Drag fronts

Looking at drag front tires for the truck. Is one tire better than the others? If so, why?

Ive run um all, and all sizes, depends on what your after, not that there is a huge difference. I like the hoosiers due to they are about the lightest........

Got to watch the weight of the vehicle and what tires you select.

Choosing a tire for a skinny front rim can be a coin toss depending on if it's a race only car or if it will see street use. A lot of the "racing only" front runners have a stronger/stiffer sidewall than say a 165-15 passenger car street radial from Discount Tire or Pep Boys has. But on the other hand the passenger car tire has more/deeper tread than most of the race only front runners do.


If it's going to be a "short" race only front runner (25" OD or less).......

The Goodyear "race" front runners have a fairly stiff sidewall (relatively speaking). But they are also a fairly wide sidewall front runner (especially the shorter diameters) and their balloon-ish sidewalls can sometimes rub suspension/chassis components & headers in areas where other brands might not. They would probably be my second choice behind a Hoosier front runner.

I like the Hoosier front runners the best. Their sidewall stiffness is similar to the Goodyears (GY might be a little stiffer) but their sidewalls don't balloon as much as a G/Y does.

Ok, seems like Hoosiers is the consensus which is great because their MFG headquarters is only 45 minutes from the house.

Next question is what diameter? I have been reading on the internet some and have found that the front diameter can effect ET. Smaller gives you a little "run" at the front beam but longer Et and a larger tire gives you a better ET. So cutting through the BS, how much of a difference in ET is there when looking at 26, 27 or 28" tires?

Alan

Small ones will look like crap on a full size truck.

True, very true. It has 29" dia. tires on it from the factory. I didn't want to go lower than 27 for that reason. With the truck lowered 2" I figured 27 or 28s would look the best and still perform.

dfree383 wrote:Small ones will look like crap on a full size truck.

That is a good point. A short & squatty 23" GY front runner inside a full sized truck's fairly large front fender wheel opening can look kinda strange. Of course on any drag car that has a 'glass front end this can be a fairly easy fix by fudging the finished fender wheel opening size/width smaller to match whatever OD front runner is used.

HorsinAround wrote:.......... how much of a difference in ET is there when looking at 26, 27 or 28" tires?

A bigger diameter front tire places a larger/longer shadow in the stage beams. So if you stage as shallow as possible with a bigger front tire you get a slightly longer rolling "head start" at the clocks before the tire finally uncovers the beams giving you a slightly better looking ET, but a slightly worse looking driver reaction time. As the front runner OD gets smaller & smaller the effect starts to swing the other direction (worse looking ET, better looking reaction time). The large vs small front runner OD effect is greater on slower cars and/or cars that don't launch super hard & yank the front tires straight up-out of the beams.

Excellent information. Thank you.