Quote:
Originally Posted by fidalgoman
The difficulty is not so much keeping the pressure even side to side but what about front to back and it's effect on oversteer/understeer. Many factors such as static vehicle balance, spring rates, changing payload, etc determine handling characteristics. Tires slightly low and soft promotes good ride and tends to mush the vehicles handling making it docile to drive. Anybody who's played with tire pressures a bit knows how quickly things can change. Wet vs. dry handling etc. Snow is an area where hard tires make good skis. Wet as well can be an issue if inflation pressures are too high or too low. It's not one way or another and you couldn't possibly expect your local tire store to know how to balance your vehicle under all driving conditions and thus the rule of thumb tire pressures.
All I know is running in the forties makes the ride a little bit harsh, improves fuel economy, and stiffens up the cars responsiveness. On soft surfaces like sand and snow, softer makes the tires conform more and have a lot better traction. More pressure can be good until it is too much then it's very bad if traction is diminished too much. Too hard to facilitate low rolling resistance can be as bad as too skinny and loss of directional control. Baby steps. Each car is different.
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This is well said as both handling and ride are affected by over-inflation.
More than a decade ago I bought an 89 Celica convertible from a private seller. I test drove the car and loved it but I thought it handled a bit oddly. My mechanic inspected it before I bought it and found everything to be OK. But at highway speeds the handling was spooky: uncomfortably unpredictable. Driving it just didn't feel right. After owning it for a day or two I checked the tires and found the tire pressures were close to 50 PSI. I reduced the pressure to about 38 and what a difference it made! It handled just great. I enjoyed the car for 16 years and recently sold it, with it still going strong.
So no, higher pressure is not always better, and it might even be unsafe. And yes, the much harsher ride that comes with over-inflated tires might not make you a happy camper, either.