Bruce Parmenter wrote: > fyi ya'all > > I got back tonight. It was fun, but I found that my Blazer > EV front tires were very worn on the outside edge.
I had something like this happen on my Rabbit when I was out towing it around (mostly practise runs), but the tire that really bit it I knew was out of alignment because of some recent work on the steering rack. It just wore it a lot more than I thought it would. > > This could be because my tire pressure was only 32 psi > (which is odd because I keep my tires at 45 psi), or > if I tow my EV with my motor home, and turn sharply out > a steep gas station driveway, I get a werid oscillation > (like the front tires are switching back and forth) > tugging at my RV until I can pull over to check it out. I never had this experience of oscillation when I was flat-towing the Rabbit. I also tried to avoid sharp turns. Don't know how close your S-10EV is behind the motorhome. > > Anyway, I have no choice now, the stell belt is showing. > I will have to order new Low Rolling Resistance tires to > replace these. I want to get this and a brake job & > front end alignment, before class starts. Well, you'd better get it done soon (especially if the really bad tires are on the front!). There's nothing like that sinking feeling, and the thunk-thunk you start to experience as your thin tire flattens out after finding some freeway trash or whatever. Been there, done that recently on my old Goodyear Invicta GLRs. I now carry "Tire-Flat" or "Flat-Fix" in my car as recommended on the EVDL. > > So, I am going to dig up all the LRR tire POSTs to > review my options. I ended up going with the Goodyear Integritys that Bill Egan recommended. I also moved up a notch in size, from P175/70R-13 to P185/70R-13. The tire diameter is 0.6" greater, and I have an additional 400-500 lbs carrying capacity across the four tires (if I was to pump them up to max recommended pressure). If you go with the Integrity, I found it to be a much quieter tire than the Invictas, and a treadwear rating of 440 as compared to 260. I bet these tires will last a lot longer than the Invictas (I got 15000 miles), because of the treadwear rating and greater carrying capacity (I about halfway made up the electric conversion weight increase of about 900 lbs). Downside is that I seem to be soaking up quite a bit more energy - these are new tires (soak more than well-worn minimal tread) and they are also not as low rolling resistance (according to Bill Egan there is nothing like the ol' Invicta GLRs in this dept). The close second was the Bridgestone Potenza RE92, as found in 14" format on the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight (treadwear rating of 260 or 160 (depending on the tire size)). However, I went with the Integrity since the Potenza had a lot of negative votes on tirerack.com (however, I suspect those folks will shoot down just about any low-rolling resistance tires, given the way lrr tires are), and the better wear rating. A Prius owner I talked to in solar class this spring said she had gone through three sets in 24000 miles (although she does a lot of driving on dirt roads, and in fact had the dirtiest Prius I have ever seen). I also felt that Bill Egan put in some time answering my questions, and that counts for something. Bruce, with your 15" size, you have more choices. Tires like the Michelin X1 become available (I don't think it was available in the 13" size). Others I looked at were the Michelin XV4 (there is an "Energy" model available), and the Continental CH95 (which if one trusts Continental's phone reps, is the same tire as the little Eco-Contact found on the Th!nk). There are many more choices in 14" and 15" size than 13", which may cause me to move up next time around. I hope to get my parking lot rolling resistance tests (like those we did with EBEAA at BART many years ago) weekend after this, then I might have some hard data for comparing the Invictas and the Integritys, and not more than a couple/three months have gone by since I did the last rolling tests on the Invictas. I have a "standard" parking lot up in Terra Linda that is mostly vacant on weekends. It's hard to find a good parking lot for this purpose here in vertical Marin. Good luck! Chuck Hursch Larkspur, CA www.geocities.com/nbeaa
