Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosseau
Can't find the article, but a BMW product manager based in Bavaria made that idiotic statement, and I for one was idiotic enough not to think it through. The editors were also idiotic for not questioning him further. It was quite a diatribe on "don't change from your OEM RFTs." And he specifically mentioned the car being "set up" for them, not just the "safety" factor of not getting stranded.
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If we get picky-technical for a moment, the BMW guy was right that the vehicle was "set up" for RFT, but the conclusion about not changing remains wrong. If you think of the wheel/tire assembly as a "vertical pendulum", the mass "swings" up and down over bumps, etc. The heavier the weight, the more strenuous the management task. The components around the hub/front suspension are designed to allow for the typically higher weight of an RFT versus non-RFT. So, in that sense, he was technically right that they went through all that trouble to design for that load. However, installing a lighter weight tire (non-RFT) just reduces the load and is not a problem at all.
Also, one must take into account some cultural issues when listening to folks from Munich. I recall the old story - perhaps true, perhaps not - in the early days when BMW received complaints about not having a tilt steering column, the supposed response from Bavaria was, "We spent all this time finding the perfect angle for a steering column and you want to change it?!?!?!?"
