The correct tyre pressure for your car is easy to calculate. And it's
fun....
Assuming radials, start with 34 lbs all round. Cold. At night. When
you haven't driven the car for 12 hours or more.
Next morning, on a warm day (that's almost any day in Australia!! -
you Americans/ Brits may need to wait a few months...), find your
favourite stretch of road, and drive vigorously. Then drive to a
nearby old style shopping centre carpark/ school carpark (on a
weekend) and do a few figure 8s at a reasonable speed (without being a
complete hoon.....)
Jump out and measure your tyre pressure when your Tyres are the
hotest You are looking for a 3- 4 lb increase, and a max hot tyre
pressure on road radials of around 38- 40. If they are say 40 at the
front, and say 38 at the rear, write it down and go home.
Next day (12 hrs cold) make the fronts say 36 (from 34 cold, 40 hot)
and rears can stay the same (34 cold, 38 hot)
Best part - do it all again! Enjoy your Healey!! See what the pressure
is after you've done it all again, and as long as you see a 3- 4 lb
increase, with Tyres at full max temp, you have the right tyre
pressure for your car....
If you started at e.g. 30, you'd possibly still end at 40 or maybe
more. You need more air to start with...
You can get all carried away with tyre pyrometers. And spend a day at
a track. Ive done all that. The results generally aren't much
different, the pyrometer just tells you more, e.g. heat across the
face of the tyre which e.g. helps with e.g. Camber adjustment and
contact patch stuff. Which isn't easy to adjust.
But for most of you guys, just looking for some guidance on road
radials, this method is pretty damn close.
And yes, the manual is talking about bias ply tyres. Not modern radials.
If this is all to compIex, start at 36 front and 34 rear on the road.
Higher pressure in the end which slides first. But I've never owned an
oversteering Healey.... Unless I want it to...
And yes, tyres. Not tires. Read the manual. Guage isn't that relevant,
it's the increase/ cold/ hot pressure relativity you need to focus on.
;-)
Chris
www.myaustinhealey.com
On 16/12/2009, at 10:51 PM, "Mark LaPierre" <lapierrem@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:
> I have 3 pressure gauges that give me 3 different figures. Which
> one is
> correct?
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
Healeys@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
http://www.team.net/archive
|