When it rains, especially if I come to a stop over painted road signs, if I tap the gas a hair past gingerly I hear a wheel spinning like mad and the car doesn't move forward an inch. This isn't mash the pedal carelessly. Unless I ease into the throttle very consciously it goes nuts on wet road.

Right now I'm running a 205-70-14 on a stock wheel (5.5"?) with bfgoodrich control+ tires, 2.93 open rear.

Do I need wider / different tire? Posi? Detune engine for less torque? NOT!

I put my truck into 4wd............

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Tire compounds have a lot to do with that. Some performance street tires have a hard compound that loses grip on a wet surface. There's not much you can do except change tires to a winter or all weather compound or take a little weight out of your right foot. A couple sandbags in the rear might help but they'll hurt your gas mileage. My 98 Dakota came with Goodyear Wrangler AT tires which were useless if the humidity got a little high. The Michelins were better and the Bridgestones are awesome. but, those are truck tires so you'll need to do some research to find what works best on a car. tirerack.com has reviews and ratings of different tires; that's a good place to start.

_________________
David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Different tires.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I just went thru this, the only difference is that I am running a 3.23 posi (Sure Grip) and boy... I was getting tired of the 'sideways action' on the wet roads.

I looked at my "well worn" rear tires and beside the fact that they were getting a little low on thread depth, they have a traction rating of "B" and a wear rating of 420 which translates into "rock hard" compound with little wet road traction... but "wears like iron".

Switched over to a tire with an "A" traction rating and 240 wear and it's a big difference. I now have to give the car a good amount of throttle to break it loose on wet surfaces.

One other tip, check that tire pressure, less pressure will give you better grip.
DD

I've had several tires after wearing about 1/2 way became slick as all get-out when wet, but seemed fine dry. Mich*n are famous for that. I know of no alternative but to replace them. I really like the wet traction I get from my Goodyear Triple-Tred Assurance (sp?) on my Ford, but just couldn't get them in the right size for my '71 Satellite.

I don't think Pierre is having problems with wet surfaces...

He's having problems with the paint in the intersections when they get damp.

For all the testing they do for roads, you'd think they'd test the coefficient of friction of the paint when it gets damp ( low-sided my motorcycle when the road didn't look damp, but the paint was ). In some places it's like hitting ice. (Also decorative crosswalk bricks can be worse because they're wider and just as slick) I get momentary brake lockup when stopping, or the momentary slip when starting no matter what car I'm in (or tire that's on the car). The 4wd solution works for the truck because the front and rear are locked together and at least 1 pair of wheels is on some normal road so they don't spin or lock. The only solution in 2wd is to grandma it past the paint (both wheels are usually on the paint at the same time, so a limited slip doesn't help) then accelerate.

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Another place that causes me problems with wheelspin when wet are the rubber inserts next to Railroad crossings. If those things are wet, you have NO traction until after you've crossed the tracks.

_________________
There are 3 things that will live forever, cockroaches, Keith Richards, and Slant Six Dusters !!!

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/slantasaurus/

take a look around

Control plus I have, rating of 600 treadwear, traction A Temp B. I have them inflated to the max psi (35 hot) to help put mileage, but this happened when I was running lower pressure as well.

I'll have to be more observant next time it rains, but it happens I think on any wet road. Lots easier to break them loose on the road sign paint, wet or dry.