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Air down for off road?

T

THBailey

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Mine is a 2016 Tradesman 3500 with a pop-up Four Wheel Camper (about 1600 lb's when loaded for the trip). We drive at freeway speed for several hundred miles, then go off road on rock and cobble strewn dirt road up the mountain, bouncing and jarring 10 miles in and 10 miles out. Then back to the freeway speed for the return home. My tires are Winston "All Terrain Open Range" LT275/70R18 125/122S Load range E, 47 in the front and 55 rear. I am finally thinking of airing down a bit. Never dropped air pressure before due to ignorance of the process and fearing damage to the tires, only to discover same at 85mph while homeward bound on hiway 50 in eastern Nevada. Sorry for such a general question, but any advice from folks with such knowledge would be most appreciated.IMG_0261.JPG
 
THBailey said:
Mine is a 2016 Tradesman 3500 with a pop-up Four Wheel Camper (about 1600 lb's when loaded for the trip). We drive at freeway speed for several hundred miles, then go off road on rock and cobble strewn dirt road up the mountain, bouncing and jarring 10 miles in and 10 miles out. Then back to the freeway speed for the return home. My tires are Winston "All Terrain Open Range" LT275/70R18 125/122S Load range E, 47 in the front and 55 rear. I am finally thinking of airing down a bit. Never dropped air pressure before due to ignorance of the process and fearing damage to the tires, only to discover same at 85mph while homeward bound on hiway 50 in eastern Nevada. Sorry for such a general question, but any advice from folks with such knowledge would be most appreciated
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Are you saying your run 47 front on the highway? That is underinflated for the load, as it's only enough air for ~5K lbs and that's what your front axle weighs without any cargo/passengers. The base weight is 4,800lbs plus cargo/passengers. 50 is the bare minimum you would want to run on the highway empty, and 60 will cover the FAWR thou many like 65 for the handling feel.

For offroad use I'll air my front tires down to 40-45. Any lower is too low for stock sized tires with the CTD weight. I'll drop to 25 rear, but with that camper I'd probably only go down to 35-40.

T143 said:
You stand a bigger chance of damaging your tyres by not airing down.
Going of the description you gave I would run 35/45 psi never forget your suspension starts with your tyre pressures.
You will need deflators and a compressor.
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Having tried 35 psi on the front of my CTD with OEM size tires I generally won't go that low unless it's for ice and the surface is smooth. There is extreme sidewall flex at 35 psi for me on stock sized tires.
 
Air down. You run bigger risk of getting a puncture with fully inflated tires as they won’t flex around sharp rocks. It will also make the ride much more comfortable over rocky roads. I’ll admit there’s times I don’t air down out of laziness, but if I’m going to be doing more than like 45 minutes on dirt I’ll do it.

You can deflate with the back of pressure gauge stick pushing the pin, or you can get a fancy deflator (ARB or Stauns) to make the process a bit quicker/easier.

A good compressor like ARB you can be inflated in about 20 minutes depending on the pressure you need to get up to.

Another option is CO2 inflator, but these have fallen out of favor with good compressors becoming more available. Problem with CO2 is the tank is big and heavy, and needs to be refilled (and once it’s empty you’re screwed)

I can’t comment on what pressure you should run with the camper; but with E load 315/70R17 on my power wagon (about 7500lbs) I run 45psi / 40psi F/R on the street and usually 25psi offroad.
 
AH64ID said:
Are you saying your run 47 front on the highway? That is underinflated for the load, as it's only enough air for ~5K lbs and that's what your front axle weighs without any cargo/passengers. The base weight is 4,800lbs plus cargo/passengers. 50 is the bare minimum you would want to run on the highway empty, and 60 will cover the FAWR thou many like 65 for the handling feel.

For offroad use I'll air my front tires down to 40-45. Any lower is too low for stock sized tires with the CTD weight. I'll drop to 25 rear, but with that camper I'd probably only go down to 35-40.



Having tried 35 psi on the front of my CTD with OEM size tires I generally won't go that low unless it's for ice and the surface is smooth. There is extreme sidewall flex at 35 psi for me on stock sized tires.
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I hear your concern I go as low as 10Psi if its really soft sand but its tricky and you need to be careful at that pressure its not for the faint hearted lol.
 
T143 said:
I hear your concern I go as low as 10Psi if its really soft sand but its tricky and you need to be careful at that pressure its not for the faint hearted lol.
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10 psi on the front axle of these diesel trucks??
 
