It's actually 'tramlining', refering to the tendency of the car to follow indentations in the road as though they were rails, as a tram on its line.

Wikipedia, surprisingly, does not have an article. Not enough car-knowledge-nerds, I guess.

 

Ahh, that explains it, thanks. So, here is what Tire Rack says about it. Sounds like all the mods I have (lower sidewalls, performance tires, and different wheel offset) would contribute to this.

Maybe this explains why some of us feel this and others don't - differences in tire type, wheel offset, suspension wear, etc.

I am thinking of swinging by the alignment shop again and seeing if they can play with toe-in a bit, and if they see any other possible issues. Then take it from there, maybe when it's time for new tires.

Thanks!

Leon

 

THe culprit for tramlining with our cars is the lower control arms. It completely solved the problem when i was riding on stock 15" tires. With my new setup, its not that bad. I got used to it already.

 

Here’s my setup: Front is 18x8.5 with a +42 offset and the rear is 18x9.5 with a +37 offset. The front wheels are pushed out further than stock but they are by no means even with the fender. As for the rear’s, the back are pushed out almost to the fender but not even with it. As for steering feedback, the car feels the same as when I run my winter setup on the oem 17’s with mich p/s a/s 245/45. About the only difference is that the dunlops are loud and the mich are substantially quieter and that I can break the rear loose much easier with the 17’s vs 18’s (I have the 3.76 lsd).
I’m not an expert at all this offset stuff, so I don’t not know if your wheels are contributing to your problems or if there’s something else wrong in your suspension. Assuming your dunlops are in good shape, I doubt that they are the cause of your problem. If you have the oem 16 or 17 wheels, you may want to put them on to see if the problem goes away. If the problem is still there with the oem’s, then it’s not your after market wheels. From this point, I really can’t help much other than to say, it’s not normal to feel like your fighting the wheel when driving. I hope you find the source of your problem.

 

Thanks rheiy! I just checked mine. All four tires are 245/40/18's, mounted on Antera 18" wheels. I measured the wheel width, it measures 9", but the stamp says 8J, so it must be an 8". The offset is 35mm, so it is a little less offset than yours. The tire is flush with the fender on the front, and about .5" recessed on the rear.

I also noticed than one front tire had 31 psi, the other had 37 psi, yikes! I dropped it down to 31, we'll see if it changes anything.

Yeah, I will try with an OEM equivalent (if I can find a set) and see what happens. On the other hand, lots of stuff I read at tire and wheel websites keeps saying that high performance tires, low profiles, and offsets can all cause much more driver "feel" in the steering wheel than with factory setups.

Leon