I was told my tires have a Radial pull

How safe is it to drive on these tires, I’ve read I can put them on thr rear to help prevent the pulling in the front

Please define “radial pull,” and tell us who told you this.

I have not heard this term in 30 years. When it was popular, it was a term used by the sort of people who were selling muffler belts and turn signal fluid replacement. It was also used by unskilled wheel alignment techs to dry to avoid having to redo botched alignments. This guy may be legit and may have re-coined this term to describe some real problem, but I doubt it.

Do you mean that the car pulls to the left or right while driving?

My 1993 Caprice had a strong pull to the right when I got it. Two alignments and a front to back tire rotation did not help. Out of desperation I switched the front tires side to side. After that the car tracked straight, the tires were on the car for another 6 years with no further problems.

Recently I switched my 2000 Blazer’s front tires side to side to fix a slight pull to the right.

Ed B.

yes you can move them to the rear. radial tires can cause a pull to one side. it was/is called radial tire pull. many times just crossing the front tires can take care of the pull. other wise just move it to the rear and drive until it needs replacement

Those of you who are not in the tire industry won’t encounter folks using this phrase much - but it is still quite commonly used to describe a vehicle drift or pull.

The term derives from the time when cars were changing from bias to radials - and radials were much more prone to this. It’s caused by a tire property called concity. (Root word: cone). Conicity is a force pushing sideways to the direction of travel.

All tires have this, and the value can be positive or negative, but in order to get a pull, the difference in conicity has to exceed the tolerance level of the vehicle (Some vehicles are sensitive, some are not) - and this is almost exclusively a front axle issue. Put another way, it’s not necessarily a single tire - it’s the difference between the pair of tires on the front axle. Moving one of the tires (or both) to the rear might solve the problem - until the tires are rotated.

BTW it is possible to wear concitiy into a tire. So older tires may develop a pull if the alignment is off.

There is no safety issue - other than the steering wheel requires more attention.

But if we are talking about new tires, then returning to the point of purchase with the complaint ought to result in some resolution.

But alignment can also cause a pull. That’s why swapping the front tires side to side is a good test.

If the pull completely changes direction, the problem is 100% in the tires.

If the pull doesn’t change at all, then the problem is 100% alignment.

if the pull dissappears or changes dramatically (other than completely changing direction), it’s both the alignment and the tires.

When the car is in Alingment anf still pulls to one side or the other. The Tech at Sears told me I had this pull>

Sounds like slack in the steering …

Thanks, CapriRacer. I recently had a similar situation and this was a very good explanation. I learned something today.