Tire pressure for winter tires

When getting my winter tires installed, the mechanic mentioned that they recommend setting the pressure to a couple of PSI less than summers. This seems sensible, but I wondered if anyone had any experience or facts to back this up?

His reasoning is you want a slightly softer tire to grip the road better. Coupled, I would guess, with the idea that you are not as likely to be cornering as hard! Since I usually run about 2 PSI above the suggested inflation, this would actually bring me down to normal anyway. Cheers, Tim

Reply to
Tim Reeve
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Hello Tim

Just my 2 cents: Winter tires are already designed with rubber that stays flexible at lower temperatures, so they will, by design, grip the road well when cold; Winter tires wear faster, and may be more prone to uneven wear due to underinflation; Air compresses as it gets colder (I've read ~1psi for every 5 degrees Celsius - ~10 deg. F - in tires...) so underinflating by 2 psi at 0 Celsius - 32 F - will turn into -6 psi at -20 Celsius - -10 F; I *think* underinflation is recommended on snow and ice, but again I don't know if this is with older winter tires and if modern (post-Blizzac) winter tires need it or react well to it - it might be good only in extreme situations.

I run 35/33 (factory rec. is 32/30) in my winter tires...

As I said, my 2 cents... :)

Nicolas

Reply to
Nicolas Dore

within reason, lower air pressure means more traction and more wear. before this winter i drove in an area that was snowy, but not very icy, now i'm in an icy/snowy winter and this is my first year with real winter tires. on my subaru, i'm keeping my eagle hp all seasons, but on my old 4runner i decided to go with the winter dueler (light truck blizzak). i haven't run them very far so i can't comment on wear, but i'm only running 20psi in the tires and i have excellent (better than studs) traction. i've known people to run as low as 8psi in their blizzaks when it's really icy out, but i think my truck it too heavy to do that without serious tire damage.

i've never been one to really believe the sticker in the door that says what tire pressure to run. that value may be true for the oe tires, but even going to a different brand or model in the same size tire, you may have to change pressure to get the handling characteristics to be optimal. as a rough guide the total contact patch of your tires times the pressure in your tires is equal to the weight of your car. so if you go to a little wider tire, you can safely lower your pressure (within reason). my advice is to play around with the pressures until you find what gives you the handling characteristics that make you feel comfortable, and then watch tire wear to make sure everything is even. one thing the sticker on the door is good for it telling you the weight distribution. on my truck it says to run 32/30 psi in the front/rear. that means the front it probably about 7% heaver so i should run about 7% more pressure in my fronts than my rears, that's what i do and it handles great. i do the same for my car and have never had any problems.

mike

Reply to
Mike Deskevich

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