On Fri, 23 May 1997 08:46:13 -0500 (CDT) todd@nutria.nrlssc.navy.mil
(Todd Mullins) writes:
>Kai Radicke writes:
>
>> NEVER fill the tires to the max PSI, always use the PSI that is
>recommended
>> by your Owners manual. I learned this one from watching reruns of
>> MotorWeek!
>
>Yes, Kai's right. Optimum tire PSI depends not on the particular
>tire,
I've resisted telling this story with this thread, but I can resist no
longer.
Went to Sam's Wholesale Warehouse to buy a new set of tires (1st
mistake). Bought a set of Pirelli P44's for the Honda (2nd mistake).
Had them installed there (3rd mistake). When driving off, I hit the
first bump and it was like the tires were made of wood. I checked the
air pressure and found it was over 40 pounds! I took the car back, not
only to fix this idiocy, but to have the tires remounted so the valve was
in the right place. Tire guy insists that all tires should be filled to
the maximum as stated on the side of the tire! He also insists that 19
years in the tire business supported this contention! It just so
happened that the Pirellis had one of the highest maximums ever known to
man (It was either 40 or 45 pounds, I forget which). He continued to
insist that reducing the pressure in the tire from the maximum would
shorten their life. Obviously this guy wasn't smart enough to get hired
by a "real" tire store.
The P44's turned out to be real crap, too. This was disappointing since
I was quite happy with the P3's I had on the MGA (THERE! Got the LBC
content taken care of!). They wouldn't track straight and were lousy in
snow. I replaced them with some Goodyears after about a year. I later
talked to a REAL tire guy, and he said that the P44's had about a 40%
defect rate.
David Littlefield
Houston, TX
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