weight assignment

[ESPER]

hello. i was wondering how tire pressure affects weight distribution. for example, if all tires are at 32 PSI normally, and i inflate the rears to 33-34, would this heighten the vehicle's rear and send more weight forward? if so, how much PSI would make a difference?

thanks

[Scott McLellan]

That is interesting. I guess I haven't thought of it like that before. I usually think about tire pressure as the amount of traction you want. Like, for example, if your car was understeering you could drop a tiny bit of pressure in the front and add a little in the back or any combination or just one by itself to get the setting the way you want. I'm assuming that is also what they do in NASCAR when they say that they are making a tire pressure adjustment. This in turn affects how the car handles but I'm not sure if it affects weight distribution. Usually for street tires the best bet is to go with what your factory pressure settings are supposed to be (mine are 29 front and back). Drag cars run low pressure like 13 psi or something like that but they sometimes have bead locked tires and intertubes. Incorrect tire pressure will also drastically reduce the life of your tire by uneven wear.

My guess about changing the psi from 32 to 33-34 in the back would be that it would raise the back ever so slightly which would in turn put a very slight bit more weight on the front tires. When you would test drive it you might think your front tires are grabbing better from the increased weight when in reality you only took traction away from your rear tires by overinflating them. Overinflating tires doesn't allow the full width of the tread to be used because it causes the centersection of the tread to bulge.

[CanadianCoch]

thats an interesting idea, lol. Except the height different by a few PSI isn't really measureable, so the weight difference would barely if at all be noticeable. Having your tires at different PSI's isn't good i'm told, so I wouldn't risk it for the 10 pounds you'd move to the front. 240's already have a damn good weight ratio

CanadianCoch

[ESPER]

thanks for the replies. well i do have a s14 and i keep it at 29 all around as well. but the thing is, i am wondering why the weight disrtibution went up to 55/45

[Scott McLellan]

Fill up your tank...

[ESPER]

so you are saying that the s13's has a smaller fuel tank or was it located elsewhere? so if i keep my s14 at about half a tank......the weight distribution should shift towards the reaer.....

[book-ends]

Put a dead body in the trunk............ or under the hood......... however you want to shift the weight. Personally, I run a little less pressure in the rear because I'm under this (false) assumption that I will gain all sorts of additional traction.

[Scott McLellan]

Gas 7lb. per gallon X 15.8 gallon or something tank capacity and you have about 110 lbs. to play around with. This is approximently 4% of the cars total weight (2750 lb). I think all 240's tanks are under the back seat. Mine is anyway (S14).