17" Tires scream PUMP ME UP!

[ggood]

I ran the 17" tires at the recommended 33 PSI front and 32 PSI rear for about 2 weeks, just to get a feel for the car and the tires. My priority is comfort over handling. I pumped them up to 39/38 a couple of days ago, and there is a very noticeable improvement in cornering, highway speed linear tracking, road feel and overall handling. I am not a gearhead, but even I can tell Toyota has seriously lowballed the recommended tire pressures.

Before the change, handling was acceptable and mostly as expected, but still had the usual numb Toyota road feel. Turns and curves were very stable, but a bit muted, and had a bit more flex in the tires than I was expecting from a low profile tire. With the increase, there has been a large increase in road feel and handling, at very little cost in comfort. Yes I feel the road imperfections more, at both city and highway speeds, but the suspension dampening seems to compensate very well for that, and I am not feeling any discomfort or annoyance at the higher PSIs. The highway noise may also be slightly greater, but not enough to care about.

I will try adding a few more pounds, but I doubt I'll want to stay much higher than the current levels, for the sake of my comfort. Bottom line is that the recommended tire pressures should be at least 37/36, even if you are being conservative. It still ain't a Beamer, but it's definitely into Honda territory now. I'm so glad I got the Model V!

[F8L]

OMG! Exceeding the manufacture specified air pressures will cause you to explode the tires and further increase the size of the hole in the ozone layer!

*sits back and waits for the tire pressure nazis to freak out over this one*

LOL

[Argyle]

I am new here and have not seen a flame war over tire pressure yet. But everything i have heard is that overinflating will cause less traction and premature wear.
And if you are going through tires quicker, it sort of defeats the purpose of saving all this fuel, doesn't it?
I am not a gear head and may be just be out of touch, is my conventional wisdom too conservative?

[F8L]

Originally Posted by Argyle

I am new here and have not seen a flame war over tire pressure yet. But everything i have heard is that overinflating will cause less traction and premature wear.
And if you are going through tires quicker, it sort of defeats the purpose of saving all this fuel, doesn't it?
I am not a gear head and may be just be out of touch, is my conventional wisdom too conservative?

Here ya go mate. Have a look at some of thesde threads and it will answer your questions.

Integritys with over 35k miles @ 50+psi (pics)

Tire Pressure Poll - Where is Yours?

max oem tire pressure

confused about tire pressure

[ggood]

Originally Posted by Argyle

I am new here and have not seen a flame war over tire pressure yet. But everything i have heard is that overinflating will cause less traction and premature wear.
And if you are going through tires quicker, it sort of defeats the purpose of saving all this fuel, doesn't it?
I am not a gear head and may be just be out of touch, is my conventional wisdom too conservative?

Great, you and I will be like the proverbial blind men and the elephant! I can hardly wait for all the smart people to come out and correct all the misinformation I'm about to state below!

Seriously, there is a difference between the tire manufacturer's recommended maximum tire pressure, and the car manufacturer's recommended tire pressures. These particular tires are rated at 51 max PSI, which I am never going to get anywhere near. The serious hypermilers here tend to run closer to max tire pressures than to Toyota's recommended PSI. Most sane people here try to strike a balance between comfort/ride and handling/mileage. The auto manufacturer is usually recommending relatively low pressures, to ensure their American customers won't complain about the ride not being soft enough. They may have been particularly concerned about that in the case of these low profile tires, which tend to give a harder ride, due to having less of an air cushion. IMHO, they overshot to the point of significantly decreasing the handling/mileage, for very little gain in comfort/ride. Based on my limited knowledge from reading lots of tire threads here, running these particular tires at the PSIs I was talking about will not reduce tread life or traction.

OK, time for the smart people to chime in!

[Argyle]

Originally Posted by F8L

Here ya go mate. Have a look at some of thesde threads and it will answer your questions.

Integritys with over 35k miles @ 50+psi (pics)

Tire Pressure Poll - Where is Yours?

max oem tire pressure

confused about tire pressure

OK, I have learned something today. Thanks.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by Argyle

OK, I have learned something today. Thanks.

Please keep in mind that this is related to the Goodyear Integrity tires. I will go out and measure my Nokian i3s which are overinflated as well. We will see if the treadwear is consistent with our findings on the Integrity. I have a feeling that the wider 17" tires may not like to be severely overinflated but since I won't be running those anytime soon I'll leave it up to someone else to test that idea.

No one recommends running pressures over the max pressure "limit" on your specific tire. We just report the outcome of doing so on our own vehicles and let you decide what you think is prudent.

[HTMLSpinnr]

I fully intend on inflating the Yokos to 40/38 or more.

[Vincent]

ggood,

Not sure which tires you have; I have the Bridgestones. I didn't last a week at 33/32 (actually 3 days) before I brought mine up to 38/36. Screw the tire nazis, I like the road feel better at the higher psi and, at 450 miles so far, I've already exceeded 51MPG on my usual commute that yielded 44-46 MPG with my well broken in 2006 with 71,000 miles.

Bottom line, 33/32 won't kill you, but for me, it's too low, soft and bad for tire life/safety. Buy a tire pump, don't exceed the maximum psi, but play with the pressures until you find pressures you and your MPG's like and enjoy your new toy.

[ggood]

Originally Posted by Vincent

ggood,

Not sure which tires you have; I have the Bridgestones. I didn't last a week at 33/32 (actually 3 days) before I brought mine up to 38/36. Screw the tire nazis, I like the road feel better at the higher psi and, at 450 miles so far, I've already exceeded 51MPG on my usual commute that yielded 44-46 MPG with my well broken in 2006 with 71,000 miles.

Bottom line, 33/32 won't kill you, but for me, it's too low, soft and bad for tire life/safety. Buy a tire pump, don't exceed the maximum psi, but play with the pressures until you find pressures you and your MPG's like and enjoy your new toy.

I got the Toyos. Already had a pump, so I'm good to go. Had to really hunt to find that TPM reset switch the first time!