I know that many owners of these cars will end up driving them only on special occasions which may come months apart from each other. I have been vexed in the past with what seems like flatspotting of tires on cars that have sat for more than a couple of weeks (i.e. wintertime). Most of the time, the vibration goes away after driving a few miles and warming up the tires, but I've also replaced a set of tires because the vibration never went away and it was part of the diagnosis process.

I've seen products called Tire Cradles advertised that allegedly eliminate flatspotting on cars that end up sitting for extended periods of time. My question is whether people routinely use these, what their effectiveness has been, and whether these fancy devices are better than other sorts of home remedies such as putting the tires on a couple layers of carpet or some sort of padding like "sport court" tiles?

Thanks for your experiences.

 

Sport tires are soft, and there isn't much you can do to prevent a car sitting static for extended periods of time from doing it. Tire cradles do work well. You could also try inflating the tires to 55 lbs. or so between drives. It increases load capacity and lets air pressure take some of the work from the tire's construction.

 

Is there any real difference between these "Tire Cradles" and something decidedly lo-tech light some dense foam/rubber or a stack of carpet? I was thinking that those knee protectors for gardeners seem like the right size to velcro to the garage floor and roll the car on top of when it is going to sit for a while? Cheap to buy. Cheap to replace. Or you could use it for gardening afterwards!

 

On race cars with slicks, we almost always inflate the tire up to 50psi or so to try and prevent flat spotting as Damon recommends.

The issue with using something like carpet or a pad is that the contact patch of the tire isn't being increased as it does in a cradle. The idea of a cradle is to distribute the load point of the tire over a wider surface area this preventing the flat spot.

 

How long have you noticed the flat spotting? The reason that I ask, is that it may be intermittant. Ive experienced it worse and better at times with my Ferrari despite the car sitting for the same amount of time. During this time, ambient temp was roughly the same. The first time I noticed it, it was really bad, re the ride and thought about changing tires. I didnt and since then it hasnt been as bad. So my advice to you is to give it some time and maybe it will get better. Time: 2 - 4 months.