Stranger in the Black Sedan
08-08-2009, 07:26 PM
This is my technical and road test review of the $107/each 245/55/18 BF Goodrich Radial TA-Spec tires spec'd for the 2010 Camaro. I have my own tire machines and I performed the installation.
If you are not interested in my detailed impressions of the tire construction and want a quick summary, scroll down to the bolded SUMMARY at the end.
I have mounted 2 of the new Camaro spec radial TA 245/55/18s on my Marauder. I tested them in two configurations, configuration 1 as a front tire with all 245/55/18s on all 4 corners, and configuration 2, as the rear tires with stock 245/50/18s on the front. I wanted to test the Radial TA's on the front to see how well they handled, because it's hard to tell on just the rear how the sidewall stiffness compares to a KDWs.
Initial impressions of the 245/55/18 spec Radial TA - the Radial TA does not have molded in bead recesses in the sidewall to form bead protectors like the KDWs have (and like any other performance 18" tire I have ever seen)!! This means the sidewall of the Radial TA mounts less vertically than the KDWs and more in a traditional balloon-tire style bulge of a passenger car tire. Plus the rim edge of the forged stock wheels sticks waaay out from the tire. Not a good start.
Dismounting the KDWs. The KDWs our cars are equipped with from the factory, have extremely stiff sidewalls and very generously reinforced beads. It has always been very difficult to break the bead on KDWs tires for me, and they are such rigid sidewalls that even when I do break the bead, the tire wants to pop right back out on the wheel. Makes dismounting fun.
Mounting the Radial TA's. The radial TA's have a much skinner bead than the KDWs. The radial TA's have a very soft, spongey sidewall that was extremely easy to mount. I also had to dismount the radial TA's a few times for reasons I will describe below. The radial TA sidewalls are so soft that one quick pop with the pneumatic bead breaker on my tire machine, will unseat the entire bead on that side. Not at all like the rigid sidewalls of the KDWs that wanted to hold their shape when I would try to break the bead.
Balancing the Radial TA's. These are the worst constructed tires I have ever seen, as far as balancing. I checked the wheels I was using with a dial indicator, to make sure I knew I was using straight wheels. Spec for max radial runout at each bead seat is 0.020" and max lateral runout is 0.020" too I believe. My stock wheels measured less than 0.010" runout at each edge radially, and laterally. Most of the measurements were at less than 0.005" runout. These are very, very round wheels I am using here. I also spun balanced just the bare wheels with stems installed, to make sure there were no weight inconsistencies with just the wheels. There weren't. Ok I think we have established I am using perfect wheels for this write up.
The Radial TA's took an extreme amount of weight to balance. One took 5.75 ounces total and one took 5.25 ounces. I dismounted and re indexed each radial TA 3 times per wheel after the initial mount and balance, to see if there was any way to match mount the tires to reduce the amount of weight they needed. No amount of re indexing and re inflating (using a high quality euro paste bead lube) reduced the amount of weight these Radial TA's needed to balance. The 5+ ounces/wheel it took to balance each Radial TA is beyond horrible and indicates very poor construction of these tires. That is a LOT of lead. It can't be just rubber that is non uniformly distributed to cause that much imbalance in the tire itself, they must not be belted to a high degree of accuracy. For reference, the factory service manual from Ford for the 2003 Marquis/Marauder says to reject tires that can not be balanced at or under 2.00 oz/side. These tires aren't useable per that spec. For reference, my KDWs balanced with less than 2.00 oz total per total wheel. Almost 3x the weight to balance the radial TA's.
Shake test: I tried to rock the car side to side, with the weight of the car on the tires, with the KDWs 245/55/18 and then with the Radial TA 245/55/18. My very non scientific result is that there is far more sidewall flex with the radial TA than the KDWs. This is consistent with my experience dismounting and mounting the tires, that the Radial TA is far less stiff.
Driving impression:
Configuration 1- on the front: The Camaro 245/55/18 Radial TA on the front wheels makes the car ride much softer than a good condition stock pair of 235/50/18 KDWs, with much less road feedback. Cornering is quite noticeably reduced w/ the radial TA over the KDW. This is not a valid comparo because I am comparing not only a change in model but also the stock 235/50/18 KDWs to the 245/55/18 Radial TA but suffice it to say, the Camaro Spec 245/55/18 tire is a soft sidewall tire. Surprisingly, the car did not exhibit any bad vibes at speed (other than a very slight shimmy I have always had that is internal to the suspension and not a function of wheels/tires). Considering the amount of lead I had to put on these tires I was expecting worse.
