Hi All,

 

We are off on our annual trip to France very soon but this year we have got the kids bikes on the back of the Octy. Can anyone recommend tyre pressure for the extra weight as I usually use the guide that's inside of the filler cap. I have 225/45 R17 Bridgestones on a Octy 2005 1.6 Fsi. Bikes are x2.

 

Thanks.

Use the guide! 

 

Off camping this week with a fully loaded car and big roofbox and four of us. No bikes as I think it would kill the car. Mine are 205/55/16 and I use the fully loaded recommendation of 310kpa.  Never have a problem. Sometimes forget to lower pressure when arrived as I can't be bothered to pump it back up again. Makes it a bit bumpy but not too bad

Ok will do! Thanks for the advice, enjoy your camping trip.

 

All the best

When fully loaded with roof box caravan and luggage I have always followed the recommendation to increase the rear pressures by 4 psi and have never had any problems, low pressures are more likely to cause a blow out.

When we went off on holiday last year, I made the rears 35psi and the fronts 33psi.  I took my own hand pump & pressure gauge to adjust them when we go there & then redid them for the journey home. We did 1600 miles all in with all five of us in the car without any issues.  Ours is an estate though, not sure if that's of any use to you?

 

edit : I also monitored them during the holiday as we went to France and therefore the temperatures increased the further south we went.  I am a bit geeky about these things though.

Edited 8 August, 20187 yr by skinnyman

Up until last year, I used to carry a pump (Michelin) with a built in pressure guage - never again will I rely on just this. We travelled to Austria and back in the Octavia, and I checked the tyre pressures before we left (I check them every week). We got to near Strasbourg and the car seemed to be vibrating badly, so I slowed down and pulled off at one of the many handy stopping places. I checked the wheels weren't loose, but there was a smell of hot rubber and the tyres were very warm - the weather was hot. I kept the speed down for the rest of the journey and that seemed to make things a lot better. We got to Salzburg, and the next day I bought a decent pressure guage at a large garage. I immediately tested the tyres as they were cool, and the new guage showed they were 0.8 BAR out on the low side, which meant the tyres were overheating and starting to move around - a far from ideal situation. When I got back to the UK, I bought a new pump as well, and the digital guage on that agrees with the guage I bought in Austria.

10 hours ago, jong123 said:

When fully loaded with roof box caravan and luggage I have always followed the recommendation to increase the rear pressures by 4 psi and have never had any problems, low pressures are more likely to cause a blow out.

 

Increase by 4psi???!!!

 

It's more like 70-90 kpa increase on my fuel flap info. I go from 220-310kps which equates to 13psi increase!

 

I'd suggest you have seriously under inflated tyres?

I should have made it clearer, 4PS above the maximum quoted on the fuel filler flap, is what was meant by my post, do you think I would countenance under infatuation with all the problems that would bring.

 I usually pump them up to just under 3bar for our purpose. That is all our fishing and caravan stuff inside and pulling 1330 klg which is 75 klg on the tow bar. Have looked at treads some  times  and there  is equal wear across the tread

Thanks all for the suggestions, we leave on Monday and hopefully won't be washed away!! I'll follow what is says inside of the filler cap and monitor them as we travel, I also take a gauge with me as well as you never know what happens.

38 all round 24/7/365 works for me. tarmac, dirt, loaded, unloaded

On 13 August 2018 at 05:18, brad1.8T said:

38 all round 24/7/365 works for me. tarmac, dirt, loaded, unloaded

 

That must rattle the teeth out your head at those pressures ...it be like driving on a solid rubber tyre .... I've 225/45/17 and I find even 33/34 on the front and 34/35 quite firm but anything less seems to soft 

5 hours ago, labman1001 said:

 

That must rattle the teeth out your head at those pressures ...it be like driving on a solid rubber tyre .... I've 225/45/17 and I find even 33/34 on the front and 34/35 quite firm but anything less seems to soft 

Not really.

It's 225/40r18 with Eibach springs, Koni Sports dampers, Audi S3 console bushes and alloy lower control arms and the combo isn't too bad.  I've had a lot of "stiff"  setups in the past and have generally run fairly high pressures, so it's what I like.  I concede a lot of people wouldn't.

I will also say it's a lovely setup for motorways and general running around the outer suburbs but having recently moved to 5km from the Sydney CBD in a very old suburb with roads designed for horse and carts, I'll probably drop back to a 235/45r17 setup if some suitable rims come up.

On the 195 section 15 wheels on the Octavia, I am running 2.1 BAR front and rear with one or two people. If I had it loaded then it would be 2.3 BAR. On the Alfa GT (225/40/18) I am running 2.6 BAR front and 2.5 BAR rear.

I have Ring tyre inflater with LCD gauge. Comparing the pressure with a dedicated Draper pressure gauge the LCD Ring gauge records 4psi less which fully loaded could cause problems.

I've 3 or 4 gauges and all agree with the gauge on my Ring Comressor to within 1psi... I don't have an old fashioned pencil gauge though