Tire Info or Questions or Confusion????????

[Sumner]

Earlier this year I got some Goodyear Land Speed tires for my lakester I'm building and had them mounted up.  They are for the rear of the car.
 
 The other day I got some Goodyear "Drag" Frontrunners to use on the front of the car.  Neither set of tires has anything on them to indicate they are "directional" and nothing came with them to indicate they were.  
 
 Today I was going to get the Frontrunners mounted and decided to call the distributor I got them from just to check on whether they are directional.  They said yes.
 
 They said if they are mounted on the front of the car that the serial number on the tire needed to be to the driver's left.  On the left front tire the serial number (starts with a 5 and then some letters) would be on the outside of the tire/wheel and on the right front the serial number would be on the inside of the tire/wheel.
 
 I then asked if the Land Speed tires I had already gotten were directional also.  They said yes, but they are mounted just the opposite on the back of the car with the serial numbers to the driver's right.  Left rear has the serial number on the inside of the tire/wheel and the right rear has the serial number on the outside of the tire/wheel.
 
 I then called Hooley (207 mph with Hooley ) and asked him if he knew the tires are directional.  He said yes and that you mount the Landspeed tires on the back with the serial numbers to the driver's right (like above) and if you use the landspeed tires on the front they are mounted with the serial numbers to the dirver's left like what they told me for my drag frontrunners.  This seemed confusing to me as now the front tires would be turning in the opposite direction as mounted compared to the back tires.  So how could this be directional?
 
 I called the distributor back and he said yep the land speed tires are mounted one way on the back of the car and the opposite way on the front.  He couldn't give me a reason, but just said Goodyear had always said to do it this way.
 
 If anyone is able to follow all of this and has an explaination for me as to what is going on here I'd like to hear it.
 
 Thanks and c ya,
 
 Sum
 
 Lakester Construction In
 Progress
 
  <small>[ June 02, 2005, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Sumner ]</small>

[John Beckett]

Sum
 
 Never heard of this before. I?ve been running front runners, mounted front and rear, for years without mounting for direction. Not had any problems that I am aware of.
 
 I have a Goodyear Racing catalog with engineering data in my hand. And I can't find any reference to tire direction for LSR Eagles or the Drag Front Runners. Who is your dealer?
 
 Has anybody else mounted them directionally?
 
 JB

[Sumner]

I've gotten my tires from:
 
 Carter-Maxwell, Inc.
 5925 N.W. 37th
 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73122
 PHONE: 405/789-8253
 FAX: 405/789-9201
 
 They have been good to deal with in both cases.  
 
 I would think in this day and age of lawsuits that if this is important Goodyear would have documentation go out with all of their tires.
 
 Last year when we ran Hooley's Stude we started with our smaller tires in the back and then moved them to the front after the second run.  During all of that who knows what way we had them mounted as Hooley had forgotten about what they had told him in all the excitement   .
 
 c ya, Sum

[Bob Drury]

Sum, I bought mine from Carol Shelby, and there was no mention of direction.  One thing, however, it would probably be a good idea to NOT cross rotate the tires, as the cord might take a set...................No facts, just pure speculation here.  Also remember, that with 80 to 90 psi in them, there will be very little if any deflection in the sidewalls.

[John Beckett]

According to Goodyear engineering data, LSR Eagles are only rated to 70 psi. Doesn?t say what you can run the Drag front runners to.
 
 JB

[Rex Schimmer]

Sum,
 Back when I was just a child, (40!) and working on sports cars and Indy cars we ran Goodyears exclusively and Goodyear had us mount the tires as you have discribed concerning the code number. Their logic was that the fronts provide braking and the rears provided push so they wanted the tire's cases to be pointed in the direction that this rule provided. It has something to do with the way the rubber is overlapped/spliced when they cook the tread on to the carcass. I your case the fronts probably really don't madder, as you do not have any brakes on that end, but on the rear I would follow their mounting requirements.
 
 
 Rex

[Sumner]

It has something to do with the way the rubber is overlapped/spliced when they cook the tread on to the carcass.

One of the guys I talked to did keep mentioning overlap, but didn't go into details as to what it meant.  He did mention that this just didn't pertain to LSR tires, but also to other race series.
 
 Did you get my e-mail about you being in the area?
 
 c ya, Sum