Archives




View Full Version : Tire inflation


borahshadow
11-03-2008, 12:42 PM
I have a question about inflating the tires to the max listed on the side wall. From what I understand unless you are carying a large load that will flatten the tires back out the tire will not be flat on the road (good for RR) but will wear uneven making the savings gained by better FE neutralised by having to buy new tires sooner? Because the middle of the tire is worn but the edges have almost no wear bucause the tire was warped from the high preassure? My dad said that he has seen tires that were almost bald in the middle but the edges have tread almost new because of this. Am I mistaken?

brick
11-03-2008, 12:49 PM
It is a non-issue with steel belted radials. That wisdom dates back to the time of bias-ply tires that contacted the road differently depending on air pressure. The bigger risk is excessive edge wear with under-inflated tires. With higher pressures (up to max sidewall) the belts hold the tread nice and flat.

hobbit
11-03-2008, 02:13 PM
About the only way to center-wear a modern radial is to mount it
on a rim that's *way* too narrow so the tread bends in a fairly
ridiculous way. That might still not do it, and the bead might
unseat from the misalignment before it visibly wears anyway.
.
_H*

borahshadow
11-03-2008, 02:21 PM
hmm, That makes sense I might have to try that sometime if I can convince my dad (the actual owner of truck) to let me air it up.

Kurz
11-03-2008, 03:26 PM
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14643&page=5

Scroll down to Xcel's post (Founder of Cleanmpg)
Those tires are of an Acura MDX with a Max side of 35 taken up to 40ish.

Ford Man
11-03-2008, 05:40 PM
The set of tires I currently have on my '88 Escort are actually overinflated according to the sidewall and with about 6K miles on them they appear to be wearing better than previous sets I've run at sidewall max. They look like they are wearing more evenly across the width of the tread with less edge wear.

vtec-e
11-04-2008, 03:23 AM
About the only way to center-wear a modern radial is to mount it
on a rim that's *way* too narrow so the tread bends in a fairly
ridiculous way. That might still not do it, and the bead might
unseat from the misalignment before it visibly wears anyway.
.
_H*
That's given me an idea. The tires (michelin energy E3A. size: 205 55 R16) on my kia were wearing more in the middle while at sidewall (51psi). All are down to 38psi now and are slowly evening out. I'll have to measure the rim width and see if the tires were too wide for them. Maybe i'll "have" to get narrower tires!:)

Now, on my civic, it's a different ball game. Running at 55 psi with a sidewall max of 44 psi. Just done about 100,000km on them (firestone f 570. size:185 65 R14) with about 3mm left. Even wear right across the tread. Go figure.

ollie



Copyright 2006 Clean MPG, LLC. All Rights Reserved.