Forum Discussion

TNrob's avatar
TNrob
Explorer
Jun 02, 2016

2016 Ram 2500 daily tire pressure too high, but...

Recommended tire pressure is 80 psi rear and tire wear is really center biased. I lowered it to 70 and the TPMS went off. I raised it back to 75 and the TPMS let me get away with it, wear was still to much to the center. I decided to just tolerate the low tire light and lowered them to 70. This time the TPMS allowed it.

Now I wonder if I can ease it back a couple of pound per week and trick it down to 65.

The tire wear was so bad the new tire nubs were still there and the outside 3/4 to an inch of tire was not discolored after over 1000 miles.

10 Replies

  • Doing away with the light load button makes no sense. My 3500 Ram seems to be a monitor only since the senders would not work on my aftermarket rims and I only get a message at startup saying to service the TPMS. My new Honda has a different system that uses no sender in the wheels. It actually compares the rotation rate of each wheel and compares to the others. If one is off by a fixed amount it turns the warning light on. If you change rims, tire size or anything else you can have it relearn the new setup. Might be the future of TPMS.
  • rhagfo's avatar
    rhagfo
    Explorer III
    TNrob wrote:
    Nope. They came back and said the effort failed.


    The whole thing with TPS and trucks where the load change so much is just crazy!!

    So to keep the TPS happy you need to run your tires over-inflated for the load, then you need to deal with them trying to lock up under hard braking (yes, Anti-lock now activates) because at even 70 psi for a tire carrying half it's max load you have greatly reduced the effective traction patch.
  • It seems they can now fix it at the dealership. I called the one I bought from and was told $100. I called another and was told $50. I was on the phone to call Ram to complain when I thought to call the salesman who did the paperwork when I bought it. He talked with the dealership's deciders and the service department called me to schedule an appointment. Free.

    Sometimes it pays to squeak.

    I'm not a member at any Ram forums, if you are you might spread the word.
  • I run 55# Front and 45# Rear......daily driver

    I run 55# Front and 80# Rear when towing

    Excellent tire wear

    Either get TMPS reset or do away with it. Tires are too expensive to ruin
    New high tech stuff doesn't mean blindly follow it
  • Yeah, class 3 trucks don't have the tire nanny light, they just report actual pressure.
    2500s are subject to the light vehicle regs, hence the low tire pressure light
    Also of note, FCA updated their Witech software and now it is not an available option to lower the thresholds that kick the tire light on, on 2500s as it has been in the past.
    Unless you can find a dealer that has old software, it's not happening anymore, for now anyway.
    Sooooo stupid......
    Not sure how it's negligent to not tell the consumer their tire pressure is off, but it's perfectly fine making people run around with 80lbs in their tires on snow covered roads or ruining perfectly good tires on dry pavement all the while lowering braking ability and lateral grip just to keep the idiot light off??
    Either way, I'd air down the back tires, light or no light. Your tires and your spine will thank you!
    I've read that people are getting around it by taking the tpms sensors form the wheels and putting them in a pvc pipe rigged up as a pressure vessel, air up the pipe bomb to 80 psi and toss it behind the seat or in the tool box. Haven't seen it work in person though.
  • rhagfo's avatar
    rhagfo
    Explorer III
    TNrob wrote:
    Recommended tire pressure is 80 psi rear and tire wear is really center biased. I lowered it to 70 and the TPMS went off. I raised it back to 75 and the TPMS let me get away with it, wear was still to much to the center. I decided to just tolerate the low tire light and lowered them to 70. This time the TPMS allowed it.

    Now I wonder if I can ease it back a couple of pound per week and trick it down to 65.

    The tire wear was so bad the new tire nubs were still there and the outside 3/4 to an inch of tire was not discolored after over 1000 miles.


    What size tire and what is the weight rating, you likely have about 3,000# on the rear axle unloaded. I run between 45 and 50 psi empty. My tires are 265/75-16E @3,415# each.
    I have gone two winters in the PNW with this and never needed to add weight to the bed to keep from spinning the tires Michelin MS/2+, balanced wear.
  • Does the door sticker on your 2500 show a "Light load" tire pressure range? Looks like they did away with the "Light load tire pressure" button like my 2013 has, but if you have a light load pressure listed on your door sticker, try setting your rear tires to that, the TPMS may be unhappy because the pressure is between the loaded pressure and the light load pressure.

    The truck will ride much nicer, if I recall correctly it's 48 PSI on my 2013 Ram 2500 for the rear tires under light load conditions. My tires have 26000 miles on them now, and the wear is even.

    Only fun is when you rotate the tires, they have to change the pressure in all four tires, and you have to drive a bit for the TPMS to re-detect which tire is where.
  • There's a long discussion of this on cumminsforum.com and apparently the TPMS cannot be reset on the recent Ram 2500s so you just have to ignore the warning or cover it up when lowering the psi.


    I've got my rears down to 70 without trouble, some have got them down to 68psi. If it doesn't get cold outside (and lower the pressure further) we may be ok.

    Hoping that with all the trailering we do (~75% of truck usage), and that additional weight, the wear will not be as centred as you are seeing.
  • I would take it back to the dealer and ask them to reset the TPMS, if possible.
    Keep in mind that 80 PSI is probably for a load of maximum GAWR. When running empty, as you probably usually do, it is unnecessary and unsafe.
    If it is not possible to reset the TPMS, I, personally, would seriously consider removing it or covering the light.