According to the hypermilers you may lose some fuel economy. How much depends on a few factors eg: are the newer tires a softer compound, &/or less air pressure (psi) and if driving style changes due to you driving more aggressively to use the extra rubber. Just from a physics standpoint, moving from a 195 to a 205 tire is wider, more contact patch, better grip, more friction & more drag. Usually this alone equals some mpg drop, probably a very small measureable amount though. Going wider doesn't always equal better performance. It does look good though.
going from 195 to 205 is just a mere 10 centimeters. that is a very small increase in contact patch to make your gas mileage consumption to go to the roof. it is not like you are going from 195 to 245 or 275 so you wont even notice the difference.
I don't recall saying going to the roof or anything like it. Like I mentioned, many different factors to be considered when moving to a different tire. Even if you used the exact same tire and just went up in width and measured, there would, however small, be a mpg drop, whether 0.25mpg or 0.5 mpg or anything like it would still exist. Hypermilers add all these variables (tire pressure, rolling resistance etc) up and use them to reach their goals.
Now whether one cares about such a small change in this case, that is another matter.
theoretically you will lose a tiny bit of mpg. more contact patch for more rolling resistance unless you get a superior tire than your 195s that has a lower rolling resistance and equal/less weight.
Thx everyone for your input, I traded a super Offroader for this because of two reasons, 1. Gas Milage/Price of Gas & 2. my Wife wouldn't drive the Jeep. I really know all about Tire Size/Type & Milage difference because it ate me up when I upgraded my Tires on my JK. You guys have all the knowledge with upgrades on the Rolla, & I just didn't know in this size car if the increase(which is very little) 195 to 205 would impact it enough to just stay with the 195's in the Assuarance Triple Tred. I'll go with the 205's...
Gas Hog below(It's gone):
I don't think that your contact patch will increase in size when you increase the width. Rather it gets wider side to side and shorter front to back. The contact patch is determined by the tire inflation pressure. If you inflate the tires to 32 PSI, you have one square inch of contact patch on the ground per 32 pounds of vehicle. Though with an off-roading background, you're probably aware of these things since different terrain requires different pressures. I'm just curious why others say changing the width will increase contact patch.
Gotta 09 LE with 195/65/15's, going to 205/60/15 GoodYear Assurance Triple Tred...will I see any drop in mpg or will it be a wash......thx
My wife has an '06 Highlander and I have '05 Corolla. Both vehicles came with Goodyear Integritys.
I replaced the Highlander tires with same size Goodyear Fortera Triple Treads which is the Truck/SUV version of the Assurance Triple Treads.
I replaced the Corolla tires with same size Assurance Triple Treads.
We've put about 20,000 miles on the Highlander & 10,000 on the Corolla since we installed the new tires. We lost about 1.5 mpg on both vehicles going from Integritys to Triple Treads. You may lose a tad more if you are going to a wider tire.
I'm just curious why others say changing the width will increase contact patch.
that is why in my earlier reply i said there will be no mpg change because the tires are just going from 195 to 205. that is just a mere 10 centimeters wherein if ever there is a change in mpg it would be so unnoticeable.
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