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Thread: My Review of the 245/55/18 Camaro Spec Radial TA - Technical review and Road test

  1. #1
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    My Review of the 245/55/18 Camaro Spec Radial TA - Technical review and Road test

    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



    2. Another shot of the lack of bead protector and resulting bulgy sidewall



    3. & 4. Tires on the car





    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.



    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.



    7. Factory tire lathing marks on one tire, presumably to correct an excess runout condition. This tire took the most weight to balance

    Last edited by Stranger in the Black Sedan; 11-05-2009 at 07:10 AM.
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  2. #2
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    They sound like crap.... thanks for the warning..... and OMG that is retarded about of weight to balance, not even my 02 Ram with 20s and Goodyears took 4.75 on one and I thought that was bad

  3. #3
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    Thanks for the review.....and thanks for taking one for the team and trying them out...Are you planning on using them for burn outs now??
    Don't bring skittles to a gunfight.

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    Yes I am putting these tires on the rear, putting my 15k mile KDWs back on the front, and I will run em until there isn't anything left on them. That will give me enough time to save up for a set of 4 something else that is a real speed rated, ultra high performance tire.
    Steve H., Charles County, MD www.carfap.com
    1994 Lincoln Town Car. 98-02 front brakes, P71 steering and sway bars, Eaton swap build underway using TorkTech 4.6 2v intake kit.
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    Yeah I think Ill be getting a set of stockers to put me over until I can get a set of rims widened and then run nittos
    Don't bring skittles to a gunfight.

  6. #6
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    Wow thanks for the writeup. I knew something was up when I saw the T rating. IMHO you should get at least H rated tires as they have many more "layers" or plys and are a safer tire even if you don't go 130.

    I noticed my KDWS are getting a bit worn in the middle - I have 50K on them and I think they might be the second set. Call me a fool but I'm gonna get the BFG's KDWS soon. Anyone know how many BFG produced?


    p.s. what with vibes and all - did you notice vibration go away with your MMC shaft yet?
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  7. #7
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    I finally found a cheap, good condition MMC shaft. It came in the mail the other day and it is the correct pink/green/blue paint code. It was like $65 and it has brand new U joints in it. Maybe I'll put it in tomorrow. I have been spending all of my time on the 76 Firebird I just got back on the road with a new engine
    Steve H., Charles County, MD www.carfap.com
    1994 Lincoln Town Car. 98-02 front brakes, P71 steering and sway bars, Eaton swap build underway using TorkTech 4.6 2v intake kit.
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    2004 F250, v10 6 speed manual. ex-US Forest Service truck
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  8. #8
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    Thanks for the heads up!
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  9. #9
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    Please copy your review into the Review section under Tires. Easier to find later for reference.

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    Great writeup, strange results on some. Maybe it's because you put the rear size up front that you experienced some flaws. My tire mounter put 1.0 on the rear tires, WAAAAAAAAAAY lower than yours. I saw him do it, he actually commented about how very easy they were to get done. I agree the KDWS is a better tire, but for someone who needs to putz around, these are a fine replacement cheaper alternative.
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  11. #11
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    A wheel is a wheel, the fronts vs rears won't matter, they are the same size wheels at all 4 corners. My wheels are as true and round as could be and did not have much imbalance at all due to the wheel when I spun them alone. Tires from different batches will be different. The fact that tires this bad got out the door, is what worries me. One of the tires had factory lathing marks on it half way around, because it must have failed BFG's QC for runout, so they shave the tire down if it can be brought into spec for runout. That tire that had the lathing correction marks on it, took more weight than the other. You can see that even after they lathed it back to runout specifications, that only half of the circumference was even touched by their tire lathe. I am sure Discount Tire will swap these out for me, I have sent tires back to them before because of tire construction issues, but I'm not sure if its even worth it.
    Last edited by Stranger in the Black Sedan; 08-08-2009 at 10:37 PM.
    Steve H., Charles County, MD www.carfap.com
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  12. #12
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    I wonder if the T/As will wear in the center on the rears the way the KDWS do.

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    Vicsevilbrother thanks for taking your time & sharing your findings. I would write the tire co. a letter asking for a full refund due to excessive weight needed to correct balance when the Marauder manual specs out 2 oz or less. That's a sht load of weight.
    2004 marauder black purchased new. Sold 9/16 at 297,000 miles. Still ran strong didn't burn a drop of oil.
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  14. #14
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    Interesting comments on the balancing issues you had with the TAs. I ran 60-series TAs on my custom Econoline back in the the late 70's and had similar balancing issues; ended up going through two sets of rears to finally get resolved.

    Thanks for the write-up, good stuff.

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  15. #15
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    5.75 ounces that's a lot off weight, that's 160 gram!
    I used to work in a tire shop and I don't think I have ever balanced a tire that took more than 90 gram and those were usually heavy retreaded tires.





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