Went to Radial for my RA-1's. They seemed (unusually?) busy. Took about 3hrs to get out of there. Then, once home, and out of curiosity, I checked the wheels. Torqued extremely high.. hmm disappointing.Left Rear wheel - about a pound of weights (I am exagerating, but not much). I have to believe the tire could have been re-mounted for better balancing. Despite the 45 minutes to get there (I am out near Dulles) I will go back to them, if only because they have what I need and were helpful over the phone. I also assume that my experience was an abberation and will be better next time.

Related curiosity. Since I was new to Toyos, when I went to SP I took some markings of the tire on the rim. I had noticed a lot of "wheel spin" and was wondering what was going on. By the end of the 2 days, the left rear had "moved" about 6", the left front and right rear about 3" and the right front about 1". Unsure if that was a result of mounting technique or not - thoughts?

Tim, I think you were there while I was there. Were you there between 11:30 - 3:00 more towards the end? You had your yellow C2 there, didn't you?

I've heard of this before. If I remember correctly, it's due to the lubricant used to mount the tire. If the 'lube' evaporates quickly this is a non-issue. If it's a permanant type lube (petroleum based), the tire bead and wheel will want to slip againt eachother under hard braking or hard corner/acceleration.

Think Kurt explained this before.

Yeah, that was me. What car were you driving? I didn't see your 996.

It was in the back getting the tires installed. I think I saw you talking to Paul, and I almost introduced myself but I couldn't be certain that you owned the C2 and, if so, that you were Tim. I don't make it a habit of introducing myself to strange men. ;)

Eric S, Ralf B and Tom T were all having problem with tires rotating on the rims so I did some tinkering at work and came up with a fix. Eric S got a lot of looks and laughs when he arrived at Radial tire with a can of hairspray and at first they were doubting Dannys. But, with Eric’s on track testing proving that it works it is now a track install special and other folks are doing the same. (My on track testing only proved that I can barely get the tire and rim to turn together much less the tire on the rim) Hairspray or antiperspirant both work. You need to bring your own can (unscented please) but they will mount them up using the spray and the tires will not turn or not as much.

The trick is to clean the rim and tire bead well and lube up with the spray only. Wait a few days before using the tires on the track if you can. This lets the spray fully absorb in and grab.

Hairspray
 

Actually - even the "cured" hairspray technique is proving to have mixed results. It is the best we've found to date, but Hoosiers still spin on the rims. We've also tried dry mounting, but there is a higher propenisty for the tires to leak air when dry mounted.

If they rotate 180 degrees and stabilize at the track, then you're best off removing the weights. Otherwise, the wheel will be 200% out of balance.

I went to Radial to buy tires for the 911. They were busy but I would have waited. I stood at the counter for 15 minutes while sales people answered the phone, ran off here and thered and absoutly ignored me. I left and don't plan to go back. Bought my tires at Executive tire where they treatd me with the respect a customer deserves.
ARF

Eric, Time for me to work on the next plan. One old skool trick is to run self tappers throught the rim and into the tire bead.

Drag racers have drilled their wheels for years and secured the tyres with what looks like sheet metal screws. Not sure the effect on forged wheels but these guys regularly exceed 300 MPH! Wonder if the race teams do anything special?