420SEL Pulling to the right

[Doug41]

I put on Arctic Alpin snow tires this year, and I notice that on the open highway which has a tilt toward the center of the road for drainage, that I have to steer "into" the upgrade slightly to stay straight. Is this due to these tires, or am I due for an alignment. The car seems to go straight at slower speeds and on normal roads....didn't notice it with the regular tires, but the car could have gone out of alignmnt since then...ideas?

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Doug:

You have basically two choices:

1. Try to find a road with no crown, and see if it "steers" to the right. This is zero cost.

2. Put the car back on the alignment rack and realign. This is about US$110.

It seems to me that with certain tires with straight shoulders, they do have a tendency to "steer" to the right on crowned roads. Try a parking lot (with no huge drainage depressions), and see if it pulls to the right.

However, if the car pulls to the left on corwned roads, (and you are in the USA), then there might be an alignment problem. Try the cheap solution first.....Andras

[Doug41]

Thanks - my thoughts were that perhaps because of the type of rubber and tread on these tires tht they have a different effect on crowned roads because of their "gripping" the road more than standard tires.