I was just wondering what people ran for tire pressure in there winter tires? The old rule of thumb was that you got better traction with a slightly under inflated tire on slippery roads. With that being said, what pressures give you a happy medium with traction and MPG in mind? I've been running 42/40 with the OEM tires and the life time average MPG is 49 with 7,100 miles so far. On another note, the colder weather has upset the MPG and I'm thinking of getting a block heater to see if that helps. Those of you in colder climates, how many use a block heater? We've had the car 3 months now and we are very pleased so far. There are a few things that could be better but I think you can say that about any car.
I'm currently experiencing poor traction even though I run new Blizzaks, with pressures at 40/38. I might drop it down to see what happens. Snow traction is fine, but ice traction is scary. Fuel economy has taken a major hit. Temps last month were about 40 degrees during the day, but have been below 30 every day since I filled up. Mileage formerly was almost exactly 50, now I'm pulling only 42. I run an OEM block heater and it accelerates warm-up after the initial morning start, but obviously it hasn't helped my mileage much. Raelly helps the defroster, though.
I'm running 44/42 for the winter. My winter xice tires can go to 51 lbs. Planning to use block heater whenever temps are below about 20 degrees.
I have to admit that when it snows around here (rarely) Belle is parked snug in the garage and the Beast my Fort Explorer takes over the "dirty work"
There's slippery, and there's slippery. Slightly flabby tires do better on snow. On ice, keep them inflated as usual.
