Date:         Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:51:58 -0500
Reply-To:     David Brodbeck <gull@GULL.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Brodbeck <gull@GULL.US>
Subject:      Re: 215/70: Cold Tire pressure
Comments: To: don spence <dspence@OANET.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <43D8100A-72F1-11D8-A1FB-003065A72624@oanet.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Wed, 10 Mar 2004, don spence wrote:

> Wouldn't increasing the front tire pressure INCREASE the under-steer?

There was a thread about this a while back on the Swedish Bricks list.
The gist was: It depends.  There's a certain optimal tire pressure, for
any given tire and weight, that will give the best grip.  Pressures above
and below that one will result in less grip.  Optimum grip at both ends
*may* not give the best handling, either, depending on the car's dynamics.

On my Honda Civic hatchback, which was considerably heavier in the front
than in the rear, I found that running the front tires at 35 psi and the
rears at 29 resulted in much more balanced handling than the factory
recommendation of 29/29.  The tradeoff was a slightly rougher ride and a
bit more squirming around in pavement grooves.

The great thing about experimenting with tire pressures is that air is
cheap. ;)


David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Volkswagen Diesel Westfalia
'86 Volvo 240DL wagon