Keeping tires at the maximum pressure prolongs the life of the tire and improves road handling.

Jeanette Isabelle

No, it does not. The tire pressure listed on the tire itself is the maximum pressure that tire is rated for. Keeping the pressure at the maximum may accelerate wear as the tire isn't in the correct shape for that vehicle and the contact patch size will be reduced. Reducing the size of the contact patch will also negatively affect handling.

Sometimes, for short periods, it makes sense to underinflate a tire, so as to increase the size of the contact patch and get unstuck (but only to reinflate them to the correct pressure again immediately). I'm not aware of any time where it makes sense to overinflate a tire.

I do not claim to be a tire expert but I knew of someone who is, a person who had been in the tire business since his father owned the shop.

Moreover, "All the proofe of a pudding, is in the eating." I know what nine-year-old tires look like when kept at 35 p.s.i. their entire existence. They maintain an even tread.

Jeanette Isabelle

Stamp indicates pressure for cold/ambient temperature and even that only applies to the OEM tires. If you replace with the same tire size/group the pressure stamp should still be correct. Running pressure will normally be several pounds higher. Mine is stamped at 30psi for OEM, but I always keep my replacement tires at 32 because most of my mileage is commuting. My low-pressure sensors kick in at 26 psi.

Not sure what this has to do with the original thread title, perhaps everyone decided to go "off-road"?

Category 6: Day of Destruction (2-part TV mini-series)
When I first heard the title when it came out all I could think of was that it must be more sensationalist schlock coming on the heels of another "scientific" effort by Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow). After watching it I wasn't too far off my original guess but the show is OK if you just need to fill time and didn't need to use your brain for a while. Since it was filmed in Winnipeg, I recognized a lot of the Canadian actors filling in for Americans. I had just gotten out of working in the film industry. Not long after this movie came out, an F5 tornado ripped through Elie, MB. which kinda brought home the message.

While many of us think of emergencies occurring in wildlands, the fact is that all, or nearly all of us live in fairly settled environments. So when a problem arises, we are likely to be in an urban, or semi-urban situation. The open country, classic SoCal chaparral (extremely flammable) near my home has burned twice in the more than twenty years I have lived here, and each time my wife and I have activated our disaster plan and loaded up the van, ready to move and embark on an impromptu camping trip. By now, with a lot of experience in the outdoors, I am generally fairly well equipped and trained; my chances of avoiding a problem are thereby enhanced.

Perhaps the one advantage of being used to the outdoors is that many disaster scenarios will resemble just another outdoors excursion with the gear with which you are already familiar.

I am not a knuckle dragging Neanderthal, although I must admit that my knuckles do have some suspiciously thick calluses. I really do prefer an upright posture, just like that of my mommy and daddy....