If you want a smooth ride consider a future upgrade. I am..Wheels are 19".. Agree, on smooth roads/highway love it. Good to know it's not just me.
www.rzev.com
let everyone know how it turns out. I have a 23 model 3 and the ride is better but I really would like it softer yet, roads in IL are awful. Constantly being torn up or pothole filled. I have been driving on a road thats been under construction for about 7 years.As we did with our rv, koni fsd (or whatever they call them now, special active?) is a game changer. Again, for me, the ride was fine, but for my passenger, the complaints went from every bump to only on the bigger divots. We are only 3k on on our Tesla, but will be updating soon after the new dampers are available.
42 psi will give you better accident-avoidance maneuverability and reduce the chances of punctures and flat tires. I find it hard to believe people are so sensitive to bumps. As a lifelong off-roader I know exactly where my wheels are and miss the worst of them. If there is no way to drive around them, I slow down.23M3RWD for me. We are down to 36 cold psi. Not sure what the tpms warning level is, but have not triggered them yet.
42 is what the the epa results call for, but the TPMS trigger psi is what the insurers require. I bet the actual psi from the tire manufacturer, based on load is even less.
For instance, I have oversized tires on a wrangler. The load chart does not go low enough! About town, we run 12 to 15psi and still have more center wear. When we tow it, I bump up to 20 as we load it more.
on our rv, the sticker is 85 all around. For load, the actual is 55 front, 65 rear, including 15% safety margin.
with the Tesla, the tires are low profile, even the 18’s, so most will not be comfortable dropping to load chart values for fear of wheel damage. But, there are many who race on the 20’s and report using mid to low 30 psi (mentioned for those who claim tire rolling off wheel in an evasive action).
The average driver is not going to gain anything by keeping at 42. In fact, depending on the load, traction/footprint is decreased. Yes some pothole protection for the wheel, at the expense of wear on other components.42 psi will give you better accident-avoidance maneuverability and reduce the chances of punctures and flat tires. I find it hard to believe people are so sensitive to bumps. As a lifelong off-roader I know exactly where my wheels are and miss the worst of them. If there is no way to drive around them, I slow down.
If you are driving at higher speeds on roads with really bad potholes, such that you will occasionally hit one no matter how careful you are, then it's especially important not to reduce tire pressures, in order to reduce the chances of wheel damage and pinch flats. A higher pressure makes the wheel and tire combination much more robust against hard impacts.
Why do you say that? As you can see from other posts, other people believe just the opposite.The average driver is not going to gain anything by keeping at 42. In fact, depending on the load, traction/footprint is decreased. Yes some pothole protection for the wheel, at the expense of wear on other components.
On all of our Long-Range Model 3's with 18" Michelin MXM4's, we get better performance (cornering, accident avoidance, efficiency and zero flat tires over 5 years and three cars) when we run 42 cold PSI as the absolute minimum. It actually gets a little better up to about 45 psi. Above 45 psi the braking performance starts to fall off and around 47 psi the cornering performance starts to degrade. All pressures are measured before driving, when the tires are cold. Cars with smaller/lighter batteries may do better with a pound or two less.The average driver is not going to gain anything by keeping at 42. In fact, depending on the load, traction/footprint is decreased. Yes some pothole protection for the wheel, at the expense of wear on other components.
I once knew someone who would inflate their tires to the max rated PSI air pressure on the tires and not to the specs of the car. They laugh when I told them they could explode.when we run 42 cold PSI as the absolute minimum. It actually gets a little better up to about 45 psi.
42 is indeed a magic number. It is the number, determined by the manufacturer of often both the tire and the car, for the best, correct operation of the car. It is the number stamped on the car that every tire store follows when inflating the tires.I’ll try a different way. Why are the TPMS warnings not set at 42? If 42 was the min for safety, the insurers would certainly require 42 for the warning. Not saying 36 is a magic number. Just saying 42 is not a magic number either. Trade offs are made at either number. If you search, you will find many suggestions for the 36-38 range for those who road race and auto cross. Those folks certainly are looking for safety and performance and are more skilled than most of us. IIRC,they suggest one can go even lower with camber adjustments.
Me? I go back far enough to where we used sheet metal screws to keep tires from spinning on their bead (pre roll bar midgets, dirt and indoors). Used a hand groover on used drag slicks for early sprint cars. Bead locks were a game changer as we could run even lower pressures than screws.
On road, with low profile tires, many worry about wheel damage, which a flinstones pressure will help. I get it.
