Diff. in ride between Prius IV and V

Not your imagination. Take a look at the amount of rubber on the 17" vs. 15 " tires. More rubber = softer ride and greater noise isolation.

 

HUH???? Your "more rubber" hypothesis... is 180...

the 17s have a larger tire patch on the road....

17s have less sidewall flex than the 15s, thus the stiffer ride.
17s with the larger rubber contact transmit more sound thru the suspension in general, but dependent upon tire construction.

 

Contact area is not the issue here, it is sidewall flex. Leeb is correct.

Tom

 

Originally Posted by RoyThePriusGuy
HUH???? Your "more rubber" hypothesis... is 180...

the 17s have a larger tire patch on the road....

17s have less sidewall flex than the 15s, thus the stiffer ride.
17s with the larger rubber contact transmit more sound thru the suspension in general, but dependent upon tire construction.

 

Less sidewall flex = stiffer ride.

Stiffer ride = rougher ride in the original poster's (OP's) opinion.

I just took a IV and a V out for some test drives on friday. I would agree that the V had a stiffer ride and better handling due to the 45 series, 17" tires. I would also say that the ride was rougher, because the tires weren't smoothing out the bumps in the road like the 15" tires will do.

 

Completely disagree. Bluebell mentioned both louder and stiffer ride with the V, than the IV.

Loudness IS directly correlated to the contact area of the tire. The V has tires with larger contact area.

Stiffness is inversely related to the height of the sidewall. The V has a shorter sidewall than the IV, and therefore, everything else being equal, should be stiffer.

This all assumes that the same tread pattern, and softness of the rubber is used on both tires. Just evaluating the difference in sound and stiffness based on tire size differences.

 

In addition to the tires themselves, there is also a steering ratio difference between the V and the other models. This also accounts for some of the overall 'ride' impression, as I think it helps provide a sportier feel overall.

Once you learn to the LKA and the Radar CC, you'll never want to go back.

 

Gotta have a sun roof. A must!

Solar is also a pretty cool feature (no pun intended) for those of us who live (and park) in hot/sunny weather most of the year.

 

FYI . . . That solar panel on the 2010 Prius 4 model is manufactured by a company called, " Kyocera ". Kyocera has broken the multicrystalline silicon solar cell efficiency world record several times over. In addition they have increased the light sensitive surface area of their solar cells, lowered resistance and reduced energy loss due to reflection, all to improve the efficiency of their solar panels. Kyocera claims they are constantly setting the bar for their industry. www.kyocerasolar.com
They have a facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

 

Well, all I can say is - I like their product. Got to use the solar roof option on the Prius last Summer, and did a very nice job in keeping the interior of the car close to the outside air temperature...still in the 90's, but far better than the usual 120+ baking that most car interiors get in the Summer. A good 20-30 degrees cooler, which then helps to reduce the thermal load that the AC has to work against when trying to bring the cabin temperature down into the 70's.

IMO, the solar sunroof is a very nice feature.

 

IMO, my V is extremely quiet and soft compared to my E92 M3 or Land Cruiser. But then I haven't driven a II - IV for a long period of time so I can't say how smooth or quiet they are over the V.

 

Just thinkin' out loud. Tire tread seemed to always have the biggest difference for me in noise. On my TCH both sets of Bridgestones were loud but the replacements on the third set with Michelin were much quieter (same size).

I would think too that contact patch might vary some from tire to tire brand / style based on tire pressures and yes even sidewall. May not be so, but it just seems logical that perhaps a soft tire will roll out and be flatter than perhaps a stiff walled V rated tire, thus possibly having more contact area, especially when rolling or cornering. I don't imagine it's enough to really matter, as I really think tread is the culprit. I still think though some sound deadening materails would help quite a bit.

 

I'll say this about my 4 month old V. At first the ride was rock hard, but the more miles I put on it, the more compliant the ride has gotten. Or I just got used to it. I will say that on non-windy days, the only sound you can hear while you're at freeway speeds are the tires.

 

I wonder if that's age related, or has more to do with the temperature warming up?

 

There is always a little extra rubber on brand new tires. When this wears off handling gets better and gas mileage gets better. Temperature also affects the hardness of the rubber. They really have made advances. On my previous car the tire made a huge difference in noise. Tire Rack seems to have good comparisons.

I went for an in between wheel/tire upgrade to a 205/50R17 continental extreme contact dws. I don't think it is any nosier than the oem 15s. Contact patch is a little less than that on the V, but its a UHP so much more contact than the oem tires. Suprisingly good handling in the rain, which is why I picked the tire. It does has a little too much flex in the sidewall, but that is easily corrected by pumping them to higher pressure. The OP might try going down to 32 psi if that is more comfortable. I like the stiffer feel on good roads, and I did let pressure out for a camping trip to get more comfort on gravel and mud. I know the tires are new, but I'm sure you can get more comfortable quieter ones when you replace them. I need to sell my oem's, so if you want 15s on the V, I'm sure you can make a proffit on the trade.

 

I traded in a Gen I for the Gen III. IMO the ride didn't improve much in 8 years. Must have something to do with the way the rubber is suspended.

 

Forget about which rides better. It's which looks better, lol!