What is more friendly to the environment (Gas vs. Tires)

[imzjustplayin]

Is it detrimental to the environment to wear out tires faster for the sake of better fuel economy? Should fuel economy come first before the life of a tire? I was thinking about all those people who take corners at a high rate of speed in order to improve their fuel economy and whether the benefit from improved fuel economy was an improvement to their overall environmental profile.

[trollbait]

The base assumption is that a hypermiler with completely filled, possibly LRR, tires wears them do faster than a typical driver and tires. Is that assumption actually correct?
Most hypermilers drive slower, and my understanding is that pumped up tires last longer?

Another thing to consider is the potential reuse of old tires. Once burned the gas is gone

[GasSavers_BEEF]

I burn about 500 gallons a year (yes, I drive too much) but I have changed my tires twice since I purchased the car over 5 years ago. the first tire change doesn't really count because the tires were bald when I got the car.

I would say that tire wear isn't really that big of an issue. my tires last a while because I buy the harder composite and I drive much slower and less aggressive. can't remeber the last time I did a burn out in the car (maybe never). I can squeal them a bit going around corners but even that is rare.

[theholycow]

************* wasn't generalizing about hypermilers, just asking about the ones who take turns fast in order to carry their momentum through the turn and not have to re-accelerate afterwards. I do.

I may be going 45 on a road where most people go 55, and they may be tailgating me dangerously closely, but when I turn I don't use my brakes...I might enter that turn still at 45, finishing the turn with 40mph still left, leaving them far behind until they finish turning and catch up to tailgate me some more. To avoid wear on the tires I might have to brake down to 30mph and accelerate to 40mph again once I'm going straight.

The increased tire pressure I run definitely helps with wear. I've always enjoyed taking corners fast, and before I started running higher pressure, I'd always wear the edges of the tire first. Now I get approximately even wear. Actually, I currently have slight center wear, but that's not as bad as edge wear IMO and the whole tire will be bald before any cords show in the center.

Potential re-use is kinda meaningless, IMO. Actual re-use is much more important. They could be recapped and put on a car for another 50,000 miles, but they won't. Does anyone know what are the most common destinations for disposed tires?

[theholycow]

Oh, and with my aggressive turning, I'm mostly down to the wear bars after 25,000 miles. I looked up reviews of my tires and it seems most people have run them bald by 25,000 miles, so I'm still ahead.

[Erdrick]

I had my tires down to the wear bars (if I remember correctly) in my mini kei car in Japan. That is from less than 10,000 miles of driving over two years. I pumped them up hard and cornered like it was a Porsche. Usually squealed them around turns. Then again, the Mitsubishi minica costs around $6000 brand new so....

[Lorena_Palin]

Do they even still use tires in playgrownds anymore? I remember I was like the last generation in my area to have a wood-and tire aspestos filled playground. They got got rid of all the wood and tires one year before I left elementary school.

Depends on your region, but I know there are all these people in arizona with those "earth ship" houses where they pack old tires full of dirt for isolation. I watched a documentary on it, looked pretty cool. Anyone doing that could take the tires off your hands, and it would help them build a more efficient home, so you'd be making them work for the environment even when they are "trash"

http://www.earthship.net/

Originally Posted by Erdrick

I had my tires down to the wear bars (if I remember correctly) in my mini kei car in Japan. That is from less than 10,000 miles of driving over two years. I pumped them up hard and cornered like it was a Porsche. Usually squealed them around turns. Then again, the Mitsubishi minica costs around $6000 brand new so....

do you know how hard it would be to ship a kei car over here and get it registered?

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Originally Posted by Lorena_Palin

I remember I was like the last generation in my area to have a wood-and tire aspestos filled playground.

I sure hope you didn't mean asbestos...

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Marvin's tires are "due" can't remember what they've got on them, somewhere around 80,000 I think, but it's been something like 6 or 7 years and they're starting to get checking on the sidewalls. Always seems to me you get the first 25% wear in the first 5,000, the next 25% in 10,000, and the last 50% lasts 40,000 or longer.

[VetteOwner]

old tires are shredded into playground substrate so its safe to fall on and alot of it is used in asphalt roads in the asphalt. im sure theres plenty of other uses too