Quote:
Originally Posted by lloyd123
Some of the reviews of the NAH have mentioned road noise and a stiff ride. I was pleasantly surprised when I put on four Blizzak Revo 1 snow tires and discovered that they give a smoother ride with less noise than the stock Continentals - exactly the opposite of what you'd expect.
On the minus side - since the cold weather is here in New England and the snow tires are on I've had my fuel economy drop from around 40 to about 36 mpg.
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The ride improvement is not so big a surprise when you study up on studless snow tires and find out that the rubber is
softer than the equivalent OEM tire from the same source. The tire manufactueres add veggie oils (Canola in one case) to the rubber and elastomers in order to get improved ability for the tire tread to deform. In this case deformity is not a bad thing. In fact, it is needed so the tire tread can grab every little piece of traction that it can find.
There are a LOT of misconceptions about tires on hybrids on the forums I have looked into. For example all of the statements listed below are true:
1. Studless snow tires are softer and ride better than road tires from the same manufacturer. (However, they will not wear as well on pavement.)
2. Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) tires do not reduce road traction. (In fact, the typically increase it.)
3. Over-inflation of LRR tires has less impact on FE that overinflation of conventional tires with higher rolling resistance.
More about snow tires on this thread:
http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/f...ded-tch-16033/
More about LRR tires on this thread:
http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/f...tml#post152507