Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

OK - I am cross-eyed. I have read as many posts as I can, visited numerous websites, and basically read myself into a circle.

When in the US recently I had a tire checked and the service guy inflated all of my tires to 35 psi. Fine. I recently purchased new tires and the shop inflated them to 32 psi.

So - my question: is there a preferred (read better) psi for city/highway driving? (Never mind off road - that goes without saying, and with the terrain).

Oh yeah - tires = Pirelli Scorpion ATRs 235/75R15.

Tire pressure depends on the weight of the vehicle, and the tires themselves, it's hard to say what is right for your particular situation.

your "ideal" pressure will keep the entire tread surface on the road. Too high and the edges will not touch the pavement and your vehicle will feel "skitish" with lack of traction, too low and the centre of the tread will lift off the pavement and the vehicle will feel "sloppy" or "soft".

There are all sorts of ways of guessing at the tire pressure you actually want, and some complex formulas that can tell you as well, but a general rule of thumb seems to be to look at the sidewall, read the "max pressure" on there and subtract 10% of it.

However when you talk about one garage filling to 35 and another to 32... there is effectively no difference there, the outside temperature combined with the tires warming up as you drive can easily have a larger effect than 3 psi.

(on a side note, the sticker on the door pillar translates to about 27psi, but I can't imagine what tires would be adequately inflated at that pressure on this particular vehicle!)