cone), where each tire has a sideways force generated while rolling. The force is not consistent from tire to tire and certain combinations will cause a pull - sometimes a big pull.

OE tires are carefully paired such that the combinations that cause pulls is largely eliminated. Afftermarket tires - not so much.

 

[wbwanzer]

Long Version: Barry's Tire Tech: Drifts and Pulls

Short Version: There is a tire property called conicity (root word Cone), where each tire has a sideways force generated while rolling. The force is not consistent from tire to tire and certain combinations will cause a pull - sometimes a big pull.

OE tires are carefully paired such that the combinations that cause pulls is largely eliminated. Afftermarket tires - not so much.

Thanks for that terrific explanation!