It should take about 500 miles for the new tires to break in. After another tank or so you might try the 40 psi. That may help your gas mileage. The Energy S8 tires rode good at the higher pressure. I wonder if the Primacys would do the same. I would think so, both tires are Touring and may have similar sidewalls.

You should see a mpg increase to 40 or slightly over 40 using these new Primacy tires over the Bridgestones.

 

I'm traveling in CA this week (from AZ) approaching 1000 miles so far. These Primacy tires are great. They feel much softer and sticker to the road. Much more confidence in lateral grip and breaking. They are certainly quieter than the Energy (contrary to my initial impression), and what sound they do make is a bit lower pitched. The very slightly smaller diameter makes the speedo more accurate (was reading about 3 miles per hour over at 65, now about 1 over). I'll report milage for the whole trip, but it seems about normal for the kinds of driving I've been doing.

-- Alan

 

What tire pressure are you using with these tires?

Thanks in advance. I need to make a purchase this summer. We have a long trip planned and I am not sure if we should change before the trip. I am interested in following your progress.

Bill

 

Got back last night; over 1500 miles through CA. Just over half the trip with AC on. Three people an luggage. Milage unimpressive, probably around 36-37, based on computer. Most travel well over 70 MPH and lots of hills. Kept tires at 40 PSI. Handling was great with very confident feel in all respects. I can't tell if they are quieter, or just lower frequency and maybe a bit louder than the Energy's; extremely quiet tires in any case. I'll report exact milage after a fill up later today.

-- Alan

 

Final milage for entire trip for 1956 miles and 54.5 gallons came to 35.9 MPG. I'm thinking I lost a couple MPGs for all the AC use, and another couple for the high speed through the steep and long hills. I would have expected around 37-38 for the Energy tires under the same driving profile, but I have no very similar trip to compare to.

Sometime next fall, once I can take a tank-long trip without the AC out of the mountains, I will try for a hyper-milage run and then I will have a pretty good comparison to the Energy's. For now, it would not be unreasonable to expect about 1 MPG loss for the Primacy over the Energy.

The Energy was only the second OEM tire I have been happy with, so switching to the Primacy was not easy for me. However, given the noticeably more aggressive grip on the road of the Pimacy's, and given the greater expected tread life for virtually the same price, I am very happy with them and can happily recommend the Primacy tires to all TCH owners (with the caveat of no snow/ice experience or expectations).

After I get some heavy rain experience, I will holler back if very wet road handling is not up to par with the Energy, but I expect it will be better (and the Energy was very good wet and dry).

-- Alan

 

June trip report (including March data).

By way of background, I started this thread back in April in search of quieter tires than my OEM Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires. After reviewing the many helpful suggestions, I ended up with Michelin MXV4 S8 tires.

Below is before and after mileage data for two nearly identical 400 mile roundtrips from the San Francisco East Bay to Lake Tahoe, NV. The outboad triip is mostly uphill (over Donner Pass).

The MPG seems better on the new Michelin tires. Also, the Michelin tires are quieter.

The MPG values are from the Camry's trip computer, but not confirmed. Prior tests have indicated that the computer is reasonably accurate.


March trip (on Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires)
-----------------------------------------------------
outbound mpg: 35.5 return mpg (downhill): 44.9
tire pressure: unknown (set by dealer)
outside temp: cool (Note 2)
tire noise: moderate

June trip (on Michelin MXV4 S8 tires)
----------------------------------------------------
outbound mpg: 38.2 return mpg (downhill): 50.5
tire pressure: 35 psi (Note 1)
outside temp: hot (90+ F) (Note 2)
tire noise: low (but audible)


Notes

1. Without knowing the tire pressure on the March trip, it's hard to compare the mpg values.

2. The air conditioner was on during both trips (using the auto-temp feature). The air conditioner definitely ran more during the June trip.

 

Just got back from a trip with 3 adults through SW Colorado, up and down mountains, bouncing under 7000 ft to over 10,000 ft many times. About 1200 miles total. Phoenix to Silverton was a climb from 1100 ft to 9000 ft, and got 39.9 MPG (hand calculation). Return tank saw 47.1 MPG. Speeds averaged about 73 MPH on the freeway, and over 60 elsewhere (lots of 55 MPH roads).

The Primacy's are getting me better milage than the Energy's, and ride MUCH better with respect to handling. Hard mountain curves at 15-20 MPH over the marked limits did not even get a squeal (not once!). The Energy's never gave me that kind of confidence, as 15 MPH over on a sharp curb was always accompanied with a sense of tire scrub, if not squeals, so I didn't do much of that kind of driving with the Energy's. 10 MPH over had the same level of confidence with the Energy. Until this trip, I did not realize how far superior the handling of the Primacy's were over the Energy's.

-- Alan

 

Interesting thread on tires. Mine are at 25K miles and coming due for replacement soon (4/32"). What do you guys make of the fairly lousy reviews of the MXV4 Energy on tirerack? They are better than the OEM Bridgestone, but still fairly lousy.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ating=H#Survey

Versus tires like the General Altimax HP or Kuhmo KH16, both the Michelins and the Bridgestones are terrible in the surveys. The Altimax and the KH16 are also a lot less expensive (80-90 per tire).

My personal experience is that the MXV4's are horrible in the snow and only ok in the wet. They squeal like crazy in many dry parking lots at normal speeds. Several of the user comments on TireRack mirror my impressions closely.

Given my poor opinion of the MXV4 and their high price, I am tempted to try the alternatives. Has anyone gotten a fairly conclusive feel on what MPG losses with be leaving LRR tires?

 

I just purchased a new set of Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum tires after getting 44,000 on the original Michelins. The Kumho tires are much smoother and quieter. They are getting the same mpg at a much lower cost. They are v-rated and have a 600 rating compared to the 440 rating of the Michelins.












ecsta LX

 

This my be a silly question. What does the V rating measure? Mileage, resistance?

Thank you in advance!


Bill