Salve to Felines - Thank you for your remarks! I had been despondent for several hours thinking something was ...'wrong with you people' (me)! I checked my title as you did and I am, indeed, the owner of my MINI and today, enjoy driving and, well, you know... There is some insight here into this thread, in general on NAM. and what can be an enjoyable discussions and the helpful discussions that occur here. In the spirit of helpfulness perhaps others could share some hints into a path to not being 'whats wrong' ---- nutritional supplements, meditation, counseling,...

This forum is very enjoyable and most of the time there are well-meaning, helpful people to be found. Seems like there are others that have had a little too much caffeine or, perhaps need to add some fiber to their diet...

I intend to stay here and do a better job of ignoring some of the 'rants.'

There is always room for improvement and additional civility. I hope.

PS - I am looking for a new cat and begin again to be another Salve to Felines!

 

well that is not what the tire manufacturers say and well THEY ARE THE EXPERTS

to a point you are correct but over inflation by 4-5 pounds from the recommended by the car manufacturer reduces the contact patch and thus reduces the ability of the tire to hold the road properly.

all of that is totally true

again to a point this is correct but an over inflated tire running on the center of the tread generates overheating in the center of the belts and causes different movement of the tread in the center compared to the outer edges and causes creeping of the belts and premature failure.

I dont know where you get this info but that again is not what the manufacturers are saying.

Michelin - http://www.michelinman.com/tires-101...Name=Scalloped

BF Goodrich - http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/tires...%20in%20Center

Bridgestone (page 8) - http://www.bridgestonetire.com/PDF/G...arranty_EN.pdf

Cooper - http://us.coopertire.com/CooperTires...lletin_105.pdf

Kumho - http://www.stylintrucks.com/Articles...rPressure.aspx

Again they are not experts on tires and are they really sure they have the pressure they state they have in their tires. I would be inclined to think they really dont knos what their tire pressure really is.

Not really as over inflation causes many issues with tires such as being able to be punctured easier, more sever damage on impact, harsher ride, faster tire wear, handling problems and other issues.

You can think what you want but the tire manufacturers are the experts and refute most of what you are saying.

 

Holy fuel economy, Batman! Some people get so worked up. I think the whole point czar was trying to make was to not worry so much over every last mpg and just enjoy driving the MINI. You're right, it's your car, your name is on the title, blah, blah, blah. My name is on my title too (well, the bank and me...). There are cars built to play the fuel mileage game, such as the Prius, Volt, Cruze Eco, etc... Nobody says you can't do it with a MINI, you certainly can. The idea though is to enjoy the MINI for it's driving experience.

When I started my "new" car search, I initially had fuel economy as a high priority. I was looking mostly at the Mazda2 and Honda Fit. But my plans quickly changed and I focused on the MINI. Wound up with my MCS. Fuel economy was still on my priority list, but I knew I'd sacrifice a few MPG over the other cars, including a base Cooper. Choice I made. Do I try to squeeze good fuel mileage out of it? Absolutely. But do I sweat it if a tank got me 34mpg instead of 36mpg, and I enjoyed hitting the boost here and there? Uh...lemme think...NO.

BTW, I agree with schatzy's post. Over inflating tires is really not much better than underinflating. It has it's own set of problems.

 

Then why was I going around the skid-pad faster at 10 PSI over recommended? And even faster at 14 PSI over? And why were several other people that I personally know, and the folks at Grassroots Motorsports, also going faster around the skid-pad at higher pressures? (IIRC, GRM tested up to 50 PSI. Better road-holding until the tires started skittering on bumps.)

The contact patch may shrink slightly, but the sidewall stiffness still improves the cornering grip.


Then explain how people who inflate their tires to the sidewall max (and in some cases considerably beyond!) are seeing zero extra wear in the center of the tread? And are running tires for several times as long as the "projected" life?

Tires inflated above the auto maker's recommendations do not run on the center of the tread. I ran multiple sets of tires to the wear bars and beyond at 50 PSI. The tires wore almost perfectly even across the tread.


These are people who check their tire pressures every week. Unless the pressures are dropping considerably on their own, then going back up again on their own, they were running high pressures. Some of them take the "max pressure" listed on the sidewall as a minimum, and run well over that! (60+ PSI.) Yes, they do know what pressure is in their tires.


It very very definitely causes harsher ride. I have only experienced two punctures in my life, one with lower pressures and one with higher pressures, so I cannot comment on that. I did have a tire blow out from chronic underinflation, though.

The tires do not wear faster at higher pressures--in fact they appear to last longer. They are subjected to less heat and less tread squirm than tires at the auto maker's recommended pressures. Check over on http://www.cleanmpg.com and you will see that many people over there have experienced longer wear from tires with pressures near (or over!) the pressure listed on the tire sidewall.