Technical Weird alignment issue

[The Panda Nut]

Now I find that interesting because Becky responds well to having her front tyres slightly over inflated too! On a normally cambered road she pulls slightly to the left. On a near perfectly flat surface she's almost entirely neutral (large car park) but goes to the nearside very very slightly if I take my hands off the wheel. If I drive her on the "wrong" side of the road, so experiencing camber in the opposite side, you can detect a very slight pull to the right. Nothing like as noticeable as when driving on the "right" side of a normally cambered road though. Non of these effects are very strong and I've tried so many things over the years I've now given up and will just drive her the way she is until she fails MOT on something terminal.

I agree mostly mine is dead straight but sometimes feels as if it wants to follow the camber, Its very slight though and can be either way.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Not sure if I agree with your statement that "most tyres have a specific direction of rotation"? I certainly agree that they are not uncommon and, strangely enough? many of the really cheap and "nasty" offerings seem to be of this type. However I'm wondering if you're including tyres with asymmetric tread patterns? That is to say where the pattern is different on one side compared to the other - often a "finer" pattern on the outside shoulder compared to a much more "blocky" pattern on the inner. These types of tyre will be marked "inside and "outside on their sidewall and must be fitted with the outside marking facing out. However they are not directional so may be fitted anywhere on the vehicle. Many of the better tyres on offer today feature this type of tread and it does offer performance advantages, in fact I go out of my way to prioritize them when buying. Truly directional tyres are designed to move water from the middle of the tread to the outside and must be used the right way round - so, once mounted on the wheel can only be used on the side of the vehicle intended. They work much as tractor driving wheels do where the tread moves mud to the outside allowing better grip. Fitted the wrong way round they channel mud into the middle of the tread and greatly reduce grip.

It's also true that many of the highest performance tyres are directional and probably this type of design gives the manufacturer the scope to produce a less compromised and very high performance spec suitable for "super cars" and the like. Pandas tootle along very happily on good midrange spec tyres!

When I bought my Panda 100 its directional tyres were on the wrong sides and thus wrong way round. I drove for some wet weeks before noticing and correcting it It seemed to make entirely no difference to anything putting it right. The tyres however had very badly cracked sidewalls. I dont really know what to make of that

 

[bugsymike]

When I bought my Panda 100 its directional tyres were on the wrong sides and thus wrong way round. I drove for some wet weeks before noticing and correcting it It seemed to make entirely no difference to anything putting it right. The tyres however had very badly cracked sidewalls. I dont really know what to make of that

Many years ago a mate of mine started a S/H Tyre business, I noticed that many users of the product when replacing them as worn low had sidewall cracking. I noticed the cracking followed the internal bracing of the sidewalls and not just in a line following the walls.I put this down to radial tyres that had spent most of their life going in one direction , on fitting S/H to a different vehicle suddenly had to take load in a different direction.
I don't believe they had heard of directional tyres at that time in the early 1980s, but I had noted that car owner handbooks when advising owners to "rotate" their tyres for even wear, suggested front to rear only, so kept in one direction, unlike crossply tyres which they could put in any position on the vehicle and bring in the spare to get full use of a set of tyres.
I always loved the joke where a young lad was told to rotate the tyres on his dads car "rotated " the hell out of them up the dual carriageway.