Less of a rant than an inconvenience
Wife's Expedition picked today to light up the low pressure light.

Of course it's dark & 27° with a feels like of 17°.
Couldn't find my tire gauge & had to resort to the flimsy cheapo in my plug kit.
3rd wheel in & fine motor skill was getting tough. Hard to put the valve stem caps back on

Door sticker calls for 39psi, they were all at 30.

Luckily the Mini was fine & I didn't have to do 4 more.

That's a lot. I typically have them drop about 5psi in the cold and come back up after I'm on the road for a bit.

I run my truck tires at 50 when the door sticker says 34 or (36?).
The tires are rated for that range and the “engineers” didn’t account for driving performance and the subsequent loss of mileage at that pressure. My tires feel like squishy doughnuts at that low of a pressure.
Fuck them! I’m driving a Tundra.
Every bit of mileage I can squeeze out of this beast I will gladly take!

I tend to run a couple PSI over the door placard, I can definitely tell in the Mini, but it's a significantly stiffer bodied car.

quote:

Cold Weather Tire Pressures

Cold weather, period.

I check pressures at least monthly. They should be at the correct pressure before being driven, which means adding air in the winter to keep them at that correct pressure. If you don't they will be too soft. The pressure rise when driving will be the same summer vs winter, so no need to adjust the baseline pressure.

In snow, running at a slightly higher pressure may improve traction by making the patch narrower. But on a wet surface it could be counter productive to go higher pressure. I run a slightly narrower winter snow tire within the manufacturer's list of sizes, and run at the upper end of recommended pressure. I believe it provides some improvement in the snow.