Tire Pressure Question

[68EFIvert]

I take my cars to a well respected alignment and suspension shop in the area for my alignments on all my cars. He told me to run about 50 psi in my low profile tires 215/45 17's on my daily driver. I have never heard of this high of psi, only the max rating on the side of the car. The dealer tells me 32 psi. Which "expert" should I trust on this one?

 

[chromedog]

when in doubt, read the sidewalls.... they are going to say" load rating xxxx lbs. at xx psi" use this as a guide, if your car weighs 3000, and your tires are rated 1300 lbs. at 51 psi, you can drop the press. down to about 45ish for a better ride, but DONT run a 45 series tire at 32 psi, unless it is on a mini, or something really light. that line of thinking went out the window with 78 series tires. one good pothole with a 45 at 32 psi, and you are buying a new wheel, and most likely a tire, too!

 

[68EFIvert]

Thanks for the help.

 

[SL 1993 R]

I have played around with some high tire pressures like that. The higher pressure prevents the sidewall from flexing over in high cornering g's. I learned about the high tire pressure information from a Goodyear tech guy at Laguna Seca, but that was in the late 80's. (Running an SVO, then a GT later) He said they had done over 200 psi in a Gatorback, they had rim failure prior to the tire going. For street driving, I would not recommend it.... but this practice is not unheard of.