A gallon of gas...?

[ThomasDodd]

Hey strangers,

Still driving my '70 Coupe deVille (472 c.i., 4 bbl, 10 MPG around town, 15-18 MPG hwy)

We'll all experience some pain as we adjust to the changing prices.

The US has been spoiled by cheap gas. We'll adjust and get on with our lives.

Were it not for cheap gas the trucking industry would not have replaced mass freight like the rail.

We wouldn't make so many trips. We wouldn't have 100 mile a day commutes for work.

We might even have less stress and more enjoyable lives (see Wade's comments) if we weren't constantly rushing about in sch a hurry.


It'll be painful for a while, but I think we'll be better in the long run.

[SplatterTone]

Still driving my '70 Coupe deVille (472 c.i., 4 bbl, 10 MPG around town, 15-18 MPG hwy)

I had a 1972 with the 472 engine for a short period just to get the big car urge out of my system. Mine only got 7 MPG.

[ThomasDodd]

Still driving my '70 Coupe deVille (472 c.i., 4 bbl, 10 MPG around town, 15-18 MPG hwy)

I had a 1972 with the 472 engine for a short period just to get the big car urge out of my system. Mine only got 7 MPG.

(Uggh. new software. )

It only got 5 before the transmission was rebuilt.
'70 is the higher compression version (spec is 10:1, more like 9.2-9.4:1 in reality) which is more efficient that the lower compression version from 71-74 (spec was 8.5:1 but consensus is more like 8:1)

Like Wade I'll pay the price. It's worth it to me. Thankfully, I'm still allowed to make that choice.

[WoodSheddin]

[SplatterTone]

Law of physics called Conservation of Energy. It is impossible to get more energy out of a system than what went into it. The old boy has something other than whatever HHO is going into that torch. While hydrogen gas and oxygen produce heat, the triple bond in acetylene releases way more energy when burned with oxygen. And then there is this stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_subnitride
By the way: Conservation of Energy is why tubas don't "amplify" sound.

[KevinMadden]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/in ... /index.htm

Its actually not that bad on the global perspective!

(link goes to to news article "why is gas in U.S. so cheap?")

(any one for a road trip with a tanker truck to Venezuela?!)

[Jesse Brook]

Here it is (converted) $4.69 a gallon. It makes me glad I can bike around most places. And that I can go 300 miles (480 km) on a tank. Still, you don't see any less of the trucks and nobody has changed their driving habits yet. So wait until the U.S. sees about $6-a-gallon gas before you can expect any change.

[The Jackson]

Law of physics called Conservation of Energy. It is impossible to get more energy out of a system than what went into it. The old boy has something other than whatever HHO is going into that torch. While hydrogen gas and oxygen produce heat, the triple bond in acetylene releases way more energy when burned with oxygen. And then there is this stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_subnitride" target="_blank
By the way: Conservation of Energy is why tubas don't "amplify" sound.

Yep, there is more to it then just water through a doo-hickey and out comes laser vision. If this is further researched and simplified, it'll be a heck of a lot better than what is here now.

[tubatooter1940]

Schlepperello,
Are you saying this is a good time for us to get a job close to the house and buy a horse?

[Jesse Brook]

It will take a major reorganization of everything every consumer in North America holds dear to change the prices of a consumer commodity. The likeliness of that happening...

[Todd S. Malicoate]

(and if you want a free air check or rotoation, or need a flat repair, discount tire does ALL free even if you didnt do your tires with us)

Your store does free rotations and flat repairs? I wish I could find a tire place here that would rotate mine for free...hurts my back doing it myself every time.

[ThomasDodd]

Heres what we need to do as Americans

Trade in your Hummers, SUVs, Big *** trucks (dualies especially....being a tire tech i hate them), get rid of them UNLESS you need them, need them I am meaning for 8 lug trucks with diesel engines, if you carry or haul stuff all day.

And who's going to decide MY need? YOU? The government?

My wife's SUV get 17-18 around town and 25-28 on the highway depending on speed. The back is regularly filled at the store, and neither of the 2 previous cars could carry that load, never mind the refrigerator last week or the lumber for shed a few years ago or the engine block last summer.

Better still, who's going to pay for the new vehicle? The SUV is nearly paid for. My Cadillac (that gets 10/17mpg) is paid for. With the limited distance either is driven (8-10k and 3k), it'd take 10 years to break even at $4/gal including interest and insurance.

No thanks.

underinflated or overinflated air pressure hurts

Higher inflation pressure reduces the rolling resistance of the tire which improves efficiency. It reduces traction in wet weather, and wears the tire (in the center) faster, but it does not lower fuel economy.

