What do you guys recomend for the amount of PSI in the front tires for winter driving?

 

I keep mine at about 30-32 PSI

 

stock number should work best 33 front 32 rear.

 

Reducing it increases sidewall wear...Why change it?

 

If it gets REAL bad, then you might want to lower the psi a bit to get more traction. But you have to be carefull and remember to up the psi again.

 

Reducing the pressure increases the flexing of the tire sidewall which can cause the tire to heat up and possibly even fail completely. Earlier this year I was driving behind a 3 series BMW on the freeway and just moments after I noticed the left rear tire was running low, it started to smoke. I was about ready to pull beside the lady and warn her but she pulled off to a Firestone at the next offramp, any farther and it might have exploded. A second problem associated with low pressure (and the heat buildup) is that you actually count on the tire grabbing the snow for traction. If the tire heats up, it will melt the snow in contact with the tread and reduce traction. The point of a winter tire is an increased land/sea ratio (tread to gap area), in that you want more gaps to actually pack with snow, the snow-snow interface provides the traction. If you are worried about winter traction, get snow tires or stay with stock size, plus sizing really does make it worse in the winter. In short, keep the tire pressure at specs. Lowering the pressure is nothing but an "old wives tale".

 

I keep it at 32psi all around

 

Tonight's newspaper... "you should check your tire pressure more often in winter, because a tire can lose up to 1psi for every 10 degree drop in temperature."

 

I would think you could INCREASE psi. Just look at the rally cars, in snow they wear really thin tires, it provides better traction, a wider tire just makes the car slide around more, sort of like a sled i guess. I'll stick to stock tire pressure though, lowering it is stupid, increasing it is still stupid..... If you're worried about winter traction get snow tires.

 

...ummmmm ugh

 

Lowering tire pressure DOES help in traction but should only be used at slow speeds like to get out of parking spot or a steep driveway and you've tried everything around and are still stuck.

Your tire will fatten up and allow you to get out much easier. However, have a portable compressor handy or crawl your way to a gas pump... don't continue driving on the lowered PSI for long.

I've gotten out of slippery spaces in the winter by lowering down to about 15 PSI which makes the tire squat down considerably giving more surface area to grab the road, like a big rubber paw. Once I'm out, I plug in my compressor and fill 'em up again. Definitely works.

But for normal driving, factory specs +- a couple PSI is what I do.

 

Umm ugh what? He's right.

 

just use stock PSI..you will be fine. but what kind of tires are they and size?

 

There are a lot of urban myths from our grandpas days that still seem to loom here in 2004. In this thread alone, we've seen lower the psi AND increase the psi, completely opposite advice.

The truth is, in theory, lowering the psi will have better traction. People did that before the advent of the steel belted radial tire. But you shouldn't need to do that. There is an optimum--over inflating the tires does not help matters and is dumb as well. The ride is bad and the wear will tend to be in the center. When I got my 18's the tire shop told me to inflate to 48 psi--can you believe that? He said because the sidewalls were so small I needed much higher pressure. UGH......

In general, and IMHO, I think if you take the mfg.'s recommendation and add 1-3 psi you're in good shape.