Tires.... Keep for awhile or get them off???

Hiking Hunter wrote:
abc40kids -

I think your new Mountaineer has the same wheels as my High Country. There is not a max air pressure stamped on the wheel, but there is a max load of 3580 lbs stamped on it. The max load correlates to the max pressure. That equates to approx 105 PSI for the max air pressure (3580/3750 = 105/110). So, I wouldn't run them at 110; your trailer load doesn't need that anyway. The max load at 105 PSI = approx 3400 lbs, plenty enough for your trailer.

That is absolutely incorrect and I'm not sure who would have given you that information. There is no direct correlation between the pressure rating and load capacity on the wheel itself, only the tire it is designed to hold.

There is this false perception that these wheels are engineered to specific load ranges or pressures, when in fact the alloy wheel composition is nearly identical across size, style and even brand. Load ranges are not even scientific on a wheel - there is no destructive testing performed on a wheel to determine it's load capacity (so much for the safety margin theory I hear discussed all the time). Load rating is nothing more than a specification to the wheel manufacturer. If they build a wheel a specific height and width with a specific lug spread and stud size - it gets the load rating. It is certainly not tested to that rating.

Ever wonder why the load ratings are such weird numbers? 3,750, 3,580, etc? Isn't it odd that no matter how odd the wheel ratings are (i.e. 3750@110 psi), there is always a tire that matches that exactly :). The wheels are rated to match the tires they are trying to market for, not the other way around.

Ask Tredit why they don't publish any pressures on the website anymore. I got quite enlightened when I went through a reporting process to the NHTSB about a manufacturer that arbitrarily changed wheel ratings when the tire manufacturers came out with new tires.