Configuration 2 - on the rear with stock 235/50 fronts
I was unhappy with how the soft sidewalled 245/55/18 Camaro spec Radial TA caused my car to handle with these tires up front, so I relegated them to the rear, and put the good condition 235/50/18 KDWs back up front. The spongey sidewall of the Camaro spec tires is less objectionable on the rear than they were on the front. They look goofy because they do not have a bead recess to allow the sidewall to mount up nice and vertically, so they bulge out like a balloon. Traction is fine. I consider this configuration a fine low budget compromise if you really can't afford any other new tires for the back, but aesthetics, tire construction quality, and handling are not up to par with even the stock KDW so I would not othewise recommend these tires on the rear if you can afford a better option.
SUMMARY: This is not a quality tire that I would recommend for performance use. The low T speed rating is consistent with the wimpy thin beads on the tire and the soft, flexible sidewalls. The construction quality is very lacking compared to the same size KDWs OEM Marauder tire. The KDWs balances with very little weight on a good quality wheel, whereas the Radial TA took so much weight to balance it was almost un-useable. The sidewall of the Radial TA is far less reinforced than the KDWs and will negatively impact handling. For GM to have passed over the KDWs and used this spec Radial TA, they are really cutting corners on the V6 2010 camaro. The KDWs is a far superior tire in all aspects to this spec Radial TA.
I would use the Radial TA on the rear only, if you can't afford anything else. It will be safer than a bald KDWs.
Overall I am extremely disappointed in this spec Radial TA. It is a US made tire and although it had a lower speed rating than the Marauder should really use, there is no excuse for manufacturing flaws that cause such a poor end product.
Added: Here are some pictures of the installed Radial TA's, with annotations
1. No bead protector on these tires, so they bulge out like a balloon and your wheel is just hangin out
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TASs8.jpg
2. Another shot of the lack of bead protector and resulting bulgy sidewall
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs9.jpg
3. & 4. Tires on the car
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs4.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs5.jpg
5. 5.75 oz. worth of wheel weights on this one. Although it may not look like that much weight at a glance, these are HALF OUNCE tape weights, not the 1/4 oz tape weights shops will use. There would be twice as many 1/4 oz weights on this wheel and they would wrap a quarter turn around the wheel.
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs6.jpg
6. Close-up showing how thick the 1/2 oz tape weights are I had to use. This is 3.50 oz on one side of the wheel that took 5.75 oz total.
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TASs7.jpg
7. Factory tire lathing marks on one tire, presumably to correct an excess runout condition. This tire took the most weight to balance
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs1.jpg
If you are not interested in my detailed impressions of the tire construction and want a quick summary, scroll down to the bolded SUMMARY at the end.
I have mounted 2 of the new Camaro spec radial TA 245/55/18s on my Marauder. I tested them in two configurations, configuration 1 as a front tire with all 245/55/18s on all 4 corners, and configuration 2, as the rear tires with stock 245/50/18s on the front. I wanted to test the Radial TA's on the front to see how well they handled, because it's hard to tell on just the rear how the sidewall stiffness compares to a KDWs.
Initial impressions of the 245/55/18 spec Radial TA - the Radial TA does not have molded in bead recesses in the sidewall to form bead protectors like the KDWs have (and like any other performance 18" tire I have ever seen)!! This means the sidewall of the Radial TA mounts less vertically than the KDWs and more in a traditional balloon-tire style bulge of a passenger car tire. Plus the rim edge of the forged stock wheels sticks waaay out from the tire. Not a good start.
Dismounting the KDWs. The KDWs our cars are equipped with from the factory, have extremely stiff sidewalls and very generously reinforced beads. It has always been very difficult to break the bead on KDWs tires for me, and they are such rigid sidewalls that even when I do break the bead, the tire wants to pop right back out on the wheel. Makes dismounting fun.
Mounting the Radial TA's. The radial TA's have a much skinner bead than the KDWs. The radial TA's have a very soft, spongey sidewall that was extremely easy to mount. I also had to dismount the radial TA's a few times for reasons I will describe below. The radial TA sidewalls are so soft that one quick pop with the pneumatic bead breaker on my tire machine, will unseat the entire bead on that side. Not at all like the rigid sidewalls of the KDWs that wanted to hold their shape when I would try to break the bead.
Balancing the Radial TA's. These are the worst constructed tires I have ever seen, as far as balancing. I checked the wheels I was using with a dial indicator, to make sure I knew I was using straight wheels. Spec for max radial runout at each bead seat is 0.020" and max lateral runout is 0.020" too I believe. My stock wheels measured less than 0.010" runout at each edge radially, and laterally. Most of the measurements were at less than 0.005" runout. These are very, very round wheels I am using here. I also spun balanced just the bare wheels with stems installed, to make sure there were no weight inconsistencies with just the wheels. There weren't. Ok I think we have established I am using perfect wheels for this write up.
