Airing down?
Based on my Compressor Recommendation thread, I now have a nice ViAir 450P compressor to air back up. So now it's time to start thinking about airing down. I'm use to airing down my jeep to 15psi w...
Forum Discussion
One thing people should take note of from this thread is the wide variety of pressures. The appropriate pressure will vary (sometimes greatly) depending on the terrain, load and what tire is involved. For instance the stock tires on my rig needed to be aired down more then my current tires which are taller/wider and thus provide more flotation when traversing similar terrain.
Whenever traveling off the pavement one should ALWAYS bring some means of refilling tires to street pressures. The quickest way to ruin a tire is to have lowered pressure for sand and then have to drive for an extended period on pavement or high speed to reach a means of re-inflating them.
As long as a re-inflation means is present you should never be afraid to lower pressure to suit the terrain. It will prevent unnecessarily beating up the truck/camper/occupants and can make self recovery possible instead of calling for a tow (if one is even available).
The picture is the result of hitting some unexpected soft sand while still aired up. After digging out in front of the tires and dropping the pressure I was able to easily drive out of this and continue on for miles over equally soft terrain.
Whenever traveling off the pavement one should ALWAYS bring some means of refilling tires to street pressures. The quickest way to ruin a tire is to have lowered pressure for sand and then have to drive for an extended period on pavement or high speed to reach a means of re-inflating them.
As long as a re-inflation means is present you should never be afraid to lower pressure to suit the terrain. It will prevent unnecessarily beating up the truck/camper/occupants and can make self recovery possible instead of calling for a tow (if one is even available).
The picture is the result of hitting some unexpected soft sand while still aired up. After digging out in front of the tires and dropping the pressure I was able to easily drive out of this and continue on for miles over equally soft terrain.
