Does high tire pressure cause more pothole/suspension damage

I used to roll the speed bumps fairly fast, but I'm rethinking it. It's hard to quantify their impact I think: you might have a 10 year old vehicle, shocks starting to complain, had a bearing failure, and where do you point the finger? It might well have been accelerated wear due to regular encounters with speed bumps, who knows.

 

Want me to send you my 3 years of Chevy car status emails I get on my volt that list tire pressure?

Except in terrible weather my cars stay above 50psi year round, my father did that to stop blowouts and get better gas mpgs and I have done it since I started driving .

So in a million miles I have had no blowouts, no accidents but lately I have had to plug rear tires a lot and historically my old suburban (craftmobile) tended to get leaky sidewalls and weather checking or tread separations but those things seemed to happen regardless .

Ecomodder of coarse discusses this topic as nauseum with the same sky is falling attitudes, (along with folks like me), and even some actual FACTUAL information thrown in. allmy cars except the volt ride rough and noisy at stock pressures so a little more doesn’t much matter.

In fact here is a 20 year old weather checked tire being “tested”

Fun video time! How many PSI to explode a 20 year-old, dry-rotted tire? - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

What I do is not for everyone but it’s far less dangerous than under inflated tires

 

And both of those situations are far MORE dangerous that using the right pressures.

But never mind that EVERY tire and car maker warns against exceeding the max. safe pressure stated on the sidewalls.

It should be obvious to everybody that YOU know more about the subject than they do.

NOT.

Of course, you are free to do whatever stupid thing that you desire but things like this can impact others too.
I think you should hand a card to everyone who rides in your car that says: " I choose to ignore the safety warnings from tire and car makers and have pressurized my tires WAY above what they say is safe. You ride in my car at your own risk."

 

Oh Sam, please quit exaggerating.

hyper inflation: let's cut to the chase - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

I guess if far more dangerous is jay walking across an empty street so be it.

Also please don’t associate under inflation (more common) with over inflation as one is immediately dangerous and the other harmless. Most all premature tire failures & blowouts are from under inflation which needs to be stated more often.


All the technical information I’ve read states that over inflation can affect snow, rain, mud handling , (if I am in snow or mud it only takes seconds to drop to 30psi and continue.) Rain and ice you will get a confused look from me because from experience hydroplaning and traction seem to at worst not be affected by high pressure.

And high pressure can lead to irregular wear. Extreme over inflation can lead to a higher chance of punctures from nails but no where does it state anything castrophic will happen.
In fact stock drag racers typically inflate their tires to 100psi, I doubt they are trying to blow the tire.


Further inflating a 44 or 51 psi rated tire to roughly 60psi hot is well, not dangerous, if anyone tells you it is they are exaggerating or lying.
Of coarse the driver needs to judge what the conditions are that they are driving in but around here that is 4 months of the year.

Also if you load up your car like I do with freight, you need extra pressure in the tires or they blow out


So you, like many, are emotionally driven on this topic when it isn’t warranted, my car isn’t flying around and crashing with tires exploding .
Modern steel belted radials don’t deform under pressure like oldbias treads and most tire recommendations are from 32psi bias treads.


Under inflation on the other hand does list catastrophic failure as a very real danger.
But I actually see people recommending that for comfort when it is actually dangerous,
ah well.


Even at stock inflation heat can cause blowouts, my Volts stock tires normally blow out around 15-25k when run at the 36/38 psi placard, but wear normally at 42psi+
I got 60k out of my fronts on the OEMs which is unheard of on a volt.

Ford was guilty of this also with the Ford exploder fiasco, comfort is traded daily for safety.

I had one old truck that lists what tire pressure was needed at a given payload, I bet most folks don’t even know or understand the concept that if your loaded up the required tire pressures can change.

Ah well, my guess is that I’ve probably driven many more miles than you, in many cases towing , and probably have had far fewer accidents and tire issues per mile than you have.
Perhaps I’m not the dangerous one in the conversation?

 

All this discussion is making me want to go out and check my tire pressure...
Am I bored, or what?!

"42 is the answer to all things in the Universe."
--Priuschat member ETP

Have a safe & sane weekend.

 

Perhaps you ARE.
Your guess is wrong and your basic premise is wrong......but I can't fight "don't confuse me with facts, my mind is made up" so I quit.

And the fact that you can find some other people who agree with you has absolutely NO bearing on the truth of the matter.

 

Dangers aside, the OP's question was: do higher pressures increase the risk of suspension damage. I'd add wheel bearings to that. And yeah: the tire has less "give"; I'm sure it does have have an effect. It's a balance.

 

Just did that this morning after rotating my tires yesterday. Pumped all of them to 44PSI, dont care about the +2psi for the front. I drive mostly on highway and still full bottom grill block during morning commute w/o AC.

 

What kind of tires you got, grid? I forgot. And did you rotate a straight front to back, and back to front?

 

Michelin green x a/s. Tires had about hundred miles before I bought my Prius so it was almost new when first had. You got it, front to back and back to front. My commute has no pot holes so there's nothing to worry about, 2hr 30mins to be exact.

They will balloon up to 51psi in 111F degree heat. With that being said, I hope this opens up another can of worms.

 

I read an article that said it is very important to check our tires during the hot summer, and reduce the air pressure. I've never done that. Just didn't think about it.

 

It's important to check PSI weekly no matter the season. Even if it balloons to higher than the cold 44psi tire wall limit, it will be safe because it's the cold rating. Obviously tires expand with heat so tire companies factor that also when it comes to safe PSI max. If it wasn't it would have been rated "44psi max operating ambient driving temp."

 

not only suspension, it damages the whole car. most of time it damages stabilizer links

 

Oh no!! Why didn't you tell us that four years ago?!?

And to think that all of this time, my car seemed just fine.

 

Frankly, I doubt it matters. Focus more on avoiding potholes. High pressure may have its issues, but low pressure does as well. Damage a tire rim and you can blow out a tire because it won’t seal. Go with the PSI that suits you and take care on what you dive over.