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Originally Posted by Bestwifeever
I also heard a radio show talking about hypermiling and am glad to see it addressed here.
Is the maximum PSI printed on the tires themselves an unsafe pressure? Would that PSI cause uneven wear on the tires, does anyone know?
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It definitely can cause excess tire wear. Google 'over inflate' and tires for some links. That wiki link and others, showed how you can do a chalk line test on your tires to look for wear patterns.
Also, it can adversely affect handling and safety. True, mfgs probably have you inflate on the low side for added comfort of ride, but there are other factors in play that you may never realize until you try to react to an emergency situation. I don't care to find out that way.
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Also, any opinions on using regular vs. higher octane?
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Now, THIS is worth revisiting. I thought about it the last time I filled up. Here's what I know (and don't know):
A) Most cars today will run fine on all grades (check your manual). They adjust for the grades.
B) There is *some* evidence that a car can get slightly better mileage with the higher grade. It's slight enough to make it a bit tough to tell fill-up to fill-up.
C) The higher grade gas tends (I have not checked lately) to be a fixed amount higher (like 10 cents) than lower grade, rather than a % higher - this is important.
So, if you get say, 5% better mpg with high grade (say 21 vs 20), and it is a dime more, that is a wash at $2.00 gas. But, a dime added to $4.00 gas is a smaller % increase in cost, and makes higher grade fuel a good buy.
Even if those numbers are close - it's only about 2% gas price savings. But no risk, no effort.
So, anyone have good figures on premium vs regular mpg and cost delta?
-ERD50
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