Tires - what did you replace with?

I *really* don't mean this to sound snooty, so please consider it a constructive suggestion.

Use the Search capability and look at the many, many posts about tires here.

Thanks.

 

As HeyKB states - there's lots of posts on this already.

Anyway, I wouldn't outright replace the integrities. I think they're fine for warm weather driving. I would simply do what I did. Put snow tires on for the winter. I actually haven't put them on yet, but I bought Blizzak Revo 1's and will be putting them on as soon as snow is in the forecast.

 

I thought the OEM tires were unsafe on wet roads. I now drive on wet roads and the car does a lot better. It now takes effort to spin the tires...

 

Are you still using the oem tires?.. and if not what did you go to.. and what mileage effects did you have?

 

Those standard factory tires worked fine for me over the first winter in Minnesota. But when one got punctured, I jumped at the opportunity to upgrade.

HydroEdge is what I chose. They are absolutely amazing in the rain. On snow, the are very impressive all-season tires, but not true snow tires. They'll slip some on aggressive forward acceleration. But when it comes to taking corners hard, they don't slip; the thread is extremely well designed for gripping at angles. The performance was quite pleasing the second winter.

The third winter driving my HSD Prius starts... gasp ...tomorrow! The forecast is for 3 to 7 inches of snow. I'm very happy with my decision to upgrade.

 

New tires included in signature.

MPG drop for 12,000 miles to around 43MPG. Lately I can average maybe 45 if I just kick around home/work, and a road-trip will go over 50 if I stick to back roads.

I don't want my tires to ever be as loose as the OEM's were, so I'll be happy with what I get out of them until it's time for them to go. Given that HydroEdge never showed as big a drop for some people, I may try them next time, from a shop that'll swap them for TripleTreds if I'm unhappy...

 

John.. what effect did they have on mileage?... I know you kept track!

 

you say intially they dropped to 43... what was your MPG before the switch?
I"m trying to see what MPG effect the tire had... its hard to tell based on you MPG reading alone.... from this end, I see quite wide ranges of what people get, so I don't know?..... 1 MPG loss?...5?

 

Of the many, many posts about tire upgrades not one that I remember has resulted in increased mpgs, but many have reported a decrease.

 

<_< Any new tires would have a temporary negative effect on mileage due to the "moulding tits" on the tire which will wear off. The new tires need to take on a "set" to the car depending a bit on exact alignment. Interesting how Prius drivers are so ultra-sensitive to fuel economy. New tires on ANY car would have the same effect.

Insofar as the OEM "Integrity" tires, I have ~13,500 miles on them, have rotated on the 5,000 mile schedule and they appear to have minimal wear. I note no bad features to handling or brakeing.

 

I"m sure you are right about affecting all cars... the prius drivers are way sensitive, because they have a constant readout of MPG!....

But small differences get amplified much more when you are highly efficient... 50mpg w/5% loss is much more noticable than 20mpg w/5% loss.

 

Upgraded to Toyo Spectrums. No more slipping and the car drives like a go cart in non-snow conditions.

 

That's a complicated question. For one thing, since the tires should last about twice as long as the OEM tires, you get to skip an entire break-in cycle... which is an obvious efficiency benefit. Another thing is not quite having enough comparison data available. Yet another is I do drive a little bit different now, due to the improved handling.

In short, I figure there was about a 1.5 MPG drop overall.

In long, refer to this webpage.

 

thanks John.. I would call that reasonalble records!..... Toyota ought to pay you for all the archieving you have done on thier car!...

Anyway... that sounds like alot of benifits for the minor loss involved.

I suppose its against the laws of physics to expect better traction and handling out of a tire and still get better MPG in the process? After all traction does equal resistance, which equals less mileage.

I appreciate your records and I know others have found them invaluable... your site was the first resource I encounted when learning about the prius!.....there is so much there, it would take me quite a while to cover it all!....

Quite and achievement!... thanks..

 

Well John - in addition to your own website for which I also thank you, I thank you for the above comment. I have factory standard for this winter - I'll advise you - it's way to early for a winter storm! :blink:

 

My OEM average was 47MPG, and I managed 58MPG one 64-mile trip. Never see that anymore with TriplTreds, but I do see over 50MPG fairly often...

 

I wonder if it would be a good alternative to find a tire that has tread pattern that is no more aggressive in its pattern than the OEM, but just better quality rubber and maybe even strong cording "or better ply rating" to prevent flats etc so easily... so as to last more miles, better stopping?


Maybe MPG would not suffer then?

 

But what about mileage?...

 

Maybe creating a new forum would help, eh? Just call it Tires and Treads or something like that. It was raining pretty hard this morning on the way in to the office and my Triple Treds worked like a charm. The car felt very secure on the road; almost as if it wasn't raining at all. They're great tires, so far, even if the mileage suffers a bit.