GuitarTerry, thank you for keeping the forums straight. You are right, I do not fully understand all of the workings of the tire and wheel. I understand that the tire pressure affects the form of the tire, and is what holds up the vehicle. But shouldn't a Corvette tire, with a 245MM width have a larger contact area than my 185MM wide tire corolla within reasonable pressure amounts? (& maybe i am still wrong, & still am not getting something!) could it just be that the patch is wider and not as long?
My experience with tire width and pressure is that at 175mm i could get 39mpg, and now with the 185mm s i get 35 mpg. There must be some other factor. Pumping up the PSI on the 185s from 33 to 35 has netted me about 1-2 mpg on average. the 175s were kept between 33 and 34.
CorollaMaster:
Maybe you might want to check this out:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/tire.htm
I love that site, but I haven't read that article lately. Don't have time to now either. Cya