Posted by Rick on August 25, 1999 at 10:13:18:
In Reply to: tire pressure with no load posted by jim on August 19, 1999 at 21:15:27:
You should really be at the OE recommendations for tire inflation. This can be found in your manual, glove box, or inside the door jam. I am not sure that your reference to the safety sticker is the same thing (might be). After confirming that your vehicle was not serviced to the OE recommendations you should give the tire dealer a friendly call to bring this to his attention so that future customers have their vehicles inflated to the proper inflation.
Tire inflation impacts a number of performance areas, not just load carrying capacity. The OE inflation pressure was reached by trying to balance all of the vehicle requirements and reached through many concious decisions.
Some areas impacted by tire inflation:
- Vehicle Handling - If you inflate your rears up to 41psi you should see a substantial change in how the vehicle handles. You are impacting the front/rear balance of the tires. Effecting the front/rear balance has the potential to generate an unsafe vehicle condition in abrupt handling situations.
- Wear - By reducing the inflation pressure you are changing the contact patch shape and pressure distribution. This can generate irregular and/or rapid wear.
- Ride is also impacted by inflation pressure.
Please keep in mind that there are lots of individuals out there who resort to lawsuits for absolutely everything. I have heard of lawsuits claiming improper tire inflation pressure as the reason for causing an accident. The other details are irrelevant but in that particular case the psi difference from the OE recommendation was much lower than 6psi.
Additionally by adding your e-mail address people can shoot you a note directly on off topic items. If you are concerned about getting into some flamer conversations you can always get an e-mail at excite or hotmail and then drop the ID.