tire pressure and blowouts
Last week before leaving on a trip I checked and adjusted all 8 tires. The truck calls for 75 rear, 70 front. It was a warmish day and I'm fiddleing with the DIC ( chev drivers information center) whe...
Forum Discussion
Dutch_12078 wrote:
Tires rarely blow out due to over pressure. All vehicle tires are designed to operate well above the maximum cold pressure shown on the sidewall. The far more common tire failure cause is under inflation.
This^
Just like tire/wheel ratings, gvw, how many slices of toast is advisable to put in your toaster, mfgs have a healthy factor of safety built into most every critical component on a vehicle, so they have some control over things they can't control that could kill you if they break.
My last half ton company truck,means using it pretty hard and couldn't convince my district manager why in the world I'd need a HD pickup for heavy civil construction ops.
So I did what any good performance oriented superintendent would do. I improvised.
Timbrens shimmed up hard to the axle tube almost. 60psi in the p rated rear tires, good trailer brake controller and now she was ready to tow/haul what I needed to!
The rear half of that truck got beat like a rented mule. Couldn't pop a tire to save my life...and it wasn't from a lack of trying.
That said, tire pressure specs are meant to be taken with a small amount of common sense and attention to detail. They're meant for in increase in pressure from "cold" to the increase due to altitude that day or heat generated from running down the road. Not meant for 80 psi at 30 below zero then transport to Death Valley in the summer to see how high it goes.