The Radial TA's took an extreme amount of weight to balance. One took 5.75 ounces total and one took 5.25 ounces. I dismounted and re indexed each radial TA 3 times per wheel after the initial mount and balance, to see if there was any way to match mount the tires to reduce the amount of weight they needed. No amount of re indexing and re inflating (using a high quality euro paste bead lube) reduced the amount of weight these Radial TA's needed to balance. The 5+ ounces/wheel it took to balance each Radial TA is beyond horrible and indicates very poor construction of these tires. That is a LOT of lead. It can't be just rubber that is non uniformly distributed to cause that much imbalance in the tire itself, they must not be belted to a high degree of accuracy. For reference, the factory service manual from Ford for the 2003 Marquis/Marauder says to reject tires that can not be balanced at or under 2.00 oz/side. These tires aren't useable per that spec. For reference, my KDWs balanced with less than 2.00 oz total per total wheel. Almost 3x the weight to balance the radial TA's.
Shake test: I tried to rock the car side to side, with the weight of the car on the tires, with the KDWs 245/55/18 and then with the Radial TA 245/55/18. My very non scientific result is that there is far more sidewall flex with the radial TA than the KDWs. This is consistent with my experience dismounting and mounting the tires, that the Radial TA is far less stiff.
Driving impression:
Configuration 1- on the front: The Camaro 245/55/18 Radial TA on the front wheels makes the car ride much softer than a good condition stock pair of 235/50/18 KDWs, with much less road feedback. Cornering is quite noticeably reduced w/ the radial TA over the KDW. This is not a valid comparo because I am comparing not only a change in model but also the stock 235/50/18 KDWs to the 245/55/18 Radial TA but suffice it to say, the Camaro Spec 245/55/18 tire is a soft sidewall tire. Surprisingly, the car did not exhibit any bad vibes at speed (other than a very slight shimmy I have always had that is internal to the suspension and not a function of wheels/tires). Considering the amount of lead I had to put on these tires I was expecting worse.
Configuration 2 - on the rear with stock 235/50 fronts
I was unhappy with how the soft sidewalled 245/55/18 Camaro spec Radial TA caused my car to handle with these tires up front, so I relegated them to the rear, and put the good condition 235/50/18 KDWs back up front. The spongey sidewall of the Camaro spec tires is less objectionable on the rear than they were on the front. They look goofy because they do not have a bead recess to allow the sidewall to mount up nice and vertically, so they bulge out like a balloon. Traction is fine. I consider this configuration a fine low budget compromise if you really can't afford any other new tires for the back, but aesthetics, tire construction quality, and handling are not up to par with even the stock KDW so I would not othewise recommend these tires on the rear if you can afford a better option.
SUMMARY: This is not a quality tire that I would recommend for performance use. The low T speed rating is consistent with the wimpy thin beads on the tire and the soft, flexible sidewalls. The construction quality is very lacking compared to the same size KDWs OEM Marauder tire. The KDWs balances with very little weight on a good quality wheel, whereas the Radial TA took so much weight to balance it was almost un-useable. The sidewall of the Radial TA is far less reinforced than the KDWs and will negatively impact handling. For GM to have passed over the KDWs and used this spec Radial TA, they are really cutting corners on the V6 2010 camaro. The KDWs is a far superior tire in all aspects to this spec Radial TA.
I would use the Radial TA on the rear only, if you can't afford anything else. It will be safer than a bald KDWs.
Overall I am extremely disappointed in this spec Radial TA. It is a US made tire and although it had a lower speed rating than the Marauder should really use, there is no excuse for manufacturing flaws that cause such a poor end product.
Added: Here are some pictures of the installed Radial TA's, with annotations
1. No bead protector on these tires, so they bulge out like a balloon and your wheel is just hangin out
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TASs8.jpg
2. Another shot of the lack of bead protector and resulting bulgy sidewall
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs9.jpg
3. & 4. Tires on the car
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs4.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs5.jpg
5. 5.75 oz. worth of wheel weights on this one. Although it may not look like that much weight at a glance, these are HALF OUNCE tape weights, not the 1/4 oz tape weights shops will use. There would be twice as many 1/4 oz weights on this wheel and they would wrap a quarter turn around the wheel.
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs6.jpg
6. Close-up showing how thick the 1/2 oz tape weights are I had to use. This is 3.50 oz on one side of the wheel that took 5.75 oz total.
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TASs7.jpg
7. Factory tire lathing marks on one tire, presumably to correct an excess runout condition. This tire took the most weight to balance
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Radial%20TAs/TAs1.jpg