General rule for tire pressure?
I know the best answer is going to be "take everything to scales and check the pressure charts"....but is there a general rule of thumb if this can't be done? Thanks
Forum Discussion
acritzer wrote:VintageRacer wrote:
The manufacturer of the vehicle or trailers maximum recommended pressure. The vehicle is on the door jamb sticker usually, often the trailer is on the data sticker with the VIN. In the absence of that information, the maximum pressure on the sidewall of the tire.
Brian
I understand that. Maybe I didn't ask clearly enough.
-Is it "generally" OK to run slightly under max pressure?
-If you're loaded light you should run "this much under max"
Etc. Simple guidelines that are good rules to follow.
I read a blurb somewhere that suggested not to inflate to max.
Maybe I don't understand guessing and pretending a rule of thumb for a set of equipment that I have no idea about is OK. If you don't know, you assume the maximum and set up for that. There is absolutely no downside to running the trailer tires at the sidewall maximum pressure, I've done that for thirty years. On my tow vehicle, if I don't know what the thing weighs I set to manufacturers recommended maximum (which is usually very close to the maximum sidewall pressure on the tire anyway, with my trucks). But to be honest I just about always know what it weighs, within a couple hundred pounds, and there is a free scale down the street from me if I want to double check. Once you do it the first time, you can use a little common sense and estimate pretty closely what you will weigh with different loads.
