Donut

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 22:53:30 -0600, "pkurtz2" <pkurtz2@cox.net> wrote:

>Mark,
>Keep in mind that OVERINFLATION of your tires will actually HURT your gas
>milage.

That seems counterintuitive.

>The reason for this is because it changes the "footprint" of the
>tire on the road, or the amount of tire you have in contact with the road.

I'm with you here. Less "footprint" equals less friction. Less
friction equals better milage.

>Overinflating tires lessens how much tire is on the road and contributes to
>slip. The more slip you have, the worse milage you will get.

This is where you lose me. Yes, if you have a lot of "slip" your
milage will suffer. But are you really saying that you *are* going to
have a lot of slip with (slightly to moderately) overinflated tires?
Under "normal driving conditions"?

Every time I've looked at milage competitions or solar car
competitions, invariably the winners had hard skinny tires, they
aren't going for comfort here. And a lot of times, just three wheels,
an easy way to get rid of 25% of the milage robbing friction in the
design :) I would be interested if you can prove them wrong.

>Go with what it says on the door sticker for your tire pressure.

Hard to argue with that, but there are "tweaks" we can try :)

Don

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