rain+nitto DR's
 

i know there has been much discussion about this and in the last thread i even posted that i felt drag radials were ok in the rain as long as good tread was still on the tires. well this morning i had a pretty scurry experience. out back i'm running the 555R drag radial by nitto in a 315/35/17 and they have about 1000 miles on them with only 1 trip to the track--i drive on these nearly everyday. i took a tread depth measurement afterward and they are at 5/32". well this a.m. on my way to work, i was running about 75 in a straight line, with a rain i'd describe as a shower--more than a drizzle but not close to raining heavily, and my ass end swung around with out a warning. not completely around but enough to make me try and correct it where i completely lost control and ended up in the middle median with out hitting my brakes at all. i barely missed a cement guard rail where a small bridge has just ended and luckily i didn't end up blocking any hwy traffic. i actually had jumped in my beater (jeep) this a.m. but decided to drive the car to work so i could work on it a little. needless to say, i will not be driving my car in the rain anymore on the highway/interstate.

i almost needed a clean pair of shorts after this.

glad your ok man, same for your car

i kind of had the same experience. the only time its ok for a 22 yr. old to shit his pants

My 275/50's did decent. Only rained once when I had them on, but it didn't really try to get stupid on me that I can remember. I just slowed down a little.

wow im glad everything ended up favorably. i havent had that experience yet with mine but i will definatley slow it down on the highay in the rain. so far though, i havent had any complaints for them in the rain. in fact, they are better in the rain then my stockers were. if i try to get it sideways in the rain, i almost cant, they just spin but i dont get loose. its kinda weird actually.

just making it clear that i dont make it a habbit of trying to get sideways in the rain like an idiot...

same thing happen to me on my 305/35/18 nittos... only going abotu 60mph, bitch went sideways... it was a good amount of rain coming down, similar to what sstony stated... the only thing that saved me was active handling..had that not been there, lord knows...

Nittos and rain DO NOT WORK!!!
aj

No offence but its your fault for going 75mph, in a pretty heavy down fall.. If you must take your car in the rain, with DR's on the back, you're best off to STFD * slow the * down *

But then again, maybe you didn't have another way to work other than the interstate, and maybe the speed limit was 75, not around here, but who knows...

Least your okay!!!

i had bald nittos on in a down power in the interstate more then one time and as long as i kept it below 55 it wasnt bad but as soon as it started i was running the speed limit of 70 and it got swirly so i immediatly slowed down. Glad your ok, but if your going to drive in rain with the dr's just slow down. better to be a little late because you had to drive slower then not to arrive at all.......

--Matt

I had to drive from Des moines to omaha doing 45 for over an hour plus in a storm a few years ago. Everytime I even touched 50-55 the ass end would shutter around. It was scary. Nittos and rain is no good. Even brand new I dont trust them in the rain.

ive had nittos that were pretty well worn, id say around 1/2 gone, and they were GREAT in the rain. any tire thats as wide as a 315 isnt going to so good as soon as it hits standing water... any tire for that matter

i dont know if quite like hearing this... these are the exact tires I'm going to be runnin' in a month (315's by the way) and now I'm hearing mixed reports about them in the rain. although i'm not letting this stop me from gettin them. pretty much simple... don't go over the speed limit in the rain or close to it. oh and good to hear nothin happened to you and your baby.

Man, you guys are turning me off DR's

50 mph lite rain turned to heavy rain, I was instanly facing 180* lookin at a Semi doin 75mph. They did handle well goin backwards, as I was able to dodge the semi. Not a scratch on the car to my suprise. Regular street tires went on the car the next day.

I ran nittos for the first year I had my car living in south fla and I never had a traction issue in the rain. I did have a similar incident with BFGs though. I got caught in a downpour after work with rather worn set of BFGs. I spun completely around and was heading backwards during rush hour in the middle lane with cars all over. I tried to turn back around and ended up sliding 3 lanes over into the emergency lane BUT didnt hit a single thing. The bumper rested on the retaining wall but left just a scuff. I didnt sh|t myself but I had to open the door to blow chunks though. Afterwards, the look on the semi driver's face that was behind me was priceless, probably worth more than the look on my face. Thank God, nobody panicked and not a single car wrecked but I havent driven on a set of drag radials since then(2 years ago).

Sorry to bring this thread from the dead. Anytime there is a small drizzle of rain, you have to be extremely careful. That kind of rain brings oil up from the pavement and is extremely slick. Also not a good idea to be doing 75 in any kind of wet weather. I managed to drive through rain through 5 states (NY to NC), heavy downpours at that, with the nittos. I was doing about 45-50 though and slowing down to as much as 30mph when it got really bad.

Does the dodge viper and or the new ZO6 have that problem in the rain with their big fat tires on the back?

Drove my bald Nittos 70 miles home in rain at a maximum speed of 55 without a problem. Drove QTP street slicks on a freshly laid asphalt highway wet and 20mph was sideways. At 20 the rear hung to the low side of the street grade, the fronts kept me going in the intended direction. That 5 miles was the scariest drive I have had in almost 30 years of hot rodding. Fortunately it was after 2 in the morning and nobody was out to fly up and rear end me.