Trabant Tech Forum

I think the rear springs on my Trabant are a bit low which makes the ride a bit harsh and produces a change in behaviour in sharp corners as the springs hit the bump stops.

I am still not convinced that all modern radial tyres should be run at the same pressures as old DDR cross plies which had side walls made of a combination of concrete and recycled Third Reich Panzer tanks. A radial tyre has more flexible sidewalls so IMHO you should be able to run it at higher pressures without getting near to the ride comfort of Pneumant crossplies and whilst still allowing the radials to protect the Trabant from bumps in the road.

i run mine at 21 psi i find the ride and handling better than if they are harder it also handles better on named brand european tyres than hungarian ones,as for racing trabis not tried it but never say no, ive just picked up a 6.2 chrysler v8 looks a bit big to go under the bonnet and not sure how long the trabi box will last?the tyres may need more air in them as i think they will be flat with the extra weight!i think i,ll see how rebuilding my trabi engine goes first

Just been out and the car handles and steers great at those higher pressures. Ride is still better than the old cross ply tyres.

Funny this thread popped up again. Yesterday I gave my Trabant a good cleaning and always check the tire pressures and fluids while I'm at it on all my vehicles. I keep a log of vehicle maintenance and data for quick reference on my computer so I don't have to dig for it and noticed I had yet to update the tire pressure info on my Trabant. I still had it listed at 25 PSI. This is probably OK but made the transverse leaf spring suspension even more choppy. So I flipped through my owner's manual and found 1.4 MPA or something like (something I'm not familiar with anyway) that which translates to 20 PSI.

Slightly off-topic, but this is fun:

[MEDIA=youtube]snEuERpUjhw[/MEDIA]


As for tyre pressures, I went for the higher values in the manual as these seemed to give a better ride. As folks have said already, if the pressures are too high then the ride is firm. You also stand to scrub the centre portion of the tyres if the car is unladen.

Best wishes, Colin

For some reason every set of new tires I've bought from Sears, they always inflate the tires to 35 PSI. No matter what the door sticker says. My wife complained that her Chevy Cobalt road rough after I had a new set of Michelin tires installed. I drove the car and could not find anything wrong with it.

She insisted there was some issue. I figured if anything the Michelins would give a better ride than the no-name brand tires that came on it from the factory. So as a last resort, I checked the cold tire pressure and sure enough they were set at 35 PSI and the owner's manual called for 30 PSI or something near that.

I let some of the air out of the tires and she said the problem was fixed. You know what they say, "Happy wife, happy life"...

Yes, that's what I meant. One of our favourites here at 'bant Towers.

35 psi is a good "safe" pressure, much used in repair shops. Why? It's within 20% of most specified tire pressures, the most common being 32 psi. It's a little on the high side, but not enough to usually cause complaint, the most common being "my tires look low". This is good, because tires are usually filled when warm, and the pressure goes down as they cool, after our customer goes home. Also, tubeless tires generally lose 1-2psi a month, and this buys more time until the dreaded "Low Tire Pressure" light comes on.

As someone who deals with Michelin tires on a daily basis, I hate them. Hard as concrete, the traction of ice skates, a TON of both radial and lateral "road force variation" which means they both hop up and down like an insane puppy AND pull like a frankenstein monster... But yet they're our most popular tire despite their high price. Why? They wear a bit longer than tires with actual traction, and are usually relatively quiet. The blame for the harsh ride, vibration and pulling is heaped upon the car, or more likely the unfortunate mechanic assigned to deal with it.

Keri wrote:

35 psi is a good "safe" pressure, much used in repair shops. Why? It's within 20% of most specified tire pressures, the most common being 32 psi. It's a little on the high side, but not enough to usually cause complaint, the most common being "my tires look low".

I tend to over inflate the tires a bit on my Fiat 124 Spider and my Ford Fairlane. Why? Both of these cars have wide tires and manual worm and roller steering and the extra tire pressure helps them steer easier. I never found it all that necessary on a car with rack and pinion or with power steering.

As far as a tire looking too low, I've noticed from time to time the tires on my Subaru look like they need air but it's an optical illusion depending upon which way the car is parked.

