I recently purchased a set of Sumitomo HTRZ III tires from tire rack. 215/45/17 and 255/40/17 as recommended by Jim via phone from tire rack to be the closest to the factory stagger. The tires are fine, and I've put about 500 miles on them.

My issue is tramming (tires catching grooves in the road). My daily route consists of a long stretch of highway that has aggressive lengthwise ground grooves in the concrete. (275 north of downtown Tampa for those familiar). My previous hockey puck like Nexen tires were not phased by this, but now it feels like I'm driving a slot car on the highway. I am being thrown left to right in the lane in a very unsettling way. I am running 32psi in the tires. Does anyone have any experience with these tires and tramming? Any recommendations as far as tire pressures to resolve the problem? Is the increase in width/grip the cause? Will it get better as the tires wear?

 

It will improve at the tires wear. Deep tread is more susceptible to tramming than more shallow tread.

 

I have the ZIIIs in the 225F 255R setup. Yes more front tread width leads to tramlining. Even on 225s though I dont think its something of concern, ive never had it be bad enough to be worried about it though. I doubt it will get better with more miles. The Sumis even in the 215 front, are larger than the stock tires. So its more likely to happen.

Let me know if you want to get rid of them tho, lol, i need new tires and will be getting 215/255 sumis next time (for fender clearance, not tramlining).

Im not sure how PSI will affect it.

 

same tires but mine have atleast 10k miles. 225F and 255R. when im going down 635 here in dallas my car does the same thing. not sure if it'll stop with any more miles.

 

Get an alignment

 

I have never heard an issue with the tires. Below is a post that talks about ways to deal with it.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=47

 

just got some new rears and i notice the same thing your describing.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. It just seems to be a combination of the tires, new tire tread squirm, and the severe grooves in this particular section of road. It doesn't happen on regular surfaces. It's just unfortunate the section is 10 miles long and I have to drive it everyday of the week. My previous tires had more of a V pattern to the tread design, and I may look for a tire with a similar tread pattern for my next set.

 

i'm on my second set of HTRZ-3 215/45 and 255/40 and i've never had issues you speak of unless when i'm on a particular road.

 

I think that is more road related rather than tire related. I've noticed the same thing on 635, especially in the NE, in both the S2000 and my truck.