A quality yahoo article: "6 common tire myths debunked"
 

6 common tire myths debunked - Yahoo! Autos

Although this article is only good because it's from popular mechanics, yahoo still impressed me by putting something that actually says how safe overinflating a tire can be. Some other good info is in the article as well

#2 is definitely a matter of personal preference.

I don't really mind if the rear steps out a bit, as long as I still have steering control.

As for the aquaplaning, having your front tyres hydroplane in a corner is actually WORSE.

Not preference. Safety. If the rear steps out yet you still have (relatively) the same amount of static grip front and rear, no problem.... shuffle steer a bit, wait for the tires to stop sliding and gain back traction, then pull her on to safety.

If the rear steps out because the rear tires are bald, sitting on part of the carcass that was never meant to touch the road (hence, not as grippy as the tread compound) and aquaplaning at the same time, no matter what you do with the front end of the car, the rear end is going, going, going... gone. If you're driving a front-driver, perhaps you can keep your foot pinned to try to pull through the slide, but this isn't something most road users are trained to do... and certainly not at highway speeds.

If the front end aquaplanes when you're going around a corner... you're going off front-first. And the front is where all your crash structure is. If the rear end aquaplanes when you're going around a corner... you're still going off the outside curb... but depending on how fast you were going, you're either going ass-first (which is bad) or sideways (which is infinitely worse than either other condition).

And as the video embedded in the article shows, a car with the worn tires at the rear starts fishtailing loooooong before the car with the worn tires in front even begins to understeer to a degree great enough to be dangerous.

My 4 cents (cuz I've had this discussion on here already): I hear what they're saying but I like my best tires in the front. For me here in snow and ice country, getting going and stopped are bigger issues than losing it on a corner... why? Because I'm not stupid. I know when the road is slippery and drive- i.e. select appropriate speed- accordingly. Plus if things do get hairy anyway, I've got lots of seat time in rear engined vehicles; oversteer doesn't cause me to freak out, freeze, steer the wrong way, and stand on the brakes.

Unfortunately
 

It is unfortunate that the writer didn't check with a tire engineer before he published his article. There are some errors in there that detract from the accuracy - and some of those involve the pressure.

Example: "...... The "max press" and "max load" numbers indicate the pressure at which the tire will carry the maximum amount of weight......"

The truth: The load and inflation information on the sidewall of a tire comes in 2 forms: Max Load XXXX at YY pressure - OR - Max Load XXXX, Max Pressure YY.

The first form is exactly what it says - a relationship, and it doesn't say anything about the max pressure.

The second tells you about the max usage pressure, but doesn't tell about the relationship to the max load.

Unfortunately this article now becomes one of those "I read on the Internet, so it must be true" kind of things.

For what it's worth, my Michelin tires say Max Load xxxx lb at 44 psi.

They should have rotated the exact same tyres on the same car to illustrate this properly.


One reason to put the best tyres at the rear though, is tyre age.
On front wheel drive vehicles, tyre wear is so low on the rear that the tyre simply becomes too old, the rubber starts cracking and stiffens up.

I thought it was pretty cool that someone actually told the public it was safe to over inflate because when I tell most people I go above the manufacturer specs, they tell me I'm going to die from a tire blowout which is not true.

They didn't want to say it but I've read somewhere you don't really need to worry about burst (on a new tire) until 200+psi. HOWEVER, old/weatherchecked tires can blow at just about any pressure depending on how bad they are. I've had sidewall failures on old ones at regular pressures.

I just replaced the tires on my Toyota 4x4. They had plenty of tread left, but one of the fronts had developed a shake. 12 year old tires, turned out the tread was separating. I've been running the sidewall maximum on them for more than a year.