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Old 08-14-2021, 06:56 AM   #7
CapriRacer
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Re: Is This Tire Pressure Chart Legit?

I didn't go into this in my first reply of this thread - BUT - there are some folks who incorrectly believe that the tire load tables are based on STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure) - they are NOT!!

STP is used in the scientific world for testing purposes where the testing environment is different from the specified test environment. Folks doing testing would need to adjust the results to STP so they can do comparisons.

Tires work on a different principle. Tire pressures should be set for ambient conditions.

That presents a problem for situations where the environment the tire will be operating in is different than the environment when the pressures are adjusted - like moving from the seashore to the mountains, or from a cold morning to the hottest part of the day on a desert floor.

There's another aspect that isn't fully understood - tires are fairly forgiving - that is, if you are within a few psi of the target pressure, that will be good enough. Too many people think that if you are off a few psi, that is significant. And by a few, I mean 2 or 3 psi for passenger car tires.

In theory, the tire pressure specified by the vehicle tire placard includes enough extra capacity that 2 or 3 psi will not matter. This is the opposite of what is argued for the Ford Explorer back in the 2000/2001 time frame. Some argue that the pressure specification CAUSED the tire failure - and that is not the case. The specified pressure was adequate - although, it would be better engineering to have specified a higher pressure. What is misunderstood is that the Firestone tires involved had a design problem that wasn't revealed until the tire started failing. Then Firestone stonewalled in issue until forced to recall the tires.
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