Friday, August 27, 2010

Way over the top



I know it's only a small thing (what exactly are you talking about? - Ed) but has anybody else noticed how hard the tyres are inflated on a hire car? I've hired more than enough cars over the years to have noticed this. To me the handling generally feels slightly 'skittish' and a bit 'unsure' in the wet (go to somewhere dry - Ed).


So, with a bit of time on my hands this week, I decided to investigate. I'm a bit anal (you don't say? - Ed) about tyre pressures and so bought a smart new pressure gauge from Sainsbury's. Don't you just love that store?


Anyway, on checking the tyres they were set at about 39 psi each. In my opinion, that's way too high, so on checking with the handbook I noticed that the tyres had two recommended settings. One setting for 'comfort' which looked about right to me and one for 'low petrol consumption'. Yeah, low petrol consumption and poor handling instant death.


Now I'm no mechanical engineer but in my opinion inflating tyres to such high pressure makes them dangerous. Words will be had with the hire company later. Still, this well known hire company was half the price of the other I tried so I don't suppose you can have everything.

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