Steel vs aluminum wheels, and reducing pothole damage.

[tortillasoup]

Doesn't that just transfer more force to the suspension?

I thought the idea was to soften the impact?

It definitely would but it would save the wheel in the event of a collision. In my experience at least, if you hit a pothole that is bad enough to damage the wheel, it's not necessarily bad enough to damage the suspension. I don't drive sports cars or cars that have been slammed but I do own or have owned cars that have "sport like" suspension whereby they're pretty firm and you can feel every bump in the road. It obviously best to avoid potholes as best as you can for obvious reasons. A friend of mine in his Mitsubishi eclipse got into an accident while it was raining (lost control), hit the curb and not only ruined two wheel rims but he also damaged a control arm. So had he had more air pressure in his tires, the wheels would have been saved and a bit more force would have gone to the already damaged control arms. The roof had been bent in this unibody construction so the car was technically suppose to have a salvage title but they never did file with the insurance company so they got nothing.

The air in tires acts as a cushion, allowing the tire to absorb shocks to the sidewall before all the pressure gets to the rim....right?

Correct.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Why not just inflate to sidewall?

😛

I'd rather not overinflate my tires.

For some car and tire combos more PSI may not be a problem, but for others it can be. If you do want to go above the rated PSI on the door make sure to check for proper contact patch and wear patterns.

The roads are becoming quite a wreck around here. I want spring to get here as I want to drive my Camaro again, but with all these holes I may wait for a while for the roads to get fixed up. It hurts enough to hit some of these holes in my Trailblazer with tall sidewalls (265/75/16). It could be quite painful in the Camaro. I'd rather not break something on it.

 

[DanStp]

Those wheels can be fixed. It takes a craftsman to repair them properly, but it can be done.
Once they are repaired you will never know they were bent.

 

[LTC8K6]

It definitely would but it would save the wheel in the event of a collision. In my experience at least, if you hit a pothole that is bad enough to damage the wheel, it's not necessarily bad enough to damage the suspension. I don't drive sports cars or cars that have been slammed but I do own or have owned cars that have "sport like" suspension whereby they're pretty firm and you can feel every bump in the road. It obviously best to avoid potholes as best as you can for obvious reasons. A friend of mine in his Mitsubishi eclipse got into an accident while it was raining (lost control), hit the curb and not only ruined two wheel rims but he also damaged a control arm. So had he had more air pressure in his tires, the wheels would have been saved and a bit more force would have gone to the already damaged control arms. The roof had been bent in this unibody construction so the car was technically suppose to have a salvage title but they never did file with the insurance company so they got nothing.

More air pressure would have made it handle worse in the rain, typically.

 

[LTC8K6]

I would bet it's mostly the short sidewall that's the problem and air pressure won't help much. Reason I say that is because the impact with the edge of a pothole is most likely on the sidewall, or mostly on the sidewall.

I would bet that the impact to the middle of the tread tends to be low.

Given a fairly circular pothole.

I think the sidewalls are taking the brunt of the impact in most pothole hits.

 

[tortillasoup]

More air pressure would have made it handle worse in the rain, typically.

Nope, quite the opposite actually. Can't hydroplane with overinflated tires, let alone tires with above average tire pressure.