Best tire pressure

[ranger pete]

Recently bought a set of General Altimax RT43 tires, 205/55R16.


Very happy so far. They ride nice, quiet and handle well.

Stopped to check the pressure a few days ago. Didn't ask the tech what he filled them to, so I checked the door jamb label which says 35 front/rear. When I checked them, they were at about 42. I lowered them to 35.

No real noticeable difference other than I now can feel them rolling a bit more in hard cornering. I think I am going to pump them back up to 42.

Any recommendations?

 

[Vpstang]

I keep my tire pressure at 40psi. I have even wear and I like how the car handles at that psi (17inchers)


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[prsa01]

Tire pressure needs to be checked cold (several hours since driving) to be accurate.

I run my pressures high as well. Usually as high as the tire allows. It's all trade-offs between mileage and tire wear vs comfort and some grip (ground contact patch size).

Since I do mostly highway on generally dry roads I fudge towards the high end and compensate by driving slightly more carefully when roads are wet. If I lived in the pnw I would not go quite so high.

 

[oilhammer]

It sucks that in these modern times our gov't has decided we are too stupid to figure out what tire pressures are best for our particular driving, and have instead just told the manufacturers to put the maximum as the lone singular pressure on the placard in the car. Didn't used to be that way.

Good news is, since VAG went back to the rotational TPMS, you can put them at whatever you like and reset it and it learns that... which is nice. I wish all manufacturers went back to this, but so far it seems only VAG and Honda that I know of.

Just know that the pressure on the placard on Volkswagens after about 2002 or so only show the maximum load pressure. Meaning, what you should have the pressures at if your car is full (all seats occupied, and some cargo in the trunk). That is why the REAR tire pressure shows HIGHER than the front, despite the fact that the car's curb weight is significantly heavier on the front axle. This is dumb. Unless you actually drive around with four more full sized humans and a few suitcases in your car ALL THE TIME, which I'd suspect .0091% actually do.

For my FWD cars, that rarely have more than one or maybe two people in them, I run the fronts a wee bit higher than the rears.

For those of us with older cars, we actually have a placard that shows different loads.... depending on model... half or full load, some even show high speed pressures like MB used to as well.

Use your best judgement, and keep the tires rotated regularly as scheduled and keep them aired up, should be fine.

 

[tjg]

It sucks that in these modern times our gov't has decided we are too stupid to figure out what tire pressures are best for our particular driving, and have instead just told the manufacturers to put the maximum as the lone singular pressure on the placard in the car. Didn't used to be that way.

In the Army every stupid rule has a story behind it... "I didn't know how much air to put in so I just kept filing it" pop.

 

[Zygote Bros]

Recently bought a set of General Altimax RT43 tires, 205/55R16.


Very happy so far. They ride nice, quiet and handle well.

Stopped to check the pressure a few days ago. Didn't ask the tech what he filled them to, so I checked the door jamb label which says 35 front/rear. When I checked them, they were at about 42. I lowered them to 35.

No real noticeable difference other than I now can feel them rolling a bit more in hard cornering. I think I am going to pump them back up to 42.

Any recommendations?

I run 37-38 front, 35-36 rear.

 

[IXLR8]

I run 42 psi all around and watch tire wear. My last two sets wore evenly at that pressure, I got good fuel economy and handling at the expense of a slightly more firm ride.

 

[ksing44]

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=1836187

The post from dieseldorf at the link above explains that US rules dictate that the markings on the B-pillar are the recommended tire pressures for a full load, not the recommended tire pressures for normal driving. Tire pressures are increased to carry the maximum payloads, so the normal pressure would be something less than what is indicated on the B-pillar. On my old Mercedes, they also suggested different pressures for high-speed driving.

I used the formula from dieseldorf’s link to determine the pressure. The only issue for me is that I have a tendency to want to run matching front and rear tire pressures. I understand the front is heavier, so I guess I really should run more pressure in the front. I will see if I can go against my emotional tendency to have symmetrical pressures.

The formula is: Curb weight / 100 + 2 (+ 2 on heavy end)
US Golf TDI (~3000 lbs and ~60/40 weight distribution):
3000 lbs. / 100 = 30
+ 2 = 32 (rear)
+ 2 = 34 (front- heavy end)

32 – 34 psi sounds very reasonable and in line with the pressures I remember being recommended for other cars before the change in the rules.