Originally Posted By: Astro14
While you're not racing the Nissan, here is how racers set up the cars. It's an informative article, as it talks about optimization, and
reinforces what Astroturf and others have said:
http://www.turnfast.com/tech_handling/handling_pressure
Note this part of the article:
(Note: use the car manufacturer's recommended tire pressure as the baseline. Many service and oil change stations with poorly trained techs will pump tires up to pressure stated on the tire side wall. Hello! That's the maximum setting, not the recommended setting. Watch out for those guys!)
Cheers,
Astro
I believe it reinforces that there is a lot to consider in fine-tuning pressure based on desired performance characteristics. A huge point of contention that I see is regarding the sidewall stamped maximum pressure. Those who have no regard to it; those who feel the stamped maximums are arbitrary, based on an interpretation of FMVSS109/FMVSS139, and that a perceived highest allowable for a given size/type of tire is closer to the true maximum; and those who feel that the tire engineers derived the maximum that is stamped based on a host of test data and should therefore not be exceeded at all.
A rule that I have always followed for myself is that the vehicle placard is a recommendation, and should be a minimum, the tire sidewall is the maximum, and in most cases on North American or Asian makes, I will typically go 2-3 psi above placard, without exceeding sidewall, and on European makes, typically use the higher end of the recommended placard range, again without exceeding sidewall. I have never had a compelling reason to explore beyond a known established saftey boundary (i.e. sidewall maximum).
But as someone else stated, the 26 psi recommended for this heavy SUV seems rather low, along the lines of the Explorer/Firestone debacle.
