I have bitten the bullet and invested in a shiny new set of boots for the 5 and went for T1Rs as I found a reasonable drive in/drive out deal locally. Tyres are in the standard fitment 205/45 17 and I have inflated them to 29psi (deflated to be pedantic as the tyre fitter had them between 32 and 37) as per the OE Michellins.
My question is this, having read that the Toyos have soft sidewalls and squirm about a bit, does the combined wisdom of the forum, particularly those running the same car/tyre/size combo suggest sticking with the pressure stated in the handbook or does experience recommend a change ?
I’ve never heard any of my tyres squeal, passengers … yes.
You should know how you want the car to feel and suit your driving and set it up accordingly. My OEM Toyos were 29f/32r and fine at those settings. The GSD 3’s that followed were really soft walled and I stuck another 6# in them or they felt as if they would roll off the rims! Used Dunlops, Continentals & Falkens since, all back at the stock 29f/32r. (205/40/17 MK2.5 Mazdaspeed).
There is a small roundabout in Richmond North Yorkshire that can make 'em squeal at 10mph.if the tyres are too highly inflated. A bit like in multi-story car parks or even some B&Q car parks.
Similar to my experience - the GSD3s seem very soft and flexible, which makes them very “progressive” (not in the trendy political sense of veering to the left!) so that I can have loads of fun hurling the car round roundabouts with lots of sqealing and scubbing and no feeling that the car will suddenly let go. I never felt confident enough to do that with the original Yokohama Advans - they gripped fine - I rarely had the courage to get near their limits - but the Advans were quite stiff and hard so that I felt that I probably would not get much warning before they let go if I pushed them too far. However I doubt if the Eagles will last anywhere as near as long as the Advans, becasue of their softness and my enjoyment of exploiting it!
I, too, may experiment with higher pressures in the Eagles. Higher presures may reduce the flexing and the squealing when cornering very hard, as well as prevent the shoulders wearing away long before the centre does, through over-enthusiastic cornering.
Tyre pressures - this is so subjective, especially “feel” that you’re better off adjusting the pressures and then having a test drive. Try lowering them 3psi below nominal, then raising them 3psi above nominal. If one “feels” better than the other you know which way to go, if they don’t feel different to you then leave them at the nominal pressure in the handbook.
Off topic but:
Tyre squeal. As some of you know I do a lot of track based drifting, and as such get through a lot of tyres. I’ve found that on a given surface harder compound rubber squeals significantly louder than soft rubber, and that the tyre pressure doesn’t make much difference to the volume of the squeal (although tyre pressure can change grip dramatically so you might get to the squealing part of the grip envelope at lower speeds).
I based my assertion that tyre squeal was more prevalant when tyre pressures were too low on the experience of driving everyday “cooking” cars (dull, poorly-maintained company saloon cars) where often the first indication that the tyre pressure on any particular wheel was low (usually miles too low) was tyre squealing when cornering at quite normal, modest speeds.