Quote:
Originally Posted by titan8or
Hey guys, I don't post very often and don't want to be a bummer here. I've read alot of postings and 1 of the things that really twists me is when I read about people recommending max sidewall tire pressure. I've seen alot of great ideas posted andsome innovative thinking, but the tire pressure thing shocks me. I've been in the tire business for close to 20 years so here's a few reasons NOT to increase tire pressure to max sidewall listing. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that increasing tire pressure will decrease rolling resistance but the more you increase it the faster you tires will wear in the center. So you'll save money on gas, but have to fork over money ALOT sooner to replace your tires. Max sidewall pressure is designed to increase the load capacity of your tires when carrying a heavier load. When you're not carrying the load, max pressure will typically cause belt separation and could lead to a blowout.Also increasing tire pressure, especially max pressure will reduce the amount of tire footprint on the road and decrease vehicle stability. I'm all for trying to increase the mileage in my vehicle, but not at the expense of costing myself more money on something else and certainly not at the risk of hurting someone else on the road.
Just some good info to think about.
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I would like to offer a different perspective from personal experience. While I am not advocating hyperinflating tires, pressures at or below the max. sidewall has always been safe for me. I got 60,000 miles out of my previous set before the tread on the edges was more worn than the center of the tread. Now, this is a design particularity of the Michelin MXV4 Primacy tires we got. The tread depth is only about 50% along the edges of the tread compared to the full depth in the center of the tire. (I was very angry at this because it was a great tire except for not having a water escape route anymore when driving in the rain - which never happens here in the Pacific NW...
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Apart from a few tanks of break-in period at normal pressures, they were inflated to 42 psi (44 psi max sidewall) and sometimes they didn't even need rotating when getting oil changes.
Again, this may be because of the well aligned Civic I'm driving, or spirited cornering that may scrub the "edges" of the rubber more, or maybe because the Civic has negative camber in the back and none at the front. If the tire wear would have been uneven I would have reduced them to "safer" levels, but that never occured.
So if one is careful and slowly creeps up in pressures to one's safety comfort limit and is smart about adjusting your driving to that fact it can be a useful tool to gain a few mpgs.