wandering p38

hi i have a 1996 p38 dt.fitted with 295/45/20 tyres.the problem is it wanders over the road.i have had it on the ramp to check it out and found nothing.can anybody help.cheers

That's the problem - most P38s don't do too well on huge low profile tyres - their road handling is best on the 18" OEM alloys, usually Pirelli Scorpion, these days now that STs are no more, Zeros seem better than the STRs. Some prefer Wranglers. But I think you'll find the P38is the most sensitive car ever, to the make and size of tyre. The tramlining on motorways can be downright frightening.

Run 20" + gangsta-blinged up alloys at the expense of dire or dangerous road handling...... -

I have a p38 that runs straight on any size tyres and rims but have replaced the swivels joints drag link track rod and both front bearing if any of these are slightly worn with large wheels you will wander I also set the tracking with half a degree of toe in which helps

Hi there. I am new to this site but think I can offer a ray of hope to the wandering p38ers. I too switched to 20" rims to look flash and hopefully improve handling but also kept 16" rims for off road. The truck was initialy ok but has gradualy become quite challenging to steer straight especialy over bumps. Tire suspension place said panhard bushes were stuffed and there did appear to be some movement there so I did them and all ball joints for good measure. I think there was some improvement. As an experiment I then tried giving it a tad more toe out. This had the effect of making it worse so I tried about 2mm of toe in (from memory I think spec is 0-1mm out) the truck now drives better than ever . My theory is that the wider rims also have more offset and change the steering arc. ps also have some gen 3 and bistiens on order, cant wait to try them.

steve key said:

hi i have a 1996 p38 dt.fitted with 295/45/20 tyres.the problem is it wanders over the road.i have had it on the ramp to check it out and found nothing.can anybody help.cheers

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i run the same size on my one p38 but continental tyres drives fine , sometimes a little twitchy ,however my other p38 was running 255/45/19 goodyear f1 tyres what a challenging drive it was awfull constant wandering etc when you see an oncoming vehicle it felt as though the rangie wanted to hit it ,it was allmost undrivable
so changed them to 255/50/19 goodyear wrangler, all above problems solved
so i think it comes down to certain tyres
allso make sure there is no play in your steering box as these bigger tyres will amplify the problem

Why why why would you put 20" on a p38. TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

"cause cause cause I can" and these are FOOSE looso chrome and they look fxkn cool man. bling bling. will post a photo soon. will also post photo of the beast with the 16" mts, up to its elbows in it

loose unit said:

"cause cause cause I can" and these are FOOSE looso chrome and they look fxkn cool man. bling bling. will post a photo soon. will also post photo of the beast with the 16" mts, up to its elbows in it

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"fxkn" waste of money and dangerous to boot. What a good idea:doh:

loose unit said:

"cause cause cause I can" and these are FOOSE looso chrome and they look fxkn cool man. bling bling. will post a photo soon. will also post photo of the beast with the 16" mts, up to its elbows in it

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no they dont.:welcome2:

I have Pirelli Scorpions on my and it wanders when going down country lanes - I am just about to put Genral Grabber AT2 on each corner - I will let you know what she does with new boots on.