garrett376

I am interested in the consensus on whether you can tell when a Nitto NT01 is about to cord on the outer edge of the tire. There are no depth "holes" like on the main tread surface, so I can't tell how much I can get out of these. The main tread surface looks like it has a ways to go - I just can't tell about the outer edges. If the main tread is good, can it be assumed the edges are as well?

Any recommendations? They still drive great so I would rather not get rid of them if they've still got time on them; bringing spares isn't an option. Thanks.

4porsh

Your tires look fine to me, more life in them. I find the tires still have good grip even when the horizontal line are gone. The next step when the horizontal lines go is to watch the rubber depth by checking the little holes along the surface of the tires. At some point down the road you will notice the tire just does not have the grip it used to and can not keep the speeds around corners with out really working the car.
At the point I feel the tires have lost the majority of grip I check tires for signs cords after every session. Mine will show cords on rear inside, at this point I drive home and put new tires on. Dependent on type of car and alignment, my edges look like yours and still wear inside rear to cord first.
Hope this helps, just my 2 cents.

Joe

garrett376

Yes, Joe, that is very helpful, thank you so much for your input. Going to the POC event at Cal Speedway this coming weekend?

JackOlsen

You could switch them left to right (so that the insides become the outsides). But those puppies have a lot of life in them still.

4porsh

Have fun,

mooty

u can also flip the tire on rim.
your tires look great. at least two more days on track. though i dont know how roval affect tire wear.

wlittleman

I second Olsen and Mooty's recommendation. Judging from the coloration and accelerated wear on the very outer edge, it appears you may cord there first. A friend of mine corded his rear tire on the very outside edge while the main meaty part of the tire had a lot of life. So, flip the tire on the rim before you cord it, and you may be able to add a couple events to the life of those tires.

Matt Lane

Please excuse what may be a silly question, but the NT01 is not a directional tire, right? Doesn't the "outside" have to remain the "outside", even if you move your right wheel to the left side (and vice versa)?

I did not know you could remount these tires in the oposite direction - and thus benefit from moving "inside" to "outside".

Just mounted my set today, so am curious!

Best,

Matt

garrett376

They're fine going either direction... in the dry.

Matt Lane

Got it. I think - please bear with me.

Please see pic below, with the leftmost tread labelled 'outside". I assume it's designed that way to have the most solid, non-grooved tread on the outside. In essence, the half labelled "inside" has 2 (both) major circumferential water grooves.

If you take your right wheel and move it to the left side, you are effectively running the tire backwards. But the outside remains outside. This evens out wear from a given track having more high load turns on one side than the other.

If you flip the tire on the rim, and leave it on the same side, you are running it backwards too. But you've moved outside to inside (and thus are evening out alignment induced wear).

So, to be clear, you can do both with the NT-O1 in the dry?

I had assumed that the large ungrooved "outside" pretty much had to be run in that fashion, preventing flipping and remounting.

Thanks for clarifying - that's great if they can be flipped/remounted - I'll be able to get that much more wear out of them since I don't think I'll be able to get enough camber with my setup.

Best,

Matt

JackOlsen

Simply moving the wheel and tire combinations around (without dismounting and remounting them) won't benefit you much unless you're racing on an oval.

Here's another way to understand it. You take FR and switch it with FL. You unmount the tires to do -- otherwise you're keeping the inside edges and outside edges where they were. By remounting each on the opposite side, the outside edges get moved to the inside.

You do the same in the back. Swap RR over to RL, while the wheels remain where they were.

In this case, you do not need to change the tires' rotational direction. That's why you're swapping left and right -- with the same rotational direction. You can flip them on their same corners and run them backwards, but there's no reason to do this that I can see. Some tires vibrate a lot when you run them backward (most don't).

The key is to get that fast wearing outside edge moved to an inside, so the wear gets evened out.

sig_a

Well then when are they finally shot. When the two circumferential treads are less than 2/32nds or when the entire tread is gone? Safety as most important.

JackOlsen

Like the RA1, they keep getting better as they go away. I run them until I see cord.

Matt Lane

Thanks Jack for the clarification.

Best,

Matt

utkinpol

i was told once that to have that 'blueish' tint on worked out outer edge is a sign of severely overdriven tires - so more camber or stiffer springs are required?

it looks very similar to set of hoosiers a6 i have ruined when my car had stock suspension, same way edges got corded while most of contact patch still had plenty of life in them, 50%+. my mechanic told me - it happens typically when you push car into corner too aggressively on soft springs and edges start burning.