I have read in a couple of places that low rolling resistance (LRR) tires contribute approximately 3% to the fuel economy of a vehicle. For a car such as a hybrid that gets 50mpg, this would translate to a difference of about 1.5mpg.

I was wondering if this was the consensus -- or the experience -- of the folks on this forum. Or, if the feeling was that the difference would be more (or less).

[Note: I have seen the thread regarding the mpg drop due to a change to the michelin tires, but it seemed like that drop might be in part due to the weather change (entering winter).]

Anyway, I was just curious what the possible effects would be to my HCH mileage (which is about 45mpg after 2500 miles of mostly city driving).

Thanks for the info...

Hi Chuck:

___I cannot directly comment on the HCH because I don’t know that many HCH pilots that have had to swap out their OEM’s so far. In the Insight community, those that have swapped due to wear or have swapped due to traction concerns in the winter usually see an immediate 5 mpg hit. I am speaking of a 5 mpg hit from those that are not hypermilers because a hypermiler won’t swap to a lesser FE tire under any circumstance in my experience. With that, you are looking at 55 - 65 mpg type Insight pilots noticing a 5 mpg hit with a simple tire swap the second they drive off from the Tire store of choice. This is a significant amount more then just 3% as you can tell.

___I have seen a much > then 3% increase in FE as tire pressures are increased from let us say 38 to 50 #’s in whatever I have driven which might help your HCH reach hypermiler status?

___I hope I provided you with some “Insight” (no pun intended ) but those owning HCH’s will have to come to your aid with “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey likes to say …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Thanks for the information, Wayne. It is always useful to have some empirical data.

I don't think I (or my HCH) will ever achieve hypermiler status. I think I'm more of a mediocre-miler. However, I don't want to do things which will negatively impact my MPG, so knowing about the impact of other tire types is helpful.

My interest in new or different tires and/or rims is mostly for aesthetic reasons -- you know, wanting to individualize my automobile a bit (just like everybody else :-) ). I'm not talking about anything drastic like large rims or wide tires, just something giving the car a slightly different look.

I traded in my 2002 Honda Civic Si (the hatchback) and considered putting my aftermarket rims and tires from the Si onto the hybrid, but the dealer (wisely) talked me out of it. So now I'm just considering something like an LRR tire with a slightly different rim configuration.

Thanks again for the helpful advice!

Sorry to awaken an old thread (but I'm new so I will )

I was wondering if anyone has empirical stats on specific tires (Brand, Model, Size) for the HCH (or any other model for that matter).

On my other car, I got aftermarket wheels which shed 10 pounds AT EACH CORNER. This was for performance reasons, not fuel economy, but by shedding mass (especially rotational mass) you reap a lot of benefits (better performance, economy, handling, etc.). I was thinking of going with some aftermarket package for the HCH as well (perhaps the SSR Competitions - which are VERY light), but I would definitely want to pair them up with some highly efficient tires. Inevitably, I'd get some crazy looks from the ricers, but I could deal with that. (I'll tell them the hybrid badge means I shoehorned a blown ITR motor under the hood)

I'm not quite ready to try swapping all the wheels out for 4 doughnut spares (I have 3 lying around!), but that could be fun experiment too.

Hi Guys:

___Although the following link is past history now, the Bridgestone B381’s are the ones in use on some of the HCH’s. As you can see by the pdf below, they are LRR tires by a good margin and have 51 #’s max sidewall ratings. Another tire one may consider is the inexpensive GoodYear Integrity. Again, not the most traction oriented tire out there (it comes std. on the Prius II’s) but one that is of a LRR and has a longevity that might make sense for some here. They also came as OEM’s on the 03/04/05 Corolla LE’s. I recently replaced them after just north of 70,000 with the same. I have taken a brand new 04 Accord w/ its Michelin’s (I believe they use a MXV4 Plus’?) to > 50 mpg at 58 miles per hour or less while at just 40 #’s if that helps? Bridgestone RE92’s at 50 - 60 #’s are tremendously LRR but on anything except an Insight, I would shy away from those due to the differing compounds used on the Insight sized tires vs. the rest of the RE92 lineup. The rest have wear ratings that are 1/3 less then the Insight’s if that helps.

LRR Green Seal Report

___Finally, lighter weight wheels always help if they don’t add much to the drag of the automobile. The flatter the vertical profile and the more sealed, the better.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

That was a great read - thank you Wayne. I'm glad my HCH came OEM'ed with the B381's.

Now I have to justify whether I want to drop the $$ on a set of Volk CE28N 14 X 5.5 which apparently weigh in at about 6.5 lbs each!

Does anyone know what the OEM HCH wheels weigh?

bump

I'd like to bring back the question jahwerx posed about the HCH stock wheel weight. Does anyone know this?

I too want to get some lightweight aftermarket rims for my HCH, namely 14 inch TE37s with the stock tires, but I'd like to compare the weight difference between the stock wheel and the aftermarket wheel first.

Jahwerx, did you ever get your rims?

Nope, I'm going to hold onto the OEM's for a while. I just dropped $2k on my motorcycle and my wife would kill me if I bought more toys. Maybe when the B381's wear down I'll consider it.

Tires can have a great impact on your mileage. When I recently put a new set of Michelin Harmonies on my Civic, my mileage dropped from 52MPG to 46MPG for the next 2000 miles until the new tires got broken in. After this, the MPG rose back up to its normal low 50's mpg.