I use these to deflate my tires. https://www.coyoteents.com/deflators/ They were the only ones I could ind that had such a wide range of pressures you could set them to and they are pretty accurate when you get them adjusted. Then I use a couple Ridgid battery powered inflators to air back up. With two of them I can air up to full towing pressures pretty quick and unloaded street pressure in no time.
 
jenninr said:
I use these to deflate my tires. https://www.coyoteents.com/deflators/ They were the only ones I could ind that had such a wide range of pressures you could set them to and they are pretty accurate when you get them adjusted. Then I use a couple Ridgid battery powered inflators to air back up. With two of them I can air up to full towing pressures pretty quick and unloaded street pressure in no time.
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Thanks for sharing. Very useful idea. I've been looking for something like this.
 
I disagree with the people saying air down.

You can air down a bit but it’s not gonna help much. Stock size tires on a heavy rig you want the load capability and the sidewall stability.

With your setup you can’t really air down enough to be worth the time and energy in my opinion. I would just set the tires to the lowest psi that supports your load and call that a happy medium.
 
Rockcrawlindude said:
With your setup you can’t really air down enough to be worth the time and energy in my opinion. I would just set the tires to the lowest psi that supports your load and call that a happy medium.
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Dad and I have the same trucks and he’s always slower to air down at elk camp and the difference in huge. It’s the first thing I do one unloaded.

Better traction, puncture resistance, ride, and tread life seems to do better on the nasty rocks.

You definitely can’t air down as much as with oversized tires and lighter rigs, I’d run my Toyota on 35’s at 7-10, but even 40 on the front of these trucks is a huge improvement and still too little air for much over 20-25 mph sustained.
 
AH64ID said:
Dad and I have the same trucks and he’s always slower to air down at elk camp and the difference in huge. It’s the first thing I do one unloaded.

Better traction, puncture resistance, ride, and tread life seems to do better on the nasty rocks.

You definitely can’t air down as much as with oversized tires and lighter rigs, I’d run my Toyota on 35’s at 7-10, but even 40 on the front of these trucks is a huge improvement and still too little air for much over 20-25 mph sustained.
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OP has a slide in camper traveling on gravel roads on tires I’ve never heard of already at a psi that’s below the load index. I stand behind my statement even if others disagree. Going from 47-40, as in your example, is a waste of time.
 
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Unloaded my rig has to be between 60-50 PSI front-back otherwise it's not much fun going down the road. I also have a ~3000lb slide-in camper and I definitely air up to factory settings when its loaded, even with airbags and Torklift StableLoads engaged.
 
Rockcrawlindude said:
OP has a slide in camper traveling on gravel roads on tires I’ve never heard of already at a psi that’s below the load index. I stand behind my statement even if others disagree. Going from 47-40, as in your example, is a waste of time.
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47-40 is more noticeable than you are eluding to, I use to run 45 and have since dropped to 40 and it’s noticeable. As you mentioned his 47 is underinflated for the load, so in reality it should be more like 60 down to 40.

20 miles round trip is on the edge of airing down, depending on the road conditions and how long he’ll be there. We’re 9 miles round trip from camp to the end of the road and I won’t do the trip with the pressure used to drive in.
 
All depends on the terrain you are "off roading" in.

Dune sand or deep loose dirt -- you'll have no choice but to drop some psi and will have MUCH more capability aired down into the teens or low low 20's.

Moderate rocks and cobble stone? I'd leave them around 35 or 40 and not worry about it.

But that's just me.
 
AH64ID said:
10 psi on the front axle of these diesel trucks??Only for the really tough stuff but very risky. I want the Method 305 HD rims for my truck but have to reconsider because they have launched their version of tyre bead lock on their new range of rims and that will be perfect and less risky for that bead to jump off.
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AH64ID said:
10 psi on the front axle of these diesel trucks??
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Only for real tough stuff and the risk is very high for the bead to pop off so experience absolutely needed.
 
gimmie11s said:
All depends on the terrain you are "off roading" in.

Dune sand or deep loose dirt -- you'll have no choice but to drop some psi and will have MUCH more capability aired down into the teens or low low 20's.

Moderate rocks and cobble stone? I'd leave them around 35 or 40 and not worry about it.

But that's just me.
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Pretty much it all depends on what you are doing and terrain. If your just on gravel roads and some light trails i wouldn't get out to air down till i was stuck.
 
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