I finally got my car aligned after putting in the H&R springs. I knew they wouldn't get it back to spec, but its way out. Toe is fine which is good. But camber on front and back is 2.1-2.3.

Definitely handles like a dream. And noise is actually fine, honeslty just as quite as before the drop. My question...how fast will I truly burn through tires? I've never run with this much negative camber. I'm currently on TR1s.

Can anybody give me a general idea of about how many miles I can expect to get out of tires with this setup?

 

I have swift right now and I have -2.4F/-2.3R Camber.. Lol.. I've been driving like that for about 3000 miles now.. I don't know how much these tires will last.. I was thinking when the camber kit comes out for the front I probably will have to buy new tires..

 

Well, the thread count? on the Toyo's is 280. The lower the number, the softer the tire. The softer the tire, the more likely the tire will fade over a shorter period of time. Mind you, this also depends on how you drive the vehicle, is it lowered, tread surface design, etc. Since your car is lowered, this affects the camber (as you pointed out above), which also affects your tire wear. Example, if you look at the inside part of a lowered cars tire(s), you may see that the inside wears quicker than the remainder fo the tire.

Example, I recently replaced my rear OEM REO50A's (Bridgestone's) tires because they were down to about 2/32" (+/-), Which, if you do the "penny" test correctly, the highest part of the thread was just slightly touching the top part of Lincoln's head. These tires have a Thread Count of 140, which, not quite sure, might be one of the lowest counts you can have and still be considered DOT compliant. PS. I've had my car since 02/28/07.

Bottom Line, it simply depends on several factors. A great tire reference place is: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tiretech.jsp. Enjoy!

So, in short,

 

my old car had -2.5f/-2r, 0 toe front (slight toe in in rear), but i was able to rotate (same size wheels/tires all around) and i can tell you with rotating, my tires lasted as long as if i had stock camber settings

for you AWD folks (or anyone with same sized wheels and tires), as long as you rotate as recommended, -2 to -2.5 is fine, will last pretty much as long as normal camber settings, toe that's off spec is what kills tires like crazy

for all you other folks with staggered set up (like me), i have no clue... our tires are not multi directional either, so we're pretty much screwed, lol, i guess if you don't mind rotating larger wheels and tires up front for a little bit, your tires will last longer, but you car will 1. look funny and 2. handling will somewhat be compromised, but it's not like we're racing our cars anyways... no one's going to die with swapping the rears to the fronts...

that's my 2 cents

 

FYI - This is a great write-up on tire wear, camber, etc.: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...e.jsp?techid=4.

 

Thanks everybody. Kevin thanks for that link...that is great info. I know I'm in for tire wear, that's not my concern. I'm trying to figure out if its worth even getting the kits to get back to specs. I love the feel of the car right now, and suprisingly its not loud(I just assumed it would be). So if I can get at least some decent miles out of it, I will just run with it and enjoy the handling. But if I'm going to burn through tires every 5K miles then it wouldn't be worth it.

I'm going to go through these tires and see how it works out. I'm not a speed racer and I don't track...but that being said I definitely enjoy and take advantage of my car and the power and handling that comes with it.

 

As long as your toe is set properly, you will easily get more than 5K miles out of the tires. From my past lowering experiences, I'd say -2 degrees of camber with proper toe settings, would result in maybe 10% - 20% loss of tire life.

If your camber is on but your toe setting is off, you can easily chew through a set of tires in a couple thousand miles. Improperly set toe has a much more significant effect on tire wear than camber.

 

Put it this way TheIvoryG, I've had my sport since 9pm on February 28, and I just now replaced the rears. This is taking into consideration that, 1) I bought the car to drive, and I mean DRIVE, 2) I've taken the car to the track once, 3) I occassional feel the need to spin the rears, and spin them again, and again, 4) Did I say I bought this car to drive (daily at least 50+), and 5) I'm wearing the Bridgestone RE050A's, which have a Tread Count of 140, compared to the Toyo's 280. In short, you should definately at least get more than 15k out of them. I have about 13,500 now. Wouldn't worry about it.

 

I lowered mine and got about 15K miles out of the back tires, need to replace the front ones asap, with around 17K on them now.

 

when are they going to come out with a camber kit for the front?