I just ask this because I was just at my local Big O Tire store to check my tires after hitting some debris on Friday. I go to Big O because one of the sales guys owns a 300 SRT and so is familiar with how I like my car set up. He was nice enough to check the tires over and adjust the tire pressure for maximum comfort for free. :happy: In my case, I have a slight negative camber on the front for more even wear when on road courses and for "spirited" driving and he set the tire pressure all around to 37 psi (nitrogen). So tell me about your set up and why?
i run the pressure at 36 (nitrogen) and the cars camber is slightly negitive due to the ride height i choose!
hmmm This is a great thread. Sticky material fo sho. With my KW's my rear tires seem to be bowed outward, so I have the Pedder's rear camber kit ordered. Since I am like the straights I like my alignment to be perfect. Although I am know to spirit through twisties every now and again. haha My tire pressure for the 22's are set at 42 psi all around. The DR's are set to 22psi for street driving and anywhere from 13 psi to 18 psi at the drag course...
I ran 32 psi for the past two years....and it road good (comfortable). And that is exactly why it is there...for comfort. I did A LOT of research on this last week and there is NO exact science on it. The conclusions "I" came up with based on my "Google'ing" was: -OEM tire pressure is mainly for driver comfort. For "spirited" driving bumping up the pressures in 2 psi increments to find out where you like it is a good guide. Most guys I've talked to with SRT8's run around 36-38 psi in the OEM tires. -If you have aftermarket tires it is "recommended" to take the OEM (say 32 psi) and the max tire pressure on the tires sidewall (say 48 psi) and meet somewhere in the middle (39 psi)....and again bump it down or up a couple psi and find what YOU like. -Also, a little higher psi creates "less" rolling resistance and gives you a little better fuel economy. -A lot of folks typically run higher pressure in the front and lower in the rear. For daily driving this method has become common practice based on the fact that "most" cars have more weight in the front. Since our cars have a 50/50 weight distribution it is recommended to have the pressures equal front and back. -Run your pressures a little higher when its cold out....and a little lower when its hot out. Again, no real science here....but some general guidelines that I've discovered. Please add additional comments or myths that I may have missed. Hope this helps! - Rick The part in bold is for Dave...so he doesn't nuke it!! LOL
Hmmm, 37 sounds more like a pretty good performance setting. I was running mine at 31 rear and 34 front for the first 10K and was getting even wear. It was a bit too soft and felt mushy on handling. Last 5K have been at 36 on all 4 corners. Much better feel for me and better handling response. Not sure about better lateral traction. Might be the same. On cruising there is a noticeable increase in feeling all the road imperfections but it's not "rock hard". Last car had in-cab damping adjustment "comfort" and "sport". I never used the comfort setting. I hope the nitrogen was free.
Nope, it's all good...I just didn't want to type all that again!!!! I'll go back and open it up and copy and paste my initial post!!! :friends:
LOL! No worries... Rick's is nice and informational, mine's more "tell me about your rubber...um..tires.." :grin:
watch the "rubber" comments..... you will likely attract the eq type over here like a moth to a flame!!!
im at 34....i adjust it till i am comfortable....having the little air compressor in the trunk is handy!.... when i am at the strip i pump up the fronts to about 38 and the rears to about 26....dont know if it in fact helps me on the RSA's but i was told it would be helpful so i do
Stock oem goodyears set at cold 36 and at the track hot fronts 40 rears 35 and that gets me 1.78 - 1.80 60 fts.
I'm running 39 PSI (nitrogen) on all for corners. I installed SPC adjustable upper control arms to have the camber set properly after I lowered the car about 2". Ken
DAYAM Ken, that's a bad azz set up man!!!!!!! And 2 inches?? Wow, I dropped 1 1/2 and it's loooooooooooow, I can't imagine another 1/2" lower, lol! BTW Tam, in case you're still interested in this since it was way back in July when you posted ... personally from my years working at a tire store I say set pressures at whatever works for you individually. I know, that's not much of an answer but everyone drives different and every car is different, those two things create different tire wear for different people. Some like a softer ride, some like a hard one, some go for performance and some don't care at all, I've seen it all over the years. My example is my Mustang. I corner HARD in it so I jack up the front psi to 36-38 to offset the outer egde wear. I also spin the rears like crazy so I lower the rear pressure to offset the inner wear there, around 30-32 psi. Works great for me. On my Mag I'm trying the same thing, only have 5K so far so we'll see how it goes.
Lol, I'm not sure about my camber (it's stock) but when I bought my car it had both 255's on the driver's side and the 245's on the passenger's side... Took me about a week to figure that one out... Great dealership.
Thread from the dead.. my OEM's are wearing really bad on the outter part of the tire. Aside from alignment issues, could I adjust my tire pressure to help it out any? or will that play little to any effect on the situation? Almost 15k on the original tires, car purchased December 28th, 2007
I had a similar issue back with my original set, then someone mentioned a negative camber may help. May look into that.
I'll nuke it anyway! There IS science to it. You get a $4.99 tread depth gauge at your local autoparts store. You measure the tread depth across the tire when they're new. inside, middle, outside. (Make sure you're not measuring on top of a wear bar when you do it.) Then every 3K - 6K measure them again and compare. (if you rotate, this is the time you do that too.) Assuming you're aligned correctly they should wear evenly across. If your car looks like Ron's then they're going to wear on the inside more than the outside. That doesn't have anything to do with tire pressure but you can get a good idea of what's going on with your alignment. If the outsides are wearing more than the middle or the other way around, run them with a couple of pounds more (2 lbs is about the minimum increment to see any difference in wear over 3K or so miles). So if they're like 0.5 32s" different then try 2 lbs. full 1/32" then try 4 lbs. If they're flat on the road then they wear evenly and you get the best traction. Personally I don't think pumping them up for better mileage on a highway trip is such a good idea. First off you're sacrificing some handling, just in case you need it. Secondly, you're putting some premature wear on some pretty expensive shoes so I don't know how much you actually save, if anything. You should pump your tires up for extra weight. If you're carrying an extra 500 lbs and the mother-in-law in the in the trunk then you should pump them up.