tire pressure changing

CharlesW said:
Tire Rack has some good information on correct inflation here.
In fact the site has a lot of other good info, too.

Charles
Click to expand...
Tire pressure affects tire wear, traction, cornering ability, tire protection and ride comfort. The OEM suggested tire pressure is usually erring on the low side; this increases ride comfort and reduces the chance of tire damage if you run over something sharp. Normally, you can run pressures in a range of -2 to +8 from the OEM recommendation. Staying within this range will keep the tire from wearing unevenly. This applies for all tires, from simple all-seasons to the best high performance tires. The tires will react differently to changes in pressure, though.

The Tire Rack has a lot of great articles, many of which would clear up a lot of the misconceptions seen in this thread. Tire pressure changes the contact patch and tendancy for the tire to "roll over", meaning the tire will start to roll onto the sidewall during hard cornering. Tire pressure that is too high will cause uneven wear in the middle of the tread and will reduce available traction. Tire pressure that is too low will cause uneven wear on the edge of the tread and will reduce cornering ability.

I'm sure someone will try to correct me; maybe I am wrong. :whistling

Joyriide, it sounds like the pressure recommendations from the tirerack are great; high enough overall to add a bit of performance but low enough to be comfortable. You might want to try changing the front:rear ratio to be higher in the front if you enjoy some spirited driving; the traction control will save you if something goes wrong!
 
opensob said:
Tire pressure affects tire wear, traction, cornering ability, tire protection and ride comfort. The OEM suggested tire pressure is usually erring on the low side; this increases ride comfort and reduces the chance of tire damage if you run over something sharp. Normally, you can run pressures in a range of -2 to +8 from the OEM recommendation. Staying within this range will keep the tire from wearing unevenly. This applies for all tires, from simple all-seasons to the best high performance tires. The tires will react differently to changes in pressure, though.

The Tire Rack has a lot of great articles, many of which would clear up a lot of the misconceptions seen in this thread. Tire pressure changes the contact patch and tendancy for the tire to "roll over", meaning the tire will start to roll onto the sidewall during hard cornering. Tire pressure that is too high will cause uneven wear in the middle of the tread and will reduce available traction. Tire pressure that is too low will cause uneven wear on the edge of the tread and will reduce cornering ability.

I'm sure someone will try to correct me; maybe I am wrong. :whistling

Joyriide, it sounds like the pressure recommendations from the tirerack are great; high enough overall to add a bit of performance but low enough to be comfortable. You might want to try changing the front:rear ratio to be higher in the front if you enjoy some spirited driving; the traction control will save you if something goes wrong!
Click to expand...

welcome to the forum. and thanks for the great information...
 
Here is how to find the best tire pressure for “all around” driving. Get a piece of chalk. make a wide line across the tread of the tire on a front and back tire if you're really anal do all of them. Drive a few feet stop so you can see the lines. Take a look and adjust the air presser so that the chalk wares off evenly across the tread. Your tire pressure will need to be changed with different tires, wheels, or load.
 
That works pretty well until you start messing with camber settings (on a racecar, street cars can use this effectively), the camber will throw the settings off. Also, the chalk will give you the best pressure for straight line acceleration, if you want to go to the twisties and you want the perfect pressure you'll want to take a flying lap around the block to get the tires hot (no crazy driving, just hard) and get a tire thermometer, this will give you better information as to what would help your handling, it's a bit more involved however, and you need to have a good grasp of vehicle dynamics.
 
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