What PSI do you run on your tires?

[Putters]

Since my tires call for 45 psi, i put 46-47 cold, seems to make a big difference in mileage..if weather is inclement, i usually air down below 40

[PaulB2]

Just 2 psi over recommended pressure. Good enough.

[KDulcimer]

I'll be honest, I don't see any point in raising tire pressure. Any pressure above what the car manufacturer tells you, and you're simply eating up your tires. You'll save a penny on gas and spend 10 cents on tires.

Run it at stock pressure.

If you want to save a buck on gas, buy it in bulk whenever it's cheap. That has a LOT more to do with your cost per mile for gas than your tire pressure.

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by KDulcimer

I'll be honest, I don't see any point in raising tire pressure. Any pressure above what the car manufacturer tells you, and you're simply eating up your tires. You'll save a penny on gas and spend 10 cents on tires.

Run it at stock pressure.

If you want to save a buck on gas, buy it in bulk whenever it's cheap. That has a LOT more to do with your cost per mile for gas than your tire pressure.

Welcome.

Of course you can have your opinion but bear in mind the people on here have thoroughly tested this matter and have run high tire pressure for years, if not decades. We know what we're talking about.

Personally I've not been eating up my tires 'at an alarming rate'.
I had 2 sets of tires; summer tires as they came with the car when it was new 8 years ago and winter tires 1 year after.

I still have them, after 165,000 kilometer, but I just swapped the old winter tires for a set of hardly used winter tires.
I keep the old set (about 85,000 km on those) as it still has enough profile to use at the rear of to be used as spares, if ever I need one.
My summer tires (with about 80,000 km) are still going strong. I'll probably change them next year, or the year after.

I have never been able to get that many miles from one set of tires before.
But then, I never ran as much pressure as I do now before.

The effect of higher tire pressure on rolling resistance makes itself immediately clear once you let your car coast from a set speed, like when approaching a red traffic light.
At first I had to brake more than I liked, still used to release the go pedal at the same point as I did before.

So there you have it.
High pressure makes your tires last longer rather than shorter.
This is because the notches in the thread hit the tarmac at a lesser angle, therefore scrape less when they get pressed flat in the contact patch, and because the whole tire flexes less and deforms less in corners.

It pays to have top quality tires. Especially because you'll enjoy them for longer than you would on lowish pressure.

[slowmover]

Decades experience that OVERINFLATION ruins tires and promotes premature vehicle component wear plus exacerbates unsafe handing is the test of time.

As before,

(1) Two sets of tires run at recommended minimum per actual scaled values to cover nearly one quarter million miles. 50/50 Town & Country miles. Tires warranted to 80k miles. But that ran to 125k plus with well more than 4/32 remaining.

(2) This, with a four-ton pickup (3-ton ship weight) that also tows a four-ton travel trailer. With an average MPG of 21 or higher for all miles. Highway from 24-27 MPG on a regular basis. Hundreds of similar Dodge diesels over millions of miles on FUELLY averaging 30% less . My experience with other owners is the tendency that they will over-inflate. Where’s the benefit? They’re not seeing my tire mileage UNLESS they’re in commercial service, and next-to-none on FE.

(3). Despite checking pressures after highway runs of 2-hours or longer, higher than minimums aren’t needed. No value added by additional pressure, instead, worse handling & braking. More problems with road hazard damage.

Also, as before: Scale it. Use Tire manufacturer data inside vehicle manufacturers guidelines. Test for pressure rise. Those are necessary minimums for “proof” (versus overinflation by itself). The actual baseline.

And, wheres the ABBA testing? Proof?

The lesson is: Learn to drive. That’s the obvious failing.

Leave it stock, with factory or better quality tires, properly-inflated.

Drive as if tires will never again be available

.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Welcome.

Of course you can have your opinion but bear in mind the people on here have thoroughly tested this matter and have run high tire pressure for years, if not decades. We know what we're talking about.

Personally I've not been eating up my tires 'at an alarming rate'.
I had 2 sets of tires; summer tires as they came with the car when it was new 8 years ago and winter tires 1 year after.

I still have them, after 165,000 kilometer, but I just swapped the old winter tires for a set of hardly used winter tires.
I keep the old set (about 85,000 km on those) as it still has enough profile to use at the rear of to be used as spares, if ever I need one.
My summer tires (with about 80,000 km) are still going strong. I'll probably change them next year, or the year after.

I have never been able to get that many miles from one set of tires before.
But then, I never ran as much pressure as I do now before.