I'm not really concerned with tire wear because the rubber usually starts to "dry out" before the tread wears out. The Michelins I have on my Subaru are going on nine years since I had them replaced. They say 6 years is the life of a tire but mine still seem pliable when I stick my finger nail into the tread. I did run a set of Nankangs on my Fiat Spider for 15 years which was pushing it. The only reason I replaced them was, the rubber started to get rock hard. This was OK on dry pavement but tended to loose their grip on wet roads. Otherwise the tires did not have any cracks in them.

I considered the next set of tires I put on my Subaru will be snow tires. Is there any harm in running snow tires year round? I've heard they are softer and will wear out quicker but I seldom drive my Subaru from March until November anyway. I've had it almost 16 years and it only has 77,000 miles on it!

As someone who deals with Michelin tires on a daily basis, I hate them. Hard as concrete, the traction of ice skates, a TON of both radial and lateral "road force variation" which means they both hop up and down like an insane puppy AND pull like a frankenstein monster... But yet they're our most popular tire despite their high price. Why? They wear a bit longer than tires with actual traction, and are usually relatively quiet. The blame for the harsh ride, vibration and pulling is heaped upon the car, or more likely the unfortunate mechanic assigned to deal with it.

I always thought Michelin were good tires. I have them on my Subaru and they tend to go good in the snow. The Bridgestone Potenzas that came on the car from the factory would develop flat spots below freezing.

I have however had issues with Michelin truck tires. I've had the sidewalls blow out on two Michelin truck tires on my van. Actually once when my father owned it and then on me. The sidewall develops a blister then the tire eventually pops. I asked the guy at the tire store if the van's weight exceeded the load rating of these tires and he said they met the load rating. I decided to replace these with Coopers.

The thing was after that Michelin blew out on my father, he replaced the rears with more Michelins! Then one of those blew out on me. Luckily it was parked in my driveway when noticed it. Before I could get it to the tire store, it blew out while parked and had to remove the wheels in my driveway.

My Citroen uses 15SRs125. If trying to find 13SR145s for a Trabant is hard enough. Coker is the only place I know of in the US that sells 13SR145s. They may have the Citroen tires as well.

It's funny that the tires on my Citroen have no wheel weights but the car runs smooth on the interstate. It will max out at 72 mph, 10 mph above the Trabant. Maybe the skinnier the tire, the less likely it will shake at high speeds?

I dread when it comes time to replace them. I bet I'll end up having to use a set of crow bars to replace them myself!

First of all the wheel have no centers and the wheels have three lugs. So I doubt there is a machine in this country available to balance them. Unless I use a bubble balancer. I have one but have never had much luck using it.

[USER=777]@turbofiat124[/USER] My Dyane tyres are not balanced and I don't get wheel shake. I have always assumed this is to do with the diameter of the wheels. My theory is that the large diameter pushes the speed at which the normal harmonic steering shake occurs beyond the maximum speed of a 2cv/Dyane. But it could have something to do with narrow tyres or the ratio of diameter to tyre width. My old Mini with 10" wheels suffered badly from steering shake if the wheels were not balanced. I believe that some modern 135R15 70s fit a 2cv rim, but not all do, there is something odd about the 2cv rim size, (I assume this is not a problem with Trabant rims). I have some Toyo 135R15 72's on the car at the moment. They don't wear particularly well but have good grip.

[USER=757]@Keri[/USER] I have a set of ancient Michelin M&S tyres with studs in them on my Dyane. The rubber is very hard, not surprising given the age of them. However, the studs still give me good grip on snow and ice. No signs of sidewall or other cracks. The Michelin radial tyres (both summer and M&S) for the 2cv are reckoned to be the best you can get for these cars. They have a more rounded tread profile which works well with the extreme roll angles you experience under normal driving. I don't know what Michelin do to their other tyres unless they do something special for the US market (they've probably still not forgiven you guys for the Freedom Fries jibes ).

The rear suspension of a Trabant has a fair variation in camber, which means if the car is driven unladen or laden all the time you could get uneven tyre wear at the back. Does this happen in practice? Does the camber at the front change much?