List of Low Rolling Resistance Tires
 

Here is a list of Consumer Report's tires that achieved their best rolling resistance rating. The tires at the top of the list are rated higher overall.

All Season
Michelin X Radial
Michelin Agility Touring
Michelin Harmony
Toyo 800 Ultra
Sumitomo HTR T4

Performance All Season
Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus
Continental ContiPremierContact H

All Season Ultra High Performance
General Exclaim UHP
Continental ContiExtremeContact


Glad to see my General Exclaim UHPs got on the list this year (they were brand new last year). :)


Here are the light duty tires CR has listed as achieving their best rolling resistance rating. Again, higher overall rated tires are closer to the top of the list.

All-season
Bridgestone Dueler H/T D684
Michelin Cross Terrain
Continental ContiTrac SUV
BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A

All-terrain
Continental ContiTrac TR

the contiextremecontacts are the tires i want for my trans am!!

Wonder what happened to the Potenza RE92s?

Have they been discontinued? This is a list of currently made tires. I do remember those being on the list from past years.

No they are still being produced. Just got a set a month ago

yeah they are the stock tire for the Yaris and Insight. And from the press photos they are using them on the Aptera

Were the tires tested at the same PSI or at their respective maximums?

Good question. The only thing they say is that the RR tests are done on a dynamometer.

I must ask, how do these tires fair in inclement weather (snow)? And will they hold a wet road in corners? I'm going to guess that to aceive low rolling resistaqnce they are a harder compound and require a little higher pressure?

Really, I don't know how else to get lower rolling resistance... Is there a good website to see all these characteristics?

what is the date on the consumer reports testing? I found a report up in the files section of cleanmpg.com, is this the same report or newer?

Also, I'm going to ask the same question again here since I didn't receive a good enough reply: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ient-2920.html

Which of these TYPES is the most fuel efficient?

i know that the two continental tires listed perform really well in incliment weather, the extreme contact is a great summer tire but it will work in the snow (just not that great), but then again, a vehicle which you would put that tire on shouldnt be in the snow to begin with.

i cant speak for the other tires though, i used to sell continentals and have a bit of brand loyalty because of the quality.

I got a mint pair (two) of tires mounted on 16" wheels. I always filled them to 40psi because I thought it was the max pressure, but I looked at them a couple weeks ago and they are 50 psi, the 40 was for mounting.

Will they say LRR on the tire if they are LRR tires?

what set of tires?

i dont think i have ever seen a set of tires which advertised (on the tire) low rolling resistance, although you never know.

I believe the Michelin energy Mx4's are being phased out as well.
I just got my second pair, and they were on closeout at tire rack.

Would be a good marketing trick, selling tires as FE friendly.

Thanks for posting this rolling resistance result from CR Daox.

Does CR have any ratings for low rolling resistance light truck and SUV tires too? All I can find on the web about rolling resistance are for old brands like the Michelin LTX M/S and the Goodrich Long Trail T/As. Both are supposed to have decently low RR but there are many newer brands that look like they would have less drag. Of course nobody lists RR figures...

Here are the light duty tires CR has listed as achieving their best rolling resistance rating. Again, higher overall rated tires are closer to the top of the list.

All-season
Bridgestone Dueler H/T D684
Michelin Cross Terrain
Continental ContiTrac SUV
BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A

All-terrain
Continental ContiTrac TR

I had those Long Trail T/As on my former Escape, and they were great in the rain and snow. I'm planning to put a set of them on my Sedona in a few months time.

Sidewall stiffness, internal friction. Anything that prevents the tire from deforming as it contacts the ground will reduce rolling resistance. Harder compound materials do this by reducing how completely the rubber fills the "roughness" of the ground surface. A stiffer carcass (the guts underneath the rubber and tread) will deform less for a given load/pressure and generate less internal friction. Higher air pressure is just one method for reducing carcass deformation. Material choice will help, such as not using carbon black to color the tire but other materials that produce less internal friction as the tire does deform (I think Michelin pioneered the use of silicon in the MXV4 tires to do this)

Even tread design can help reduce rolling resistance since a tall/skinny tread block will squirm as it hits the ground and generate friction. Making the tread blocks themselves stiff and stable helps, and any design that reduces noise generation is more efficient since noise is just one other way energy is dissipated by tires.

is there a more updated list?

I think the Michelin X-Radial are great for their prices. You can never go wrong with Costco and their warranty. Plus there were deals where it's $60-80 off on 4 tires at Costco.

Oh, and I bought a set of 13" tires for my VX, and it was $218 installed.

Nokian H low rolling resistance tires
 

I'm going to be buying some Nokian H tires:

Nokian H

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...d/Nokian_H.jpg

They are less expensive than the Michelin Energy Savers and if they are anything like the Nokian snow tires (that were on the 118mpg economy run winning Honda), then they should be great.

They are 24.4" diameter (851 revs per mile) and they weigh 17 pounds, which is as light as any tires for my xA (185/60/15), and slightly larger diameter than the other tires.

Full disclosure: I'm buying them from Chang Ho Kim, who was the driver of that winning Honda CRX.

Neil -

Impressive "shoes". What's the max rated PSI?

CarloSW2

Are hydroedges LRR?