Larger tires can improve highway mileage figures if you calculate the mileage correctly. It does so buy lowering the engine RPMs at a given speed, same as a higher ear in the transmission or differential. Larger tires will cause errors in the odometer and mileage calculators built in.

[lgb&dtuba]

on the drivers door, it shows the recommended air pressure for the car, and you can get up to 4 miles a gallon more.

You do realize that sticker only applies to the tires that came on the vehicle, don't you?

I get really ticked off at having to explain each and every time I take my pickup in for an oil change that the tires are a different load range than what the original tires were and 32 psi is less than half the pressure that belongs in them. Even madder when the "tire tech" wants to argue the point.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Discount tire are building stores in Oklahoma as well, the thing is we do flat repairs with the RMA rules, so on the shoulder and sidewall, runflat damage, and such you need a new tire (but its safe).

We have a Discount Tire here in Stillwater. I sell them parts from time to time. I called them today and asked if they do free rotations and flat repairs for anyone, even folks who didn't buy their tires there. They are likely still laughing.

Are you sure you don't want to revise this statement?

if you want a free air check or rotoation, or need a flat repair, discount tire does ALL free even if you didnt do your tires with us

[Rick Denney]

on the drivers door, it shows the recommended air pressure for the car, and you can get up to 4 miles a gallon more.

You do realize that sticker only applies to the tires that came on the vehicle, don't you?

I get really ticked off at having to explain each and every time I take my pickup in for an oil change that the tires are a different load range than what the original tires were and 32 psi is less than half the pressure that belongs in them. Even madder when the "tire tech" wants to argue the point.

I don't mean to argue the point with you, but load-range rated tires are rated for maximum load only. The pressure in the tire should follow the recommendations of the tire manufacturer's load/inflation table. Truck tires are inflated according to the load, not to the maximum inflation allowed by the tire. My motorhome has Load Range E tires on it with a maximum inflation pressure of 80 psi. If I ran 80 psi in those things, they'd rattle my bones apart and I would have lousy traction. The tire patch equals the weight of the vehicle on that tire divided by the tire pressure. 2000 pounds on 80 psi is a tire patch of 25 square inches. 2000 pounds on the recommended inflation of 55 psi is 36 square inches. That will make a big difference in traction. I run 65 psi in the front tires and 52 psi in the rear tires of that motorhome.

You will have lower rolling resistance with higher pressure, but at the expense of uneven tire wear, poor traction, and reduced ride quality. And given that rolling resistance is only a small part of the total drag on a vehicle (especially one moving at highway speeds), there's little advantage to be gained. But you can indeed LOSE 10 o4 15% fuel efficiency because of the excess drag caused by severely underinflated tires. The safety problem is worse, though. An underinflated tires runs hot and risks coming unglued.

So, even with load-rated tires, the inflation should be set based on the weight of the vehicle. If the tires are markedly different from the original design, that might cause them to be a bit different in inflation than the OEM tires. But usually the OEM-recommended tire pressures are consistent with the load/inflation tables provided by the manufacturers.

I have my own issues with tire techs, like their refusal to mount S or H-rated tires on cars that were originally (and stupidly) equipped with V-rated tires. These are speed ratings, and only speed ratings. There is no need for a Subaru Outback to have tires rated for 149 mph, even if Bloke was driving it.

Rick "siding with Shaman (mostly) and the tire tech on this one" Denney

[lgb&dtuba]

on the drivers door, it shows the recommended air pressure for the car, and you can get up to 4 miles a gallon more.

You do realize that sticker only applies to the tires that came on the vehicle, don't you?

I get really ticked off at having to explain each and every time I take my pickup in for an oil change that the tires are a different load range than what the original tires were and 32 psi is less than half the pressure that belongs in them. Even madder when the "tire tech" wants to argue the point.

I don't mean to argue the point with you, but .....

I run 65 psi in the front tires and 52 psi in the rear tires of that motorhome.

Rick "siding with Shaman (mostly) and the tire tech on this one" Denney

Rick, come on.

32 psi is less than half of 65 psi by my calculator.

I am running load range E tires (which I didn't say originally, just said I wasn't running original load range tires.), but I never said I was filling them to 80 psi. Nor did I recommend running them that high. Not sure why you ran away with that thought.

I run 65 all the way around. Have been for the past 2 years. No bad tread wear, etc. For that matter, the sticker on the door says 50 psi all around for the original tires, so letting the air out to 32 psi was wrong in any case. And I knew as soon as I drove out of the dealership what the tire tech had done. Almost lost control in the first turn they were so mushy.

