Too much rubber?

[RICH MUISE]

This past weekend, in the '57, I spent hours on tight, curvy 35mph mountain roads. I was noticing it was feeling like I had to "pull" it around curves, much like it was wanting to keep tracking straight. Almost all of those roads were a coarser asphalt than what you'd normally be driving on. I got out once and looked at my tires, kinda expecting a low front tire, but they looked good. I did not have a tire gauge with me. After getting back on highways, though, at 65-75 it just got back to smooth as silk around curves.
My front tires are 215/70/15.............about 7" of tread width. These cars were originally eqipted with about 2" less tread.
So, what do you guys think? Normal for what I've got? 95+ percent of my driving is not on tight cuvey roads, otherwise I'd consider a narrower front tire.

[hiball3985]

Has it always been like that or is this new? Sounds like low tire pressure of too much caster..

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Rich, do you have a limited slip rear axle?   John

[RICH MUISE]

First time I noticed it, but I hardly ever have it on roads like I was on Friday. I thought caster was the one that we can't get as much as would be preferred. No?
I did check all 4 tires when I got home, and they are still at the 34 I set them at a few months ago. I would think the 8k altitude could have an effect on that, but I would think it would just be higher, not lower?
John,Yep, Yukon TracLoc.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Rich, on a tight turn, could the traction lock sense the outer wheel as spinning and react by applying power to that side, causing the rear axle to try to steer the car?  I remember my T-Bird with traction lock did not want to turn on a slick road, it wanted to go straight.  Yeah, I used to drive it on icy roads when it was an everyday car.   John

[RICH MUISE]

I really don't know. The roads were not slick, had a more aggressive stone in the asphalt, and were dry most the time. Interesting though.....the unit is getting up there in miles..68k now. As mentioned before though, the car's handling is still great after getting off those mountain roads. a 600 mile trip this weekend.       

[alvin stadel]

Rich, thia ia juat a thought, In the mid 60's to the mid 70's I worked a lot of heavy highway const. We built a couple of roads that were secondary, county type. Both in the Black Hills of SD. These roads were not built for speed, and started life with a gravel top. Also the curves were not banked [supered] like a primary or interstate highway, much flater. Then as time went on they became black toped and speed increased. I think you are probably like the rest of us, the 35MPH is just a sugjested speed, and going down hill and going into curves with less super you would feel the car wanting to pull a little. Like I said, just a thought.

[RICH MUISE]

That's probably spot on, Alvin. Thanks.
I did put another 450 miles on it last weekend, almost all I40 highway. No handling issues whatsoever.

[lalessi1]

If you talking about the car feeling like it wants to go straight on tight slow speed turn that sounds like classic understeer... a characteristic of older cars like ours with a heavy front weight bias and too little caster. Too much front roll resistance (a heavy front sway bar and no rear one) among other things will aggravate the feeling. Understeer was considered safer than oversteer (the car wanting to spin).

[RICH MUISE]

That all fits my car to a T (Tee?, Tea?, lol). Thanks for the input, Lynn.

[Ford Blue blood]

Understeer was considered safer than oversteer (the car wanting to spin).

Understeer is easier to "fix" for the regular (non hi performance trained) driver.  Just slow down and it is "fixed".

[djfordmanjack]

Jim, and I believe Gary, were talking about pos/neg camber with bias ply and radial tires. I feel that my 57CS with pos camber with bias plies is more lively and going into corners than my 57DR which had 195R15 and slight neg camber.
I want to also second Alvin's statement about smaller ( narrower) country roads having less banking or crown, which in turn reduces the cornering ability of any car.

As an all time 57 Ford afficionado, I want to say that (imho) our 57 Fords have excellent road holding and cornering characteristics, when compared to other cars of the era. they have a real nice balanced weight ratio, especially the SWB Custom models. Even more so with a lighter modern drivetrain up front like yours has, Rich.