I saw $3.29 here in St. Louis today.

It's ALL E10 here, and has been for years.

 

We have $3.359 at the local Shell station this week.

 

At most places in Virginia gas prices are under $3.50. The highest was aroung $4.00

 

I've been watching the price sag in SoCal. I paid 3.88 for 3.91/g - a .03/g discount at Von's, . Down from 4.30 several weeks ago.

I'm wondering if the SUV's will come out of mothballs as the price of gas drops.

 

gas prices have been slowly going down

 

Huntsville checkin' in as Gustov spins up: $3.499/gallon.

My new tires are workin' too. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

Ho - still a long way to go in So Cal. Still a buck three eighty -

Tell me about your tires. I'm due (45,000 miles) on my '06

 

I started by looking at the Consumer Reports list of low rolling resistance tires. By happy accident, I found Sumitomos at the local Toyota service center for $45/tire, an excellent price. I had already been to several local tire stores in Huntsville only to be disappointed each time. So for that price, I bought a set and kept the best of the old ones for a full-size spare. Those were the NHW11, 175/65R14s, 50,000 miles ago.

With those tires, I bought a Firestone life-time alignment, an alloy rim for the spare, and started working on rear wheel alignment. I also did some early experiments with measuring tire tread temperature as an aid to understanding alignment. However, I screwed up by not correcting the passenger side camber. I also adopted 50 psi pressure and pressure caps. Had I done a better job on the front wheel camber, I probably could have gotten another 10,000 miles but I picked up a sheet metal screw in an area where the local tire shops claim it can't be repaired. Lesson's learned:

• owner has to do the rear wheel toe and camber, shops won't
• owner has to do the front wheel camber, shops won't
• 50 psi pressure caps will be taken off by a tire shop and kept unless you complain ... then they will call them 'batteries'

I had read a number of papers on tire rolling resistance and geometry and decided to go with the same width and larger diameter and keep the Sumitomo high pressure, 50 psi. I'd bought a pair of 175/70R14s and had fitted them to a pair of rims. I wanted to try the 175/65R14s and 175/70R14s on the front and rear to see what effects I could measure including impacts on odometer readings and handling. I drove 750 miles to HybridFest on the front and swapped them front-to-rear to drive back:

• larger diameter tires had less 'wander', they tracked easier
• the new 175/70R14s indicated about 5% lower than ground measured true
• the well worn 175/65R14s indicated just under 1% than true

When I got back to Huntsville, I found the screw in a tire and ordered a second pair of 175/70R14s and had them installed. I also got the front camber adjustment bolts and have been testing EZ Shims. I still have one pair of metal shims on the driver side rear wheel but will replace them shortly and check my final alignment.

I just filled up my first full tank on the new tires after getting the alignment more correct. One tank is not enough to claim anything but getting 55.3 MPG versus the previous tank of 54.2 MPG is a good sign.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob can you clarifying:

• so you're saying shops won't do it at all or that they don't do it right? Ten years ago I had a problem getting an alignment right on wife's Mercedes (independent rear suspension). Eventually I took it to a tire shop that would do the alignment "manually" (i.e. no computers). That was the best money I ever spent on that car.
• 50 psi pressure caps? I have a couple guesses (valve stem caps?) but what are you referring?

Thanks!

 

I can't find a shop in Huntsville that does it. I had to buy my own EZ SHIM and I asked the distributor who else besides me buys them ... no one in North Alabama!

Yes, 50 psi pressure caps. Now they have a quality issue, I've had one fail but I found they were great when dealing with a small leak. The only trick is if one tire seems to lose pressure, swap pressure caps to make sure it is the tire, not the cap.

Bob Wilson