You know, that is just about the only question I didn't ask. I tried to look around on the Internet, but I could not find it. The Hakka 5 and Hakka R (both full winter tires) are 51PSI.

The Michelin Hydroedge are apparently not nearly as good as the Energy Savers, or the Bridgestones.

I have a Sears only version of the Fuel Max tread called the "weather handler"

I originally thought they were the Assurance Fuel Max when I put them on, but I've been really happy with them.

They're broken in now and I've managed 37 mpg averages with just easy driving (no hypermiling) on medium distance trips (25 miles) Before my max was around 34.5 without hypermiling tricks.

Neil -

That's ok, you'll be able to tell us soon enough. The brochure PDF didn't have PSI info :

http://www.nokiantyres.com/files/nok...2_2010_LR1.pdf

I toodled around the Nokian website and I found this humongous picture of the Nokian H :

http://media.digtator.fi/digtator//p...&org=38&view=0

I was able to determine some info, but the slant-view is pretty severe, so I couldn't see it.

Where's the CIA image-extraction software when I need it most?!?!?

CarloSW2

OOOOOOH! Nokian H!

Yummy.

Those are the babies that recently won a big Euro tire test. Not as LRR as the energy savers but won on most other points. Wet traction, aquaplaning resistance, dry traction etc. etc. All that and non toxic oils.

I'm also looking at getting those as my summer tires. I have the WRg2 (51psi max sidewall) and they are great.

Nokian also just came out with a new LRR all season called the eNTYRE. Only in 15+ inches so far though.

I just switched from my Hakka R 175/70/13 winter tires at 55psi to my Bridgestone Potenza RE92 165-65-14 at 60psi and my mileage jumped 7-8 mpg. It felt like changing from somewhat heavy street shoes to a pair of light slippers with a lighter steering feel, increased FAS rolling distances, and reduced power levels needed to maintain speed. The Hakkas were new when I put them on this fall, the Potenzas were first installed in July and had about 5000 miles on them when they were removed this fall.

There seems to be much more press activity in Europe regarding LRR tires.

http://www.tiremedia.com/

from:tiremedia.com - TUV Sud Shows Michelin Energy Saver as Lowest Cost

Anyone heard of this one?

From:The Latest in Low-Rolling Resistance Tires | Leslie Berliant

Here's the Cooper GFE: Cooper Tires - GFE - o.e. replacement tires

orange4boy -

It would make sense in the EU because they have the tire labeling that has to document things like noise and predicted fuel consumption.

Green Car Congress: EU Parliament Approves 2012 Tire Efficiency Ratings
The European Union is studying green label for tires — Autoblog Green
http://www.blogcdn.com/green.autoblo...ncy_rating.jpg


CarloSW2

Okay, the Nokian H maximum sidewall pressure (MSP?) is ... [drum roll]

51psi !!

Coolistic.

On Nokian winter tires: the Hakka 5 is the better snow & ice traction, but it has slightly worse rolling resistance than the Hakka R. My Mom has the Hakka R on her Prius; while my wife has the Hakka 5's on her xD. I concur with Mike on the latter's rolling resistance; it is decent, but not great. I'll try to get a chance to drive my Mom's Prius, to get a better idea of what the Hakka R are like -- I only drove them briefly when they were brand new.

I get the Nokian H tires put on my xA next Thursday!

Got the new tires installed today. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of an opportunity to evaluate the feel because a portion of my exhaust pipe came off after the car was lifted at the shop. I was more concerned about keeping the noise level down than feeling the differences of the new tires.

The shop used a lift that goes under all of the underside, and it apparently pushed too hard on the pipes and cracked a weld. The piece just needs to be re-welded, so it's not that big of a deal. More of an annoyance than anything, and makes the car very loud. I'll have it fixed on Tuesday at the latest.

The new tires are only 14mm taller, but they seem to fill the wheelwell more. Also, because they're 10mm wider, they do rub a little on the inside during full turning.

I'll post up some pictures tomorrow.

You got the Cooper GFE tires? The article that was linked to above uses a picture of the Goodyear Assurance tire, which is a little misleading and odd...

I got the Yokohama Avid Touring-S tires, actually.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93...y/IMG_0247.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93...y/IMG_0244.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93...y/IMG_0248.jpg

Please let us know how the Hakka H (Neil) and the Yokohama Avids(Aero) go. That H is a purdy lookin' tire... I'm starting to look around for some used RE92s (difficult to find so far), but I'm not opposed to buying new if they rock the world of RR as we know it.

And what size wheels/tires are you both running? Let us know rim diameter, width and tire size.

I've got 195/70/14 tires mounted on stock 6" wide rims. Right now they're at whatever PSI the tire shop inflated them to (likel 35-40), but the sidewall says it's rated up to 51. After the initial break-in period (this tank of gas), I'll be pumping them up to 50.

They definitely seem to have more on-center feel, and my gas gauge didn't move a whole lot, but then again, it was clear today and warm this afternoon, and I'm almost running open exhaust right now because a piece of pipe came off during the tire change (the lift popped a weld). I'll be able to focus more on the tire performance when I'm not worried about shattering windows from an exhaust containing just the header and catylitic converter.