Tire Wear

[lovcom]

What wears out a tire faster?

Driving 10,000 miles at average speed of 60?

Or driving 10,000 miles at average speed of 80?

Same distance, different speeds.

What say you?

 

[ViragoBry]

Depending on the circumstances, I'd say the wear difference would be minimal. But, if there are curves in the road, you'll see more wear at 80mph.

Another factor COULD be centrifugal force pulling the center treadblocks outward further at 80mph than 60mph, making their relationship to the road different as the tire rolls. But again...probably barely noticable.

 

[bepperb]

I'd say the biggest difference would be the temperature of the tire, which would be higher at 80, making the tire softer and faster wearing.

But, I'd love to hear an educated opinion, or the results of a study...

 

[lovcom]

Here is some info I just found:

http://www.us.pirelli.com/web/technology...ed/default.page

Accourding to this site, having an average speed of 80 means you'll wear out tires 10% faster then if the average speed were 70.

But I'm yet to find more evidence on this...perhaps someone else has a better site?

 

[Boomer]

Squirm increases as speed increases so I would expect a small increase in wear at higher speeds.

 

[rjundi]

The higher speed will yield slightly more wear as rubber is heated more and more pliable.

A major factor in tire wear is how much you turn. Eg lots of city driving with lots of 90 degree turns yields more wear than driving highway with gradual turns.

 

[eljefino]

I would assume tire wear to go up in line with fuel consumption at speeds that high, as all the energy used by the engine pushes against the pavement (and back again) to cut the windshield through the air.

I bet though that "good" (speed rated summer high performance) tires don't suffer as badly as they wear just deforming to the pavement every time they go around... so what little slippage a cheezy tire would suffer would not be noticed by the stickier HP.