Ekrub is not a troll.....the OP is just plain wrong concerning over inflated tires...
here are some facts about over inflated tires....
An over-inflated tire puts less tread on the road and increases wear on the center of the tread. A tire is designed to run with the vehicle's weight spread evenly across the width of the tire.
The fact is that if you are inflating your tires to the manufacturers recommended pressure.....it will maximize tire performance, increase fuel economy.
YES-- there are those who claim that increasing tire pressure will increase gas mileage, but they conveniently don`t tell you that you also increase tread wear thus causing your tires to not wear evenly thus replacing tires more frequently!
Keep your tires properly inflated. Under-inflated tires will cause more drag and reduce gas mileage. Over-inflated tires will wear faster.....
Overinflated and inflated to sidewall aren't the same! The gas door on many Volvos will say something like 32psi. If you look at just that number, with YOUR logic, you'd be getting maximum mileage! However, if you look right below it, it mentions 38psi.... So how could they possibly be getting "max mileage" at 32psi when they've got a suggestion right below it stating 38psi?? You can't make an assumption that people who inflate their tires higher than the manufacturer's suggestion aren't getting good, even tread wear. I repeated multiple times that I had yet to see a single vehicle get less than perfectly even tread wear in the front tires when inflated to sidewall. What I HAVE seen is very uneven tread wear when inflated to manufacturer's recommendations. In fact, one such truck had wear down the sides on the front tires and wear down the middle on the rear tires when inflated to such specifications!!!
I completely agree that it's not a good idea to drive on tires that aren't wearing evenly, down the center or down the sides. But if we can agree that good, even tread wear is what we all desire and that this can be achieved by inflating to the sidewall, the what is so wrong with doing so?
Manufacturer's agree that if you're going to do high-speed cornering and driving that you should add like 5psi, so again the idea that the manufacturer's PSI recommendation is most optimal for MPG is wrong. It may be optimal for the balance of comfort, sound, and mpg but is not optimal for best MPG. I don't know if because where I live we have hilly terrain or what, but all the vehicles with the tires inflated to manufacturer's recommendations ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS, 100% guaranteed to wear down the sides while those inflated to the sides don't, or almost don't. Hey, I'll admit, I take corners really quickly, like a 25mph curve at 40mph, and so do a lot of people. So if we're going to be driving like we're racing and we know that higher inflation pressures improve handing, then that means it's most desirable to inflate tires to higher pressures than what the door jamb says...
