I gather that folks overinflate their tires to about 39 psi. I'm going to be driving about 1 hour to the storage facility tomorrow. Should I inflate the tires before I leave, and drive on overinflated tires? Or should I wait until I get there? If I wait, my tires won't be cold. If I inflate there, should I inflate to 39 psi, 43 psi or something else?

All advice welcome.

 

45 psi when you get to storage.

 

I would not worry about it.... people try to do way more then is necessary... and in some case over thinking things is detrimental...
Ill give you one example... over inflation cases the tire skin to stretch beyond it normal usage... this stretch , like the stretch marks that pregnant woman get, can cause the oxygen atoms to exit the tire faster...
this over inflation allows the smaller oxygen atoms to escape. leaving your tires less sound then if you just left them alone. cold tires also lower the tire pressure, but when the internal air sees warmer temps they go back to their original pressure.. you do not want the actual air atoms to leave the car.. if your stretch the carcass, the smaller oxygen atoms will leave the tire and you will wind up with less air volume in the tire.
Leave them alone.
The reason some people use nitrogen is that the nitrogen atoms are larger then the oxygen.. normal air is already 78 % nitrogen but the 21% oxygen. 1 % variable,( water ) co2 argon etc. ) are smaller atoms which escape normally through the side wall. Stretch that sidewall and you will lose the smaller atoms and reduce the total volume in the tire.

 

Never quite heard the laws of physics explained this way...

 

I have added air to the tires before and also have just left them alone. Honestly, like E-T said, I had no problems leaving the tires at 30 psi and then checking them every so often while in storage.

 

Modern tires dont flat side like the 70's. Ive always just kept them at 30 cold. If I took the car out for a spin during winter storage, they were at 25 or so, Id go add to 30, drive and park it again. It doesnt matter in this application (storage for a few months).

 

While we're at it, is it also an old wive's tale that you should put the car on carpet? I have brand new Hankooks on the wheels.

 

30 PSI, check them every so often. I don't like the idea of over-inflating. If you don't have an air compressor, buy a small one.

 

If it were me having to do this (which I thankfully don't have to), I'd inflate them to about 33-34 psi (maybe even 35), as this is the pressure the tires get to when warmed up on a hot day. So they're not really being stretched out beyond what they normally are during the summer. And given that they're going to lose some pressure with the drop in temperature, along with a little loss over time, they should be good for a few months in storage.

 

FWIW, I put (2) 12"x12" pieces of carpet under each tire.

 

Bought the Michelins at Costco they only use nitrogen. I make sure they are at 30 when I know it will be sitting.

 

FWIW, I just park it and put a battery tender on it. No probs.

Carpet?

 

I try to deliver my knowledge in a manner that is easy for anyone to understand.. I've always done that here.. the idea is to teach things to people that they can understand.. there is no need to get too techie with people.. I don't have to impress anyone ...my mission here has always been to give back to the community that supported my career.

Many people come here to stick their finger in my eye, because they think they know something about automotive technology , but in reality their knowledge stems from a Grandfather back in the 60's and what they did then.. or from some guy who dated a girl who had a brother that worked in a dealership back in 1970.

IM just trying to help where I can , and am an absolute expert in many areas of a C5, but there are many areas of the C5 design that I was not involved with and have no expert knowledge so I stay out of those threads.

The disrespect I've received over the years here has been disappointing.. but knowing that the caliber of people coming to an internet forum covers the whole spectrum of credibility.

 

I always let you have the final word ET.

You have yet to be wrong.

 

I don't want to get into the drama , that any kudu's would create so let's not go down that road.. I appreciate your kind words though. I know for the most part, I've helped thousands of people on this forum( 15,000 open forum post.. and 20,000 Private message help post ) over the last 13 years, and I know lots of people respect my advice...

I've had hundreds of people disrespect me over the years here without any provocation, other than the fact that I don't take crap from anyone and can come back in an aggressive way. ..

 

32 psi, drive it to storage, battery tender and a cover the car if you wish. That is all that is necessary. Modern tires do not flat spot, think of all the Vettes on dealer lots that will be sold just fine in the spring without any of this extra nonsense. They will be sitting outside with no special attention and no battery charger until they go to start them up in a few months.

These are just cars and will all end up in a flea market someday (kidding) LOL.

 

ET - You are right on the semantics about molecule size vs. weight and you may be an automotive engineer with 2 degrees, but you are also a bully and try to push your point of view on everything as authoritative. There is absolutely no evidence of oxygen diffusing through a rubber tire any faster than nitrogen does, or hydrogen and helium or any other gas doing that. None of the atmospheric gases pass through the sidewall of a tire, as thick as it is, especially at the pressures we can consider here, and for the time durations we can consider here (like in our lifetime). It doesn't even happen or come close to happening at pressures where the tire itself bursts. And it never even happened to the early ones made at the turn of the century, and today's tires are infinitely better. While there is an awful lot of real knowledge offered on this site, there is also a certain amount of total BS being offered by some people like you who pretend to be, and attempt to be, better than everyone else on here and denigrate and demean anyone who disagrees with them and offers a different point of view. It doesn't matter how loud you scream and what insults you use, but you are absolutely wrong about this and can't even be man enough to admit it. I don't care about all the measurements you listed about gas viscosity data, molecular refraction data, van der Waal's interaction data, or any other BS you can come up with to try and impress someone with your smarts. The basic truth, the real fact is, that what you are saying does not happen in the real world. Maybe gases in our atmosphere will diffuse through a rubber polymer chain like what is found in a tire sidewall, (show me the studies), but how thick are you talking about this particular chain being - 0.1mm thick? 0.01mm thick? Again, for your edification, it does not happen in a rubber tire sidewall, so get over it and admit you are wrong and get on another rant. This has nothing to do with automotive technology, and you disrespect yourself when you spout this BS and persist in trying to proclaim you are right. The disrespect you say you have gotten on here from many individuals is because of you posting stuff like this which is total BS. Maybe after 40 years of exposure to the automotive fumes, or your own, you are getting mentally challenged and a little senile and can't learn something yourself and instead try to make fun of others. Do you have any idea of my background, in science or anything? Or know that of anyone else who "disrespects" you? No. You want to drive yourself away from here, have a nice day. And remember, again, air, or oxygen, or any other gas, does not leak through the rubber sidewall of tires in the real world, no matter what you say or how long you have been an automotive engineer, or how many degrees you have.

 

Wow. This thread is a bit idiotic now. Rubber is porous, and air certainly can, and will seep through it. Oxygen atoms WILL seep out faster as they're much smaller than the nitrogen atoms. At a higher pressure the tires will lose psi faster than the same tire at a lower pressure.

 

Wow! It's amazing how quickly things go sideways on this forum. I've never given any thought to possibly damaging my tires because of over inflation or to the scientific implications of using air over nitrogen. Quite frankly, I don't care. All I know is that I put 40 psi in my tires just before I put my car away for the winter, and in the spring I let some air out so they're back to the normal pressure. I've never had a tire go flat during storage or damaged because of over inflation, and I've stored cars for years. Seems pretty straight forward to an old, dumb Marine.

 

I took a different approach to this. I bought a set of those tire dollies that are shaped like the bottom of my tire. I leave the inflation at 31 or so. Now I can push my car right to the wall in my garage and free up some much needed space for the winter.