Yeah, didn't quite sound convincing to me either, but it's also possible I didn't quite understand what he was trying to say when I asked about over-inflation and he responded by saying "but there's steel in there, it's all steel"...
There’s no shame in anyone’s game. No one has an obligation to be rockcrawling or overlanding. 90% of my driving is going to pick up my son or hauling bikes to the trail and just being able to throw the sunrider top down on the way to Food Lion justifies the truck imo. People see my truck at gas stations and ask if time preparing for the apocalypse. I tell them I’m preparing to go sit on the beach and drink beer.
Interesting, makes sense: IFS vs. solid axle, as others are pointing out here. I'm running Method bead grip wheels, which means technically I can air down lower than without. But up till now, since my off-roading is generally on easy stuff and not a whole lot of technical rock crawling, I've never needed to air down lower than, like 18-20 psi.
Re: Hollister, which was bone dry, this was my experience: everything was pretty tame. Which, admittedly, is generally what I'm satisfied with. Not doing a whole lot of technical rock crawling, just a whole bunch of dirt roads of varying degrees of crappiness.
I'm wondering how my Toyo Open Country AT/iii compares to the old KO2s in this sense. My sense is the E rating comes from a thick sidewall, but just a guess, really.
Agreed.
Yeah when I pushed the offset out 2.5 inches and added 2 inches to the tire width I added a 2-inch scrub radius. I am way out of factory spec so there is no real data like you guys are saying for my specific wheel and tire combo.Hey if it works for you and it’s within the capabilities of what you do with the truck then do your thing. Nobody is really going to judge you unless you’re handing out advice that is just flat wrong.
Poser
All points well taken. And let me reiterate: their approach seemed so far out of compliance with everything I had ever read, heard or experienced first hand regarding tire pressure that I couldn't help but doubt it. Which is why I brought thee issue to this forum, and why I'm glad I did, seeing the fruitful discussion it has prompted.Those guys are morons. It sounds like they’re extrapolating high load high pressure commercial tires down to lite duty trucks because they’re “big” tires. Dealerships do this all the time too and they’re idiots. They look at the sidewall and load rating which means jack shit on a lite duty truck. Even my bike tires, I ignore the sidewall and tune the PSI for my weight, riding profile, casing design and terrain.
Putting 50 psi on 35s on a Tacoma, I’m surprised isn’t exceeding the sidewall rating. I would say it’s dangerous. The high load tires on some military and industrial vehicles are totally different and designed to carry much higher pressures. The average fire truck weighs between 20 and 30 tons. Extrapolating this to passenger vehicles is the height of dangerous stupidity. In the FD we were trained to avoid facing these tires head on when fighting brake fires because the already higher pressures + additional heat can cause the steel belts to explode out from the tire. They’re completely different tires. When has anyone ever seen passenger vehicle tire chunks all over the interstate?
If you chalk test your own tires, and everyone should, you can see the contact patch. You’re never going to see something drastic like a little tiny contact patch in the middle. What you’ll see is the edges shrink or grow with higher or lower pressure. On my Gladiator, even with all the crap living on the truck, I run around 27-29 psi. I’ve always had very even wear. On oversized tires you ignore the vehicle placard and on any vehicle you always ignore the sidewall rating. There’s no real benefit to adding more pressure. It’s not like more is somehow better. If you’re carrying a load or have weight on the tongue, you may need more pressure than normal, but we’re talking a few PSI. I run 29-30 when towing and loaded.
There’s no school of thought that I’m aware of that calls for more pressure off road. I don’t even know if this is a thing in off road racing. The Humvee has a central inflation system to reduce pressure off road, not increase it. For years I didn’t air down because I didn’t have a reliable way to air back up. With my PowerTank, I now always air down on trails. The difference is amazing and it’s not even traction which does improve substantially with low pressure. Washboard roads will literally destroy your vehicle. It’s why most aftermarket suspension manufacturers moved away from heim joints for control arms and back to bushings. Anything you can do to reduce the transmission of shock into the vehicle is a good thing. I think about how much shock is transmitted into my enduro Mtb riding over rocks and roots. I have to replace bearing yearly. I can feel the shock in my body. Now add 4500lbs to that. Off roading wears out everything. Washboards disappear at <10psi. It’s so much better and you don’t have these violent stutters moving through the whole body of the truck. I can’t imagine airing up to 35-50 PSI and driving down a rutted out fire road. The truck would shake apart. The rear hard top would be loose. The rack system would be loose. Everyone would be miserable. Don’t do it.
I've been running my tires at 35psi for around town and on the highway and it has seemed to be the sweet spot for me. Off road, 18-20 always seems more or less in the ballpark, at least to my untrained sensibilities. Your benchmarks sound good ... but it's clearly time for me to do a chalk test, and then do a bit more experimenting off road.
Checked out that training course. Looks legit ... way beyond my current experience and capability level at this stage, for sure. But I'll definitely check out all the great video links they have on their website (including one on air pressure!)
I just removed a set of 35" Goodyear Ultraterrains with 90k miles on them and I only rotated them once.
