I'm going on holiday soon and am taking a car full of two adults, a 14 year old and two 7 year olds, and a boot full of luggage. The normal tyre pressure for my tyres is 2.2 bar front and back. However for a fully loaded car the recommendation is to inflate to 2.5 bar in the front and 3.2 bar in the rear which is quite a hefty rise in my mind. The definition of fully loaded is 5 passengers and a full boot but are the five passengers all adults? As three of the occupants are kids should I be inflating as high as 2.5 and 3.2 or should I be going for something in between.

 

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Similar tyre pressure recommendations for my MkII estate and I have same body/luggage requirements.  

 

I was also nervous about the 3.2 bar bit but as it says it on the tin I have followed the instructions - tyres are now rock hard.

Just driven to Southern Spain and back with fully loaded boot and 2 young kids - changed to higher bar described in your post and ride was perfect. Just change the psi/bar back to normal when you arrive at your destination and have unloaded the luggage as the ride and handling is pretty harsh when rear tyres are inflated to 3.2 bar without the weight in the back.

Edited 22 August, 201411 yr by Black_Sheep

If you think that your luggage and your kids don't contribute to a "fully loaded" condition, just choose somewhere in-between e.g. 2.7 at the back.

 

Basically the idea is to add pressure as the car gets heavier (particularly for long journeys) to maintain a normal contact footprint to control tyre wear, ride quality & fuel economy.

Thanks for your replies. As Gabbo says I don't consider the car to be fully loaded with three kids and two littluns at that, so I'm thinking of going for an intermediate setting of 2.4 for the front and 2.8 for the back. Without knowing the real increase in weight to the normal load and how far it is between normal loaded and fully loaded its difficult to judge.

See my thread here http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/321585-tyre-pressures/

 

I called the master tech at my local dealer for the answer as I had the same concerns.

I drive similar weight Roomster at 3bar pressure front and rear with full load (people+luggage), 3.3bar rear if towbar box carrier is used. Same for Mk1 Superb and was similar for Mk1 Octy. In general, for motorway it is better to overinflate tyres, not just for fuel economy, but also for better control under heavy braking, higher pressure in tyres reduces "twitching" and makes loss of control less likely. Not to mention significantly lower running temperature, makes difference if you travel in summer to high temperature zone.

 

In my opinion, 2.5 at front is not enough with fully loaded car, you can see tyres bulging out quite a bit.  Given that I have very even wear across the tyre width (and Roomster just did another 2k miles at these pressures), it seem 3.0bars front and 3+bars rear are just fine for a fully loaded car on motorway.

 

For the load you described, I'd fill 2.8bar all round.

Edited 22 August, 201411 yr by dieselV6

Can't see what car the op has as I'm on mobile however certainly with my vrs it's really sensitive to tyre pressure so you'll soon know if it's wrong as the grip level suffers badly.

Might need to reset tps as well.

You will need to reset TPMS - I forgot and it took about 50 miles of motorway driving before the TPMS threw a wobbly and told me I had 4 flat tyres!

I absolutely agree on much better control and precision and general performance of sensibly "over inflated" tyres (when I say "sensibly over inflated" I mean inflated to the max pressure engraved on tyre sidewall).

 

I used to commute daily for about 300Km, driving "brisky" and mixing both highway (with many, many bends) and city, and "over" inflated tyres served me best.

 

My local tyre-man was astonished be the evenness of rubber consumption.

 

HTH,

 

Stefano

 

P.S.: Of course, this is applicable also when driving alone, without SWMBO, children, suitcases, pets...

 

 

I drive similar weight Roomster at 3bar pressure front and rear with full load (people+luggage), 3.3bar rear if towbar box carrier is used. Same for Mk1 Superb and was similar for Mk1 Octy. In general, for motorway it is better to overinflate tyres, not just for fuel economy, but also for better control under heavy braking, higher pressure in tyres reduces "twitching" and makes loss of control less likely. Not to mention significantly lower running temperature, makes difference if you travel in summer to high temperature zone.

 

In my opinion, 2.5 at front is not enough with fully loaded car, you can see tyres bulging out quite a bit.  Given that I have very even wear across the tyre width (and Roomster just did another 2k miles at these pressures), it seem 3.0bars front and 3+bars rear are just fine for a fully loaded car on motorway.

 

For the load you described, I'd fill 2.8bar all round.

Edited 22 August, 201411 yr by Genoa1893

I don't bother changing them anymore, but then I only do a few hundred miles within the UK to holiday destinations.

 

I used to change them, but found it made little difference to the handling or ride of the car, or at least little enough that I could notice it.

 

Not had an issue with uneven tyre wear either.

I absolutely agree on much better control and precision and general performance of sensibly "over inflated" tyres (when I say "sensibly over inflated" I mean inflated to the max pressure engraved on tyre sidewall).

 

I used to commute daily for about 300Km, driving "brisky" and mixing both highway (with many, many bends) and city, and "over" inflated tyres served me best.

 

My local tyre-man was astonished be the evenness of rubber consumption.

 

HTH,

 

Stefano

 

P.S.: Of course, this is applicable also when driving alone, without SWMBO, children, suitcases, pets...

You have stated this before, and we have had the discussion before, and I won't be following your advice.

 

I would be driving round with 50psi (3.4 Bar) in my tyres if I did, which is 1.5 times what Skoda recommend for a normal load.

You have stated this before, and we have had the discussion before, and I won't be following your advice.

 

I would be driving round with 50psi (3.4 Bar) in my tyres if I did, which is 1.5 times what Skoda recommend for a normal load.

 

I'm just sharing my own experience with the OP and the community on the given subject.

 

I can assure I sincerely have no will to "convince" you or anybody else.

 

Have a nice Sunday,

 

Stefano