Yes, the type of tires you use affects gas mileage. Here’s what you need to know – Jalopnik

The impact of tires on car performance and efficiency is often underestimated. A significant amount of technology goes into tire production and a careful balance must be struck. While a vehicle’s bodywork deals with aerodynamic drag, tires deal with something called rolling resistance. The greater their rolling resistance, the harder an engine has to work to keep them moving. Because an internal combustion engine requires fuel to create energy, the effort required under the hood has a direct correlation to the miles per gallon you can get.

Greater rolling resistance requires you to increase the amount of rubber in contact with the ground. You can do this by installing wider tires or by lowering the air pressure of your existing tires. But why would you want to increase rolling resistance? Well, you wouldn’t, except that one of the benefits of a larger rubber footprint on the ground is improved traction. So you see the delicate balance that has to be achieved between rolling resistance and traction.

In one test conducted by The Fast Lane Truck, a Ram 1500 completed a 63-mile loop with a recommended tire pressure of 43 pounds per square inch and then one at 22 psi. The underinflated tires achieved about 2 mpg less.

While this may seem simple, several aspects of a tire require careful adjustment, such as a tire’s sipes, to properly handle surfaces such as snow. In the case of all-season tires, create as many different scenarios.

Those same tires on a paved surface noticeably reduce fuel consumption due to the extra effort required to keep them rolling. In a Ford F-150HD fuel efficiency test between an all-terrain (Dick Cepek Radial FC-II) and an all-season (Michelin LTX M/S2) tire setup, Motor trend found that those treading more aggressively got 2.2 mpg less while running – a 15% difference.

Additionally, knobby off-road tires are often much louder on asphalt than other types, with the deeper grooves trapping air (along with other things like rocks) as they roll. However, this is not the only possible cause of those extra noises: here’s how to tell the difference between tire noise and wheel bearing noise.

To illustrate this point, Scruf’s Garage did a comparison between stock Jeep Gladiator tires and larger 35-inch ones. Not only were the larger tires in this case more than 40 pounds heavier per tire than stock, but a highway test loop showed a big drop from 23 mpg with stock to just 15 mpg with the larger tires.

Sure, bigger meat on a truck can look cool. But you have to ask yourself: are your tires too big? And what does that mean for your transmission?