Tire placard

Tires don’t state what psi to run. They state max capacity at max psi.

They make weight/inflation charts for a reason.

Sagebrush wrote:
Most RV's will have the tire size and recommended psi on the VIN sticker or close to it. But its better to use a load chart.

One safe way of choosing an air pressure is to reference a load chart for your tire size and choose the pressure that covers your GVWR. Even better is to know your actual axle weights and adjust using a load chart.

Most stickers on trailers I've seen just use the tires max pressure rating and the centers wear out first if you do enough miles.

Motorhomes usually have an actual calculated number based on the tire size and GVWR just like your car or truck does.

I'm using E rated ST tires instead of the usual D rated my trailer came with. Thats what most shops around here are stocking. So, I'm not running 80 psi in mine like the sidewall max says. I rather use a load chart!

In your case, using a chart is the correct way to go since LR E has a much higher weight rating when tire is inflated to max sidewall pressure. And yes, because of that you would most likely wear out the center of the tire if you ran sidewall pressure.

The downside to moving up a load range is you now have more rolling resistance, more tire weight and the actual capacity may not be the same across all tire brands for a given tire pressure and not many tire manufacturers publish load inflation charts making that a pretty sketchy proposition.

Good tire shops will order in the correct tire you need rather than slapping anything they have in stock just to get you out the door.

Most RV's will have the tire size and recommended psi on the VIN sticker or close to it. But its better to use a load chart.

One safe way of choosing an air pressure is to reference a load chart for your tire size and choose the pressure that covers your GVWR. Even better is to know your actual axle weights and adjust using a load chart.

Most stickers on trailers I've seen just use the tires max pressure rating and the centers wear out first if you do enough miles.

Motorhomes usually have an actual calculated number based on the tire size and GVWR just like your car or truck does.

I'm using E rated ST tires instead of the usual D rated my trailer came with. Thats what most shops around here are stocking. So, I'm not running 80 psi in mine like the sidewall max says. I rather use a load chart!

swimmer_spe wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

swimmer_spe wrote:
I feel silly asking this, but i don't know where the sticker is that says what my 1999 Rockwood Ultralight 24' tire pressure is. Where would the sticker be located?

Surely you don't still have the original tires on it??

Nope, they are definitely not that old.

Then what difference would the original sticker make?

swimmer_spe wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

swimmer_spe wrote:
I feel silly asking this, but i don't know where the sticker is that says what my 1999 Rockwood Ultralight 24' tire pressure is. Where would the sticker be located?

I will wager that your RV states to fill to the tires MAX sidewall listed. Why, because that's how they determine carrying capacity.

Now if you want to use the brain that God gave you go to the scales fully loaded. Now take that axle weight and divide by two. Compare that to the weight/inflation chart for your tire. Let's say the chart says 70Psi simply add 5 psi to that number. By doing this it will give the best ride, best stopping and best tread wear.

But then you can do like many others and simply air to the MAX on the sidewall or whatever the RV states.

This brain of mine that was not built by any god cannot even find the chart for weight loading. Otherwise, I'd do that.

HERE is a tire load and inflation chart for most popular ST trailer tire sizes.

The caveat with using these charts instead of the max sidewall inflation is you can really mess up and cause blowouts by underinflating the tire for the loads. You cannot just simply assume what weight load is actually on the tires and the weight is not evenly distributed across all tires. You must weigh the trailer when fully loaded, then use the load/inflation chart to set the pressures.

Understand that using any pressure below the sidewall max pressure rating results in reduction of the tires weight rating. The tire cannot handle the max weight rating if you choose a lower pressure than the max sidewall pressure.

One of the main reasons for tire blowouts is from exceeding weight rating whether that comes from simply too much weight or running underinflated for the load.

Some choose to play with inflation charts and some don't, I don't bother and inflate to the max sidewall pressure, gives me much more tire capacity which increases safety margin on the tires.

So far 15 yrs towing TTs I have not blown a tire including quite a few blackballed tire brands by forum members and even lots of China import brands that folks here complain about just by using the sidewall pressure.

Folks that choose to run lower pressures often do that to smooth the ride of the trailer, no one should be riding in the trailer so who cares if the trailer has a smooth ride.

What size and load range are your tires? Brand also but that really does not matter.

Cummins12V98 wrote:

swimmer_spe wrote:
I feel silly asking this, but i don't know where the sticker is that says what my 1999 Rockwood Ultralight 24' tire pressure is. Where would the sticker be located?

I will wager that your RV states to fill to the tires MAX sidewall listed. Why, because that's how they determine carrying capacity.

Now if you want to use the brain that God gave you go to the scales fully loaded. Now take that axle weight and divide by two. Compare that to the weight/inflation chart for your tire. Let's say the chart says 70Psi simply add 5 psi to that number. By doing this it will give the best ride, best stopping and best tread wear.

But then you can do like many others and simply air to the MAX on the sidewall or whatever the RV states.

This brain of mine that was not built by any god cannot even find the chart for weight loading. Otherwise, I'd do that.

Gdetrailer wrote:

wing_zealot wrote:
It won’t have one, They weren’t required in 1999.

Sort of, the yellow tire sticker did not exist before 2005, but before that sticker there was a VIN sticker which had not only the VIN but other things like weights, tire sizes and might have even had recommended pressure for the tire sizes.. Mine has been gone before I bought my TT but I have seen them before.

However, with trailers unlike automobile tires, the tire size and capacity is often right on the edge of not enough capacity. Because of that, the general rule is to inflate trailer tires to the max sidewall pressure. That pressure gives the tires the absolute maximum weight carrying capacity rating for the load range.

The VIN sticker was typically applied on the drivers side of the trailer on the siding near the front of the trailer box. Sometimes applied on the front driver side of the trailer box and sometimes applied to the drivers side of the trailer tongue..

Notice a theme?

If yours is still there it will be on the drivers side of the trailer somewhere near the front..

But, if all else fails, read the tire sidewall and air up to the max sidewall pressure (cold temp of course). Do not adjust pressure when hot (after driven for more than a couple of miles).

I will start looking.

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

swimmer_spe wrote:
I feel silly asking this, but i don't know where the sticker is that says what my 1999 Rockwood Ultralight 24' tire pressure is. Where would the sticker be located?

Surely you don't still have the original tires on it??

Nope, they are definitely not that old.

swimmer_spe wrote:
I feel silly asking this, but i don't know where the sticker is that says what my 1999 Rockwood Ultralight 24' tire pressure is. Where would the sticker be located?

I will wager that your RV states to fill to the tires MAX sidewall listed. Why, because that's how they determine carrying capacity.

Now if you want to use the brain that God gave you go to the scales fully loaded. Now take that axle weight and divide by two. Compare that to the weight/inflation chart for your tire. Let's say the chart says 70Psi simply add 5 psi to that number. By doing this it will give the best ride, best stopping and best tread wear.

But then you can do like many others and simply air to the MAX on the sidewall or whatever the RV states.