What tyre pressure do you run at?

[btm]

i run 36 front and 34 rear on my stock SRi 16s

[Vectracious]

Been running 40 all round on a number of cars for a number of years - yes the ride is harder, but the improvement in handling outweighs that, especially in the Astra where the higher profile (stock) tyres will flex on the sidewalls more...

[GreyRex]

Guess I was out of the loop on this one. Will go and put the extra psi in them when I can. Be interesting to see what difference there is

[woody]

i run 36 front and 34 rear on my stock SRi 16s

Same - stock Sri 16" - Same pressures as BTM - seems to give best performance for grip/fuel without compromising the braking capability or ride.

[woody]

Guess I was out of the loop on this one. Will go and put the extra psi in them when I can. Be interesting to see what difference there is

don't go too high or you'll start to notice the wear in the centre of your tyre is higher than the edges, this is because the tyre will start to baloon in the centre the more pressure you put in. the best balance for general driving is when the full span of the tyre is in contact with the road without too much sag - sag, ie a low pressure in tyre will cause excessive wear on the edges of the tyre and also decrease your fuel economy.

Run hard tyres for track or drag, soft for sand and mud medium for road.

[Bill_G]

Nobody, including myself, has so far mentioned that tyre pressures need to be checked while cold, which may be a tad difficult if you've just been driving around on them, as pressures increase substantially when the tyres are hot.

The easiest way of overcoming this problem is to overinflate all four tyres by around 5psi just before getting home, then wait for several hours until the tyres have cooled to ambient temperature, and release the excess air until the pressures are correct.

[WLD-18L]

in my 215/45/17 i run 36 allround.

im lucky enough to own a air compressor

[woody]

Nobody, including myself, has so far mentioned that tyre pressures need to be checked while cold, which may be a tad difficult if you've just been driving around on them, as pressures increase substantially when the tyres are hot.

The easiest way of overcoming this problem is to overinflate all four tyres by around 5psi just before getting home, then wait for several hours until the tyres have cooled to ambient temperature, and release the excess air until the pressures are correct.

Very good point there Bill. if you drive lazily from your house to the local servo (within 5 k's) and you started off with cold tyres, you'll be within 1/2 a psi of the cold pressure when you get there.

[dustbug]

Running 40psi on my 20's, i may try something a bit higher next time i fill up with air, maybe 42/44psi. 225/30R20

[Bill_G]

Very good point there Bill. if you drive lazily from your house to the local servo (within 5 k's) and you started off with cold tyres, you'll be within 1/2 a psi of the cold pressure when you get there.

I expect that's probably true at night or when it's raining, but when the road surface is hot enough to fry an egg, as it usually is in Brisbane at this time of the year, I strongly suspect that the tyres are going to reach their operating temperatures very quickly indeed.

Nevertheless, Woody, you make a rather interesting point and I'm sufficiently curious that I'll test that hypothesis around midday tomorrow by periodically recording my tyre pressures over a distance of 5km or so, then I'll post the results here.