Tire Pressure - true story

[Ray,IN]

While in high school, I worked at my Uncle's filling station doing the menial work, like washing cars, changing tires, pumping gas, etc.
One day an old woman (well, back then an old person was 60), anyway, she asked me to check air pressure in her '56 Cadillac tires. I began checking the first one, and she stopped me, saying in order to accurately measure air pressure I must jack-up the car so the tire was off the ground, otherwise the pressure would be wrong. I went and got my Uncle, who tried to explain the fallacy of that thinking. Nothing doing, she demanded I jack-up the car, so I did. I then checked the air again, which of course measured exactly the same psi. She left in a huff because both my Uncle and I were wrong according to what she had been told earlier by her neighbor.
From that day forward, I jacked up her car when checking air pressure because my Uncle said "whatever the customer wants, with reason, go ahead".

[jesilvas]

It usually seems to be the older folks who swear they are right in what they say because "they've been around." ?????

[Sweetbriar]

We're all guilty of something similar. Be our Father's advise, friends or relatives. Advise should always be accepted gratefully to maintain the relationship but with the information we now have at our finger tips one should at least attempt to verify if the accuracy and if the suggestion is the best course of action.

[jadatis]

Because this subject pup up once in a while I once did a test .

Measured the pressure of my front car tire ( because most weight on it.
Did 5 sessions of 3 mesurements and in an ambiënt tempereature of about 5 degr C/40 degr F after each other and when car had been standing still for 1.5 hour. used KG/cm2 to give it a sciencetific idea, but not important , only the difference is.
Did 3 measurements for every situation to cover some floating in reading.

began on the ground sit 1 and yacked up the tire from the ground and measured again 3 times is situation 2 and so on.
So situation 1, 3 and 5 on the ground with about 450kg/1000lbs weight on tire, and 2 and 4 off the ground so with exactly zerro kg/lbs on tire.
So enaugh difference in load to prove .


1. 3 mesurements on ground so 450 kg load on tire 2.14/2.14/2.16 kg/cm2

2. 3 measurements of the ground so zero weight on tire 2.11/2.11/2.11 kg/cm2
3. as situation 1 450 kg>>>>2.12/2.11/2.11 kg/cm2
4. as situation 2 2.14/2.08/2.07 kg/cm2
5. as situation 1 and 3 450kg 2.09/2.08/2.08 kg/cm2

The little loss of 0.08 kg/cm2 wich is a good 1 psi I blame on the little air that sometimes escaped when pushing this cheap device against the valve, and is even for sit 1 and 5 , both on the ground.

Do with it what you want but proves your point .
If the lady comes again ( as ghost) you can point to this test.

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

It usually seems to be the older folks who swear they are right in what they say because "they've been around." ?????

HEY! I resemble that.

[vsheetz]

Jacking up the car would change the tires altitude and thus the tire pressure. (-;

[dennis45]

Originally Posted by vsheetz

Jacking up the car would change the tires altitude and thus the tire pressure. (-;

Right, I'm sure that MUST be it.

[Oldkarphart]

You should have sold her on changing the Summer air to Winter air.

[Hikerdogs]

I had a similar situation back in the 1970's when I owned a couple Standard Oil service stations. An elderly couple in the neighborhood had a 1966 Chevy II Super Sport model complete with the 327 cu. in. engine and 4 speed transmission. It was grandpas pride and joy.

After he passed away grandma still remained a loyal customer, but each time she came in she asked to have the air pressure in the tires checked. After doing as asked and finding no problems several times I finally asked if she was having some issues. Here reply was that the tires were noisy.

I asked when the problem occurred. She said it usually happened when pulling away from a stop sign, but she had also heard the noise when trying to accelerate into traffic.

This time as she left the source of the noise was apparent. There was a cloud of smoke rolling off both the rear tires. It turned out she was a little hard of hearing. She'd had a problem with her previous car stalling when leaving the stop signs, so she gave this one a bit more pressure on the gas pedal before letting out the clutch.

[Dogpatch]

Brings a new meaning to the phrase " smoke em' if you got em'"! LOL

[TeJay]

There are many things we do/did in life that was the result of, "That's what we've always done." Not always based on new ideas or technology. In all my years of working in this field I NEVER heard that tire pressures might be or were different if you lifted the tire. That's a new one for me.

The one I always told my students to illustrate, Old wives tales is this one.

Why is there a lower or no bar on a girls bicycle?? The design of girls bikes was started back in the 1890's. Girls always wore skirts down to the ground when outside so it was more Lady like to slip onto the bike instead of throwing their leg over the bar. Why even today do we still stick to the idea of a girl riding a bike with a skirt?? Stupid if you ask me.

During the early time of bike designs (1890's) they also had side saddles for women. Designed that way for the exact same reason. When's the last time you saw a women on a horse using a side saddle??? NEVER!! Why has the bicycle idea persisted for 120 years but not the side saddle??? Who knows.

Please don't tell me that a women's frame is different from a mans and therefore the bike is different. All bikes can be designed to fit your frame but the bar position has nothing to do with frame fit. It's based on, "My BOY's not going to ride no da## girls bike." Believe me I've heard them.

TeJay

[Ray,IN]

Hey TeJay, both our folding bicycles are made like a "girls" bike. I like the design, much easier to get on/off, especially for an old man with worn-out hips.

[Dogpatch]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

Hey TeJay, both our folding bicycles are made like a "girls" bike. I like the design, much easier to get on/off, especially for an old man with worn-out hips.

I probably would have embellished it a bit and said something like:

"I need the drop bar so I can clear it with my junk"