New tire break in ?
 

Hello everyone,

I just bought a new set of tires for Oh Deer. I seem to remember hearing not to expect immediate results from new tires. Does anyone know about how much time it may take to see results?

The reason I ask is that I want to track my improvement on this truck closer than I did last time and don't want any "cross contamination" so to speak. The new tires are LLR (the old ones were not) so I'm expecting some improvement, but they are also about 8 pounds lighter each. I think I'm going to see some immediate improvement just from the reduction in rotational mass but I don't want to start the new mods until I am fairly sure I've recorded the improvements from the new LLR tire compound.

Or should I just wait it out until the MPG numbers level off again?

Why not just start recording from the git-go. If there is a break in period, you'll discover it. If not, you won't.

Besides, in the long run, a new tire gets worse fuel economy than an old one - all other things being equal. That is, as a tire wears down, its rolling resistance get better.

And don't forget, that LRR means "lower RR compared to other tires with the same traction and wear characteristics". So some LRR tires don't have low RR values at all - just better than their competition.

And some aren't even as good as non-marked tires!

I seem to remember the breakin period being as long as 4,000 miles.

I'm moving from BF Goodrich All Terrain TA's at 36 lb each and non LRR to Hankook Kinergy PT's at 28 lbs each and rated as LRR by TireRack.

On the insight (re92's) the break-in is 900-1200 miles. After that it's about a 5% efficiency gain.