Do you pay attention to tire WEIGHT ??

[Johnny248]

Originally Posted By: Ursae_Majoris
Because I drive Kia in town only, I did not want to pay for a second set of rims and did not want to look at the flashing TPMS indicator for 8 months. GY TT do just fine in snow up to 6" deep.
On ice I have to remember to go light on the throttle, but I have not gotten stuck so far (it is my second winter on them).

I have 4WD Axiom shod with Nokian WR to handle anything worse than 4". I have plowed thru 2' snow with it before.


I agree. I have TT's on my 96 Camry, and have had them on their for several years. They are really fantastic in the snow. That car will go through anything. I have close to 70k on them and they are no worn out yet. Since I tend to drive cars like an a-hole, that is the longest by far that I've ever owned a set of tires.

 

[ktec]

Unsprung weight is bad, but rotational weight is even worse! I pay close attention to tire weight, if I have a choice. 7lbs per tire is a massive difference.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Same here. I actually use tire weight (listed on tirerack) as a surrogate measure of rolling resitance (not listed) after I discovered OEM tires and known low lolling resistance tires have lower weight than average. Lighter tires have softer sidewalls thus less friction in sidewall and lower rolling resistance. I personally deal with softer sidewalls with inflating tires near max cold pressure and that gives me great handling comparable to high traction/performance tires with stiff sidewall.

 

[mshu7]

I ABSOLUTELY pay attention to tire weight. About 5 years ago I put a set of Avon tires on one of my cars because Tire Rack carried them and they were getting great reviews at the time. After having the tires installed, I noticed the car's performance seemed to have decreased and my MPG's were down as well. The car just felt sluggish. After doing a little investigating, I realized the Avon tires were 4 lbs. heavier than the previous tire I had on there (Conti Extreme Contact).

From that point on, I've always paid attention to tire weight. As someone else mentioned, it's rotational weight that we are talking about here and it makes a HUGE difference.

 

[MCompact]

I pay attention to tire weight on my track rats.

 

[Michael_P]

I'm not a weight weenie on tires unless its for a sports car. I put 10 plys on my 1/2 ton. Yeah, they are a boatload heavier, but haven't lost any MPG. The key is accelerating slowly. Also the added PSI and hardness offsets the weight when rolling. The good news is those 10 plys have 80,000 miles on them with over 1/2 tread left. As far as sports cars are concerned, it is a deciding factor, but its about 4 or 5 down on the list. I would never compromise strength for weight. The good news is with Kevlar showing up on high end tires, you don't have to choose between strength and weight.

Oh well...........My2¢