gord273
Well-known member
See, I understand what you guys are saying but the age old recommendation for winter tires is to get narrower tires than stock so they cut through the snow more. If you go and get narrower tires but then run them so low they're just as wide as your stock/summer tires then what's the point?
The recommended tire pressure for my MK4 Jetta is 35/42. Me doing 40/42 is right in line with that. Plus as I said, I filled up at ~12c. I believe the rule of thumb is something like 1psi for +/-5c. Even at 40/42 they still look "flat" to me.
On my summer tires I typically run 37/39 when filling to account for them heating up during the drive. I put about 18k on my brand new Pilot Super Sports this past summer and rotated them twice during that time. The wear difference per tire and across the tread pattern is imperceptible.
I ALWAYS run my cars at around stock recommendation. I ALWAYS account for PSI changes with temperature when I inflate my tires. I've never had a problem with uneven tire wear. In fact, tire wear, side to side, is always super even. Obviously fronts wear faster than rears.
Logically, the way I understand tire wear, the only thing you guys are doing by running such low pressure is slightly decreasing your fuel economy. Though in theory your dry road/ice traction should be a bit better the same as my deep snow traction would be slightly better. I drive to a cottage in winter on snowy back roads so this is most important to me. Plus I can always lower pressure when out on the road if necessary but it's a lot harder to increase pressure. However, for most conditions any of us will experience we're probably splitting hairs here.
The recommended tire pressure for my MK4 Jetta is 35/42. Me doing 40/42 is right in line with that. Plus as I said, I filled up at ~12c. I believe the rule of thumb is something like 1psi for +/-5c. Even at 40/42 they still look "flat" to me.
On my summer tires I typically run 37/39 when filling to account for them heating up during the drive. I put about 18k on my brand new Pilot Super Sports this past summer and rotated them twice during that time. The wear difference per tire and across the tread pattern is imperceptible.
I ALWAYS run my cars at around stock recommendation. I ALWAYS account for PSI changes with temperature when I inflate my tires. I've never had a problem with uneven tire wear. In fact, tire wear, side to side, is always super even. Obviously fronts wear faster than rears.
Logically, the way I understand tire wear, the only thing you guys are doing by running such low pressure is slightly decreasing your fuel economy. Though in theory your dry road/ice traction should be a bit better the same as my deep snow traction would be slightly better. I drive to a cottage in winter on snowy back roads so this is most important to me. Plus I can always lower pressure when out on the road if necessary but it's a lot harder to increase pressure. However, for most conditions any of us will experience we're probably splitting hairs here.
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I didn't even have to try to avoid getting stuck or anything. One thing I look at in tires is how deep the tread is when new, a lot of snow tires like the Hankooks are about 10, 11 32nds. The Toyo are 13 