The effect of higher tire pressure on rolling resistance makes itself immediately clear once you let your car coast from a set speed, like when approaching a red traffic light.
At first I had to brake more than I liked, still used to release the go pedal at the same point as I did before.

So there you have it.
High pressure makes your tires last longer rather than shorter.
This is because the notches in the thread hit the tarmac at a lesser angle, therefore scrape less when they get pressed flat in the contact patch, and because the whole tire flexes less and deforms less in corners.

It pays to have top quality tires. Especially because you'll enjoy them for longer than you would on lowish pressure.

Check your medication dosage amount.

.

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Check your medication dosage amount.

.

I just wrote what I experienced. I don't see anything wrong with it.
Car tires are typically run at way lower pressure than truck tires, hence, the effect on wear can be way different than what you believe.
The advised pressure on my car is way below max tire wall. I don't advise going above max tire wall.

I think my (heart related only) medication is fine. If you have reason to believe medication affects post quality, why don't you take your own advice?

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by KDulcimer

Any pressure above what the car manufacturer tells you, and you're simply eating up your tires.

You mean like the dangerously low pressure that Ford specified for the Explorer?

After the Explorer rolled over in company tests prior to production Ford decided to lower the suspension and remove air from the tires to 26 psi compared to 35 psi for the same tires on the Ranger.

The Explorer had one of the lowest fuel economy ratings for any SUV under production at that time, this was partially due to the Ford's decision to lower the tire pressure to 26 psi,. Ford asked Firestone to reduce the weight of the ATX tires so that it could improve the fuel economy of the Explorer. Firestone created the ATX II by removing material from the tire which lowered the weight by 10%.

[Daschicken]

Originally Posted by KDulcimer

I'll be honest, I don't see any point in raising tire pressure. Any pressure above what the car manufacturer tells you, and you're simply eating up your tires. You'll save a penny on gas and spend 10 cents on tires.

Run it at stock pressure.

If you want to save a buck on gas, buy it in bulk whenever it's cheap. That has a LOT more to do with your cost per mile for gas than your tire pressure.

Buying bulk gas cheap sounds like a pretty good idea, but that requires preparation, a large initial investment, and continuous maintenance of a large gas tank. I'm sure it could save money given a long enough payoff period, but its probably more than most want to do.

Also, the manufacturer recommended tire pressure is usually set to optimize comfort above all else. If I followed the recommended pressure, the edges of my tires would be bald by now. I run 51 front, 47 rear. The tire pictured is a front tire with 3-4 /32nds of tread remaining. The edge wear is still outpacing the center tread. It has been run its whole life at high pressures, but has been rotated several times already.

Originally Posted by slowmover

Decades experience that OVERINFLATION ruins tires and promotes premature vehicle component wear plus exacerbates unsafe handing is the test of time.

Unsafe handling is on a per vehicle basis. I get plenty of grip and predictability at high pressures.

Underinflation also ruins tires and can screw up handling.

[RedDevil]

There's a corner on one of my possible commute routes that allows for safe cornering speed testing, which I did when I had it new.
On its summer tires I was able to round that corner at about 55 km/h in the dry at OEM pressure. On winter tires that was just 51 km/h. That was disappointing.
It also did not feel stable and was sensitive to wind gusts.

Then I raised the pressure in steps from 2.4 to 3 bar (app. 42 psi). That raised the possible cornering speed to 56 km/h in the dry, and the wind sensitivity was all but gone. It felt much more planted all round at the cost of producing slightly more noise.

The summer tires on 43 bar allow for 57 km/h, raising the pressure did not made as much a difference (4% instead of 10%) as on the winter tires.
Then, my winter tires are 175/65 R15 on steel 15"rims while the summer tires are 185/55 R16 on alloys.
The summer tires are stiffer by nature and 6% wider, so just for that the winter tires would need 6% extra air to compensate for the shorter width of the contact patch.
But I did not want to go higher (than the same 3 bar I use for summer tires) on the winter tires because of the slight increase in noise and I was at max sidewall already.

My new (used) set of winter tires have a higher sidewall rating and are less noisy, but as used tires I don't know if they hit a kerb or pothole in their early life so I'm cautious, only raising in small steps and checking for anomalies. Actually they were resonating a bit in the first few days but that disappeared. I think they've been on a car that had not moved for a long time, and under-inflated at that (even down to 1 bar).
I would not recommend over-inflating tires you don't know the history of.