tire pressure on tow vehicle
should I increase the rear tire pressure by 10 psi, on my truck's tires or leave at the suggested 35 psi that is shown on the sticker on the door jam?
Forum Discussion
gmw photos wrote:Briand wrote:
Lots of misinformation and confusing information here. If you want to get the most miles out of your tires, most even wear and carry the heaviest load, then inflate tires to the MAXIMUM that they specify on the side wall. I have never had a tire that did not state 2 pressures. Min and max.
I will respectfully disagree with most of that post.
See my earlier post about the P tires on my Nissan truck. And to add to that, the tires ( 80 psi rated, load range E, BF Goodrich LT ) on our F350 diesel dually are maintained at door sticker stated pressure ( 60 rear, 75 front ). The truck is used almost exclusively for towing two different trailers loaded to 13 to 14K pounds. Original tires went 50K miles, and were wearing perfectly even, still had half their original tread. Replaced due to age and beginning to suffer weatherchecking.
Point is, max sidewall pressure is often not needed nor desirable, in my opinion. Y'all's mileage, tires, experiences and opinions will likely vary.
According to manufactures, the only way to acheive the maximum load capacity is to inflate to maximum pressure per side wall. This is true for all tires including P rated. Difference on P rated tires is that they should always be inflated to 36 or 42 PSI depending on XL or not. Then to calculate the reduced load capacity of the tire, you need to do a calculation or look at a table. Neither of these are great ideas. 99.9% of P rated tires are kept at their max pressure.
The way to achieve the best wear and MAXIMUM load capacity of a tire to use the maximum pressure as stated on the side of the tire.
Frankly there is no arguing this point. It is fact.
If you reduce tire pressure, the tire will not be rated to its maximum load capacity and it will wear differently.
In order to determine exactly how much you should inflate your tire based on a certain weight load is a calculation that not many people can do. It is much easier to inflate them up to max as stated on the tire sidewall or other official tire manufacturer's documentation.
