Quote:
Originally Posted by Tireman9
It is one thing to need to add 5% to 10% of the pressure needed to "top-off" your tires. If however you have lost significant amount of air (20% or more ) and had been driving on the tire before discovering it there might be damage to the tire structure which could result in an explosive rupture when re-inflating.
This is especially true for steel body tires. A tire shop safety cage is the ONLY way a steel body tire should be inflated if the tire was ever run with low air. 
https://www.caba.biz/Portals/9/Zippe...ll%20Chart.pdf |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tireman9
When a tire loses 20% of the required pressure it is considered "Flat" by the tire industry and should NOT be driven on. While you might be able to travel down the road at a reduced speed you would most likely be doing permanent damage to the tire structure which may come back to bite you weeks or months later when the tire suffers a catastrophic failure.
How low a pressure obviously has an impact on how much