Tire pressure / dually / TC
RAM 3500 dually that will soon have a TC on it. It's a question of what should the rear tire pressure be and I'm wondering what you run your dually at. The camper should be around 4-5k pounds. I'm ...
Forum Discussion
There are really three questions here:
1) What tire pressure does the manufacturers recommend?
2) What tire pressure will yield the longest life?
3) What tire pressure yields the best handling (or the most desirable handling)?
The answers may not be the same. On the rear of a dually, there being twice the contact patch, manufacturers recommendations may be pretty low. And above that inflation there may be a small reduction in life. On the other hand in my opinion the truck handles better (or more to my liking) with higher than the recommended pressure. Pressure affects tire stiffness and the ratio of front to rear tire stiffness affects handling.
Tires on all of the duallies I've owned have lasting a long time, longer really than their logical shelf life (sidewalls begin to crack before tread is at the limit). Therefore I inflate them for best handling rather than longest life. That usually puts the fronts at about 75 and the rears around 70. 10 psi or more above recommendations.
1) What tire pressure does the manufacturers recommend?
2) What tire pressure will yield the longest life?
3) What tire pressure yields the best handling (or the most desirable handling)?
The answers may not be the same. On the rear of a dually, there being twice the contact patch, manufacturers recommendations may be pretty low. And above that inflation there may be a small reduction in life. On the other hand in my opinion the truck handles better (or more to my liking) with higher than the recommended pressure. Pressure affects tire stiffness and the ratio of front to rear tire stiffness affects handling.
Tires on all of the duallies I've owned have lasting a long time, longer really than their logical shelf life (sidewalls begin to crack before tread is at the limit). Therefore I inflate them for best handling rather than longest life. That usually puts the fronts at about 75 and the rears around 70. 10 psi or more above recommendations.
