Ulianokr

We'll be heading for a long ride with 4-6 hrs of highway miles per day...does anyone add a few LBs to the tires??? We do it with our other cars and wondering if it's worth it on the vette?

Thanks in advance

grantorino

I've never done that on any car? Why get a harsher ride? I doubt it would any measurable MPG. improvement.

grantv

Wouldn't that many hours of driving jack up the pressure on it's own? I'm almost thinking to lower it before your journey. And for what reason do you want higher pressure?

dleibman

Vetteman Jack

I see no sense in adding air if the tires are properly inflated to begin with. When driving, the tires will heat up and the air pressure inside will increase 3-4 lbs psi anyway.

Larry Myers

Optimally tire pressure should be checked and set iaw the tire pressure placard in the drivers door jamb. Further, this should be done first thing in the morning prior to the vehicle being driven.

Simply driving will increase tire pressure anywhere between four and seven/eight psi. Therefore, increasing cold static tire pressure above the recommended pressure is ill advised and could result in dangerously overinflated tires.

Mcrider

exactly!!!!!

4XLR8N

K-Spaz

I usually kept my tires fairly close 2 the proper inflation anyway. If I was to add any extra air, I would have warnings throwing on the d i c all the time.

One time on a trip mine was so close that I had to stop the car and let two psi out of the tires to get it to stop flashing those annoying warnings all the time.

Spaceme1117

You should be running the proper tire pressure that your car calls for at all times. And it should be filled and check when the tires are cold before you drive any distance. Over-inflating your tires will cause a harsher ride, worse handling, and cause un-even tire wear.

1bdvet

I never herd of adding air to tires cause you are going on trip, I take lot of trips, and what the manufacture recommends I set!

K-Spaz

I have definitely heard of it and it is done to increase fuel economy. It can be pretty significant. Depending upon how difficult your tires are to turn at normal pressure, you might pick up 5 or 6 miles to the gallon. But I don't think you're going to do that on a C5 Tire because they already support the car so well with so much surface area. I'm sure it will gain mileage, but those gains will be offset by the D I C messages driving you insane. They will come up every 3 minutes for the entire time you are driving the car.

grantv

I think you missed a decimal place. 0.5 to 0.6MPG perhaps, 5-6 MPG better, gonna say not a chance.

3sACROWD

Are you filling the tires per the label on the door jamb or the tire side wall? If tire side wall, you're over inflating your tires. Side wall numbers are MAX pressure which would include while heated and Max load. A properly inflated tire will not trigger the DIC message when the tire heats up. I recently drove 1300 miles in 20 hours and my tires pressures never triggered the DIC.

OP - adding extra air to your tires (especially the Corvette) will cause extra wear to the center of your tires and reduce tire performance. The cost of tire replacement will certainly offset any gain in MPG.

K-Spaz

Well, take a vehicle with a standard tire (225) and overinflate it somewhat. Let's say 45psi (max sidewall rating) on a tire that's recommended on the car at 32psi. The rolling difference is substantial. Not a little bit...
The car is intended to have runflats on it. Recommended pressure is around 30psi. Put on a non-runflat and jack the pressure up to 34psi, when the tire gets up to temp, it'll be setting off warnings. It doesn't take much. The non-runflat tire should have more air IMHO. Ymmv, do what you like. But, even if you want more, you can only get a couple PSI before setting off DIC messages, as I've said several times. So unless you put electrical tape over the DIC, you can't really put in more than a couple PSI extra on a C5 with functioning TPMS.

Ramets

If your running on run flats why would you want to have an even harsher ride? Myself I took those bricks off a long time ago and have NEVER regretted it.

FreeC5inAZ

The mileage increases you are claiming are not realistic. If your car got 20mpg and you get a 5mpg increase, that is a 25% increase in mileage. There is NO way going from proper inflation to grossly overinflated is going to make that big of a difference. Any any fuel savings are going to be offset by increased tire wear.

K-Spaz

You won't see that in a V8 car, but the OP is asking why people do it. The answer is it helps fuel economy. And yes, when you have something like a Jetta, and you're talking about highway miles, yes it can be 5+mpg difference. I've heard of people running 50+psi.

FreeC5inAZ

My mistake...I thought this was a Corvette forum where everyone had V8's.

K-Spaz

Still worth quite a bit if you're willing to tolerate some atrocious handling.