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Hi All,

New to this site, I am finding it quite informative.

I too am looking for tires for my 08 Prius Touring, I lie in Arizona and commute around 80 miles a day, mostly freeway. I was able to get around 35K out of my originals from factory, I made the mistake of going with a set of Barum's from Discount Tire, lost MPG and gained a lot of road noise. Never, never again....

I have ready on these post's that alot of you are pushing your tire pressure higher for better performance, and negative results by doing that?

Any suggestions on a good tire would be very helpful..

Thanks,
David
:)

Extensive discussion on this subject on PRIUSchat:

Recommended replacement tires for Prius Touring 195/55R16? (http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-care-maintenance-troubleshooting/75024-recommended-replacement-tires-prius-touring-195-55r16.html)

Tires for 2008 Touring (http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-care-maintenance-troubleshooting/82685-tires-2008-touring.html)

The LRR ("Green") Tires are the best for MPG. Bridgestone Ecopia, Michelin Green-X, etc...

I have ready on these post's that alot of you are pushing your tire pressure higher for better performance, and negative results by doing that?

Any suggestions on a good tire would be very helpful..

Thanks,
David
:)

Hi David.... and welcome to CleanMPG !!!

Last time I looked at tires for the Touring model, I found the selection to be rather small. Still, what I found was OK and as far as LRR goes, I would focus on two major brands:

- Goodyear Ecopia (the 2010 Prius sports this tire model albeit with a different size spec). They are not "top" of the line but they are LRR.
- Michelin Primacy or better yet, Michelin's Energy Saver series. They are more expensive but they are also of better quality, often sporting LRR qualities. If you can find the MXV4 then that will also be a good choice.

For many of us, pushing the tire pressure up is a no-brainer and even if you just press the tires to a few Psi below their maximum pressure rating. The results are so convincing that we'll never go back to lower pressures.

Lets just say that the negatives of higher pressures are significantly dwarfed by the negatives of driving with lower pressures. This is even more so if you are a safe and defensive driver. As usual, physics always plays a hand and you alone must pick a pressure level that you are comfortable with. Still, I would start with the hinted pressure level and go up from there as your comfort level allows. ;)


Cheers;

MSantos

Msantos,

Thanks for the information, it is a great help. I think I am going to raise my pressure on the tires a bit and see what happens.

Also, thanks for the suggestions for tires, you are right, not a lot to choose from.

David

Do you have the EL400's? Ours are wearing well, but noisy. I put a set of the the Michelin Green on our HCH before we traded it and they were very quiet at higher pressures and rode well too.

Hi Zman:

Really non-scientific results and links being posted here. Sorry about that.

The following might help as we had something to do with the testing procedures and conclusions.

When round and black becomes lean and green (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24904)

If it were my Prius Touring, the Michelin A/S's would be my number one pick but they are not cheap... My Michelin Energy’s have almost 120K on the Accord now and the rear’s could go another 50K. Do pump them up however as you are giving a lot away in terms of both longevity and FE at placard if you are running at placard.

Good Luck

Wayne