[lgb&dtuba]

Oh ya, in addition, the only tires i max out on any size are trailer tires, it works best because all they are doing are hauling stuff. Alot of car tires max out at 40, some 44. What I do normally, despite what the placard says, is run car tires at 32 and pickup truck tires at 35. Car tires i mean basic, non sports type car or BMW (mainly hondas, toyotas, fords, chevy, and such). Some Toyotas and hondas call for 28-30 PSI, which I think is riding them low. Our machines for airing up in the cages are set at 32 for most cars, and its how I was trained.

And you just prooved my point for me.

You ignore what the manufacturer says on the sticker and inflate them to a one pressure fits all reading. And if you are like the guys I've run into you don't bother to even look at the tires to see if they are original size and load range or not.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Nope...the one in Stillwater is "Direct Discount Tire." It used to be a car dealership on the corner of two main streets and the building is quite old...doesn't look a thing like the store in your picture. I checked the website of your company, and the only stores you have in Oklahoma are in Oklahoma City.

I'm still not buying it, though. I have a hard time believing the company you work for does free tire rotations and flat repair for non-customers. Your website certainly doesn't advertise that you do. Hard to keep the doors open and your employees paid when you give away such services. It doesn't even make good business-promotion sense...people just don't buy tires that often over the course of their driving lives. Everybody price-shops tires. Customer loyalty is almost a thing of the past, especially in anything automotive-related.

Use some logic...how long does it take to do a rotation on an average car/truck? How about a tire repair? Especially when the owner put some of that nice foam in there and forgets to tell you about it before you break the tire down? You're telling me that sort of time in your bays is free?

I'll be happy to apologize if you can direct me to anything "official" stating such a policy from Discount Tire Co. (free tire rotations and/or tire repair, even for tires not purchased there).

[Rick Denney]

I run 65 all the way around. Have been for the past 2 years. No bad tread wear, etc. For that matter, the sticker on the door says 50 psi all around for the original tires, so letting the air out to 32 psi was wrong in any case. And I knew as soon as I drove out of the dealership what the tire tech had done. Almost lost control in the first turn they were so mushy.

You didn't say before (or I missed it) that the tire tech was putting LESS pressure than recommended by both the vehicle manufacturer or the tire company.

What is the GVWR of your truck? The GVWR of my motorhome is over 11,000 pounds, and the manufacturer (GMC) recommends Load Range D tires at 65 psi front, and 50 psi on each of four rear tires.

You should adjust the pressure in your tires according to actual weight. The load/inflation tables I have seen show a load-carrying ability for 65 psi of about 2200 pounds per tire (it varies over several hundred pounds by size and less so by manufacturer). Is your truck really 4400 pounds on the front? My Toyota truck (a "full-size" model) doesn't weigh much more than that much for the whole vehicle when empty. And unless you have a camper installed or always carry a load, the tires on the rear should be adjusted with load. The load associated with 35 psi (from the tables linked below) are about 1500 pounds for the typical 16" 3/4 or 1-ton truck tire. Does your truck weigh more than 6000 pounds?

Just so you don't think I'm blowing smoke, here's the load/inflation table for Goodyear:

http://www.goodyear.com/rv/pdf/rv_inflation.pdf

It shows RV tires, but the tires don't know whether they are on an RV or a truck. The inflation is the same either way--this table is just edited to show tire sizes used on common RV's. My RV, though, uses 225/75R16's, similar to one-ton pickups with dually rear axles.

Here's one from Toyo. It shows the same as above, but also has some information about light trucks. See Page 65 in particular, where it says to use the placard tire pressures on a light truck if using P-metric tires, and to downrate load-rated tires by 10% when used on a light truck. LT tires are shown starting on page A-9.

http://marktg.toyotires.com/file/loadinflationtable.pdf

This table also points out that the Load Range only affects how much maximum pressure the tire will hold, not how much load it will carry. A Load range D tire at 65 psi carries the same load as a Load Range E tire at 65 psi. The only difference between an LRE tire and an LRD tire is that the E tire will hold 80 psi and the D tire will only hold 65 psi. But the E tire will carry more load only when inflated beyond 65 psi.

If a tire tech is unwilling to inflate the tires according to these charts, THEN you can beat him up with my blessing. But I'll bet the tire-pressure placard on the truck is consistent with these recommendations, unless it's a light half-ton truck that is supplied by the OEM with passenger-car tires.

Everyone has opinions about tire inflation. I'll stick with the manufacturer's recommendation.

Rick "thinking the dealer's tire guy is no better educated than the typical tire-store monkey" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Rick "thinking the dealer's tire guy is no better educated than the typical tire-store monkey" Denney

So you are saying that all "tire store monkey[s]" do their undrgrad work at ACU?

I said the "typical" tire-store monkey. A person (any person) can be typical, or be educated. It's up to them.

Rick "who knows a lot more about tires and load/inflation tables now than when working as a professional mechanic" Denney