View Single Post
Old 09-21-2012, 11:14 PM   #15 (permalink)
slowmover
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Posts: 2,442

2004 CTD - '04 DODGE RAM 2500 SLT
Team Cummins
90 day: 19.36 mpg (US)
Thanks: 1,422
Thanked 737 Times in 557 Posts
Stay inside the vehicle manufacturer specifications for tire pressures. Ever since the Ford Explorer / Firestone fiasco of a decade ago the testing of tires, the determination of pressures-versus-loads, etc, by the automakers has made them serious about the relation of tires and suspension in handling dynamics.

Better ride quality? Yes, but to stray outside the parameters (in reading tire engineer CapriRacer's website Barry's Tire Tech) is to invite "unexpected problems" in certain situations (my reading and word choice).

Longest tire life -- [1]] given the expense of premium tires; and, [2] the absolute centrality to safe road performance of predictable vehicle dynamics based on the interplay of tires & suspension -- is worth more on several fronts than the small mpg gains of "over" inflation.

That said, a few pounds to the good isn't seen as detrimental. Where that point lays needs some experimentation (load versus pressure as in per wheel scale weights for a given loading of the vehicle).

If one knows the best pressure for solo commuting . . and knows what it is for full passenger and cargo load at highway speeds in high heat, one probably knows the percentage change (not number absolute) as well. This is worth finding, IMO.
  Reply With Quote