"Softer tires run cooler" is an oversimplification of all the effects of heat on tires, you can certainly cause tires to overheat from underinflation just as you said...to simplify it a bit without oversimplifying, I should've said "tires on the softer side of their optimal pressure range build heat more slowly."
it's a complex topic, here's a good thread on it.
http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/showthread.php?23950-Understanding-tire-pressure-setup
Hmm... So it sounds like less pressure means less heat in the tread, but at the expense of more heat in the sidewalls if you start going too low.
This also means that on the street with some windy backroads around, you'd probably want a bit higher pressure to get the tires up to temp better. But less pressure for DD use (within the realm of what causes even wear) to keep wear down.
This begs the big question: how do we determine what pressure would cause the slowest wear when going on a road trip?
I have, in order of weight, an early NA Miata (2100#), a '62 Austin Healey Sprite (1300#) and an SCCA P2 sports racer (1020#)
The Miata has 205/50-15 Direzza Star Specs and I run about 24# cold. The Sprite has some awful ancient 165/70-13 Michelins and it generally gets about 20#. The race car has 20.0x7.5-13 and 22.0x9.0-13 Hoosier bias slicks and I shoot for 18F/19R hot, which is ~13 and ~14 cold.
Lower tire pressures can cause overheating. AKA, Firestone and Explorer.
iceracer wrote: Lower tire pressures can cause overheating. AKA, Firestone and Explorer.
In the sidewalls, yes. But within the realm of pressures high enough to keep the sidewalls happy, there's the concern of what range gives fairly even wear, and then the effects of pressure on how fast / how much the tread heats up, which seems to be the biggest ??? in here.
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