I'm combining a number of responses in one thread. I hope ya'll don't mind.
One comment before I proceed: I am glad this thread hasn't degraded into a shouting match. That is never productive. I think it is important that we try to understand the way things work and leave our sensitivities behind. We can deal with them later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cbaber
Enough with the theories, this is credible evidence. You may need to zoom in to read the graphs. Press CTRL and the + button to zoom in, and CTRL and - key to zoom out.
Barry's Tire Tech
I'll highlight a few important points. |
I looked at this paper intensely - and there were a number of things that jumped out at me.
First was that the paper didn't describe a lot of the testing. I think that is important because some tests are designed to look at one kind of phenomenon and aren't suitable for looking at another.
A good example of this would be wear testing. There are some tire wear tests that are designed to give an indication of how long it takes a tire to wear out. THAT test tries to avoid those things that cause uneven wear, since that would invalidate the test results. Other tests are specifically designed to emphasize un-even wear.
I get the impression that the wear test conducted in that paper was the former and not the latter, so I wonder how valid the results are. I have similar concerns about some of the other testing as well. More importantly, there have been many reports of center wear when using high inflation pressures and that contradicts this paper. Without being able to explain why we are getting these reports, the test data is just interesting but doesn't seem to match real life experiences.
Quote:
Originally Posted by qx4dude
.......On a mass-produced vehicle like that, how much would it really cost on a per-unit basis to make the suspension a little softer so that an extra 10 PSI goes unnoticed by the new car buyer?.....
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I think this is the crux of the problem: Tweaking the suspension doesn't compensate for the added 10 psi - or put a different way: If it were that easy, they would have already done it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder
......So you DON'T trust the engineering team after all ?
They tested the tyres @ 51 psi - and with a considerable safety margin.
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Ah..... That's not exactly true. It's true that SOMETIMES tires are tested at 51 psi - BUT - it is NOT related to what is stamped on the sidewall of the tire. It is related to the speed rating - AND even then, it's only for that one test.