Would raising your tire pressure really help save much gas? Should you keep them fairly high to do any good? On my 31" tires I'm running 31 in front and 33 in back. I do keep them rotated . They have 18,000 on them and they are wearing very evenly and look like they will last at least another 18,000. Good ride and handling but if it will help with gas mileage I would raise the pressure some. Mike

 

I suppose you would, but nevertheless, I'd stick with the manufacturer's recommendations. A blow out at high speed would not be worth the gas savings.

 

I would think anything you save on gas would be lost on tire wear and the cost of new tires.

 

On most light and medium truck tires (that I've seen anyway), you can run them up to 50PSI under max load. Shouldn't have to worry about a blow out too much.

I've run my 32" BFG A/T's at 50PSI all around for a week or two to see if there was any gain. The ride was super rough, and I didn't notice any big gain in MPH, maybe half mile, but since the truck is light, with the tires at that PSI unloaded, there was a very noticeable wear pattern in the center of the tires, so no real gain overall. I'm back down to 35PSI, my butt thanks me.

 

x2

I can't imagine the mpg increase would be noticeable.

Rob

 

Rob, I keep hearing that it can make a big difference but I don't really know because I always just kept my tires where they wore the best and longest. This morning on the news they were giving gas saving tips and they claim you can save over 6% by keeping your tires slightly over inflated or where they should be per manufactures recommendation. Mike

 

I think those sort of tips are aimed at the people you see going down the road with one tire that is practically flat. Low tire pressure would definately have a negative impact on mileage, but going above the manufacturer's recommendations would cause the tires to wear unevenly, offsetting the savings with tire wear. Instead of having a flat footprint l_l on the road, you'd have a U shape, causing more wear down the centre of the tire.

 

I think the key is adjusting pressures, rotating, balancing and alignments that are tuned to the way the tires wear.

Sure, I run 32-35 psi in my 31's, sometimes a little more, sometimes less. If you run with them inflated a little more, next time let some out.

I like to have a little extra pressure on long distance trips, the decreased rolling resistance helps offset the increased drag caused by going interestate speeds.

Also, the only way you're going to know if it will have an effect is over long periods of time. Record keeping in regards to gas mileage is quite important in my opinion, the usefulness of the information is quite high.

 

All good points.

The real trick is to identify what pressure your tire can handle with out causing improper tread wear. Record keeping gives you a wealth of knowledge about your vehicle.

If you want to verify that having your tires properly inflated try riding your bike with low tires and keep inflating them as a test. You WILL feel a significant difference in rolling resistance when it's your legs doing the work

Erich

 

These are definitely the people who could benefit from increasing their tire pressures. Those usually people dont check their air pressure on a regular basis. By over-filling the tire here in the spring, hopefully by the end of summer we dont get anymore ford exploder rollovers due to low air pressure.

 

I usually run around 35 psi in my 04 Taco (265/75 A/T's) and I was getting 16-17 mpg VERY consistenly (heavy foot, I know) - I raised it to 40 psi, thats what I run now, ride is still decent, although a little rougher, but I've picked up on mileage. Its come up to high 17's-18's. My wallet thanks me.

 

More pressure would increase MPG but if you increase it too much you will get uneven tread wear(it will wear out the center) however 31 and 33 psi is pretty low. I always ran my LT tires in the low 40's and have never had a problem with center wear. Also if you have wider tires on 7" rims it would wear the center out. But if you have wider wheels with 265 tires I would guess that 50 psi would not phase them because wider wheels create a flatter stance.

 

haha i think we watch the same new because I heard that too and i pumped up my tires to 42.5 PSI all the way around the tires said max 44 so I assumed that to be the recommended pressure...(it looks as if they sit pretty even on the ground...i'll watch for irregular wear patterns)

 

The way I check my tire pressure and always have is the chalk method and it is a real good indicator.If you have even chalk wear across the tire there is no reason to raise or lower the pressure. I know some people feel that they need to rise there tires to the max but that's not always a good thing to do.
My tires last me a good while but I keep them inflated evenly and rotate every 5000 miles.
I'm going to raise the pressure a little in the morning and do another chalk test to see what happens. The more I can raise them and keep a good wear track the better, I would think anyway. Thanks for the info on yours.
I know that 6% is not allot but I'm not rich and I'll take all the help I can get with gas prices the way they are Mike

 

I pumped them up from roughly 33 psi to 42 psi and i can tell a pretty big difference in the ride....the car is accelerating a bit quicker it feels like and it coasts longer when i let off the gas...i have no idea about the gas mileage though i'll keep an eye on that

Also the ride is a lot stiffer. Bumps feel pretty hard...

 

i do the exact same thing

 

I ran 40 in my last tires, the dealer had them at 44 which is max. and that was way too much. Even at 40 they started center wearing at an accelerated rate, so I don't go over 35 psi ever. I usually go for 32 front 35 back and rotate every 4,000 miles or sooner