LRR tires for almost 100% city driving?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer

Certainly a guy driving around the city isn't going to go as far on a tank of gas, so his ability to discern these differences is reduced.

That's what I was getting at - it's not necessarily the case.

In my driving environment, I often get better mileage in sub/urban driving vs. the open highway, in a non-hybrid, manual shift car owing to lots of coasting.

So, the lower the RR, the wider that gap becomes (provided I take advantage of the chance to get off the power even sooner and coast even longer).

But for a typical driver in a non-hybrid, non-EV, of course you're right.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by NoD~

It was July of last year. How I know this is because we planned to take a road trip then and did the tires a week before. The ~600 mile trip (each way) through the desert... in a record breaking July... without AC... yup. Easy to remember (or, hard to forget!)

It seems like the temps might be partially responsible for increased fe in this situation. Then again who's to say how much

[NachtRitter]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer

But where this becomes a problem is in tire wear. Changing tires more often just to achieve fuel economy improvement may not work out in the final cost analysis.

Even that is no longer specific to LRR tires... the Michelin Defender XT LRR tire has a 90,000 mile warranty for the T-rated line. Better than many of the non-LRR tires!

[user removed]

I've seen people replace Michelins due to dry rot, that had 90% of the tread left and were less than 5 years old with no compensation from Michelin.
At lower speeds with aero drag reducing exponentially, rolling resistance becomes a greater portion of total energy losses. I know my Ranger with the Bridgstone Ecopias rolls a very long way and it helps me get good mileage overall.
In a truck that will only go 5k a year, an 80 k tire is a waste of money and the Michelins in the first part of this post were not covered by their warranty.

regards
Mech

[NachtRitter]

Fair enough... my point was that a short tread life is not a common characteristic of LRR tires, as CapriRacer seems to suggest. Yes, tires (in general) will age (and some tires can sit in a tire shop for some time before being sold to a customer as well, thereby shortening their "on-vehicle" life further), and you are right that having a tire with a long tread life on a vehicle with low usage doesn't buy you anything either since you'll probably have to replace it due to age before it wears out. Again, that is not an issue which is unique to LRR tires, however.