This is an open question for Rob Pickrell.
Rob,
I have always appreciated your openness about sharing your knowledge of
technical information about tires. And being in the tire business, I'm
sure you encounter this frequently. How do you set the pressures for
street tires when the customer has upgraded in tire size or performance?
What if the customer has modified the suspension. Do you stick to the
car manufacturer's recommended pressures to avoid liability? Do you use
some rules of thumb for pressure changes, because obviously you can't
test every combination in a controlled environment like we do at autox.
The tradeoffs for the street are different than the demands for autox.
Safety is important and long life is usually a prime concern. By the
time you discover you've over or underinflated a tire by the rate of
wear across the tread, you've worn away a good bit of useful rubber.
How do the tire manufactures optimize their tire designs? Do they run
all their tests at a standard pressure? Or do they try to design a tire
that will work at a whole range of pressures? Can we ever find out what
the design pressure range is?
--
Jon Rush
Consultant, Engineering Solutions
610-966-0923
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