<VV> Tire Gage & Pressures

[James P. Rice]

All:  My 2 bits worth.

I have 3 pencil gages, one in each car and one hanging above my workbench in
the garage.  Between them, they have 3 different scales.  Some time ago, I
wondered about their accuracy and consistency.  Took all three to the same
tire.  They read +/- one (1) PSI.  I was satisfied with that.

On Corvairs, the PSI spread front to rear is critical to maintain.  We all
know that, regardless of what we chose as the psi spread.  Onetime, on a
tight autocross course, I raised the front to within 5 psi of the rear
because I wanted the car to rotate faster.  But on the street, it would have
made the car uncomfortably busy.  On purpose one time, I drove my car,
however very briefly, with the back the same as the fronts.  Above about 25
or 30 mph, car swayed back and forth.  Scary to say the least.

I have never driven a Corvair with air pressure the same across corners.  If
you - and I - remember history, a dealer rotated a Corvairs tires without
adjusting the air pressure way back when, and the owner drove it for a
couple weeks with it driving funny (using the term loosely!) before crashing
it.  Law suits followed, blaming the corporation.

I have never driven a Corvair with the air pressure different side to side,
but with each side maintaining the front/rear spread.  I suspect it would go
down the street generally OK, but would respond to uneven payment etc
differently, depending on which side was subject to external forces.  I'm
fairly sure it would corner differently, especially if driven
enthusiastically, but might not be noticed by nmost drivers if driven
normally.

My experience with above recommended psi, depending on how high above, is
that doing so eventually causes tread separation.  One of my non-car guy
son-in-laws heard you get better mileage with higher psi in the tires.  He
kicked them up to 50 psi on their used Corolla.  I had to drive it for some
now forgotten reason, and noticed the vibration and noise.  Which I
recognized as a probably tire issue.  Jacked each corner up, put my
carpenters square near each tire, and rotated them.  I could see the
squeals.  Checked PSI, and uttered a unkind remark.  I went and bought 4
news tires at Wal-Mart to replace what should have been perfectly good
tires, but didn't tell them.  They did not notice.  When I eventually told
them about replacing the tires and the 50 psi, my son-in-law said my
daughter must have done it.  I restrained myself to a verbal rebuke of his
dimbulbness and then for blaming my daughter.  In retrospect, things have
never fully recovered between us.

Historically Yours,
			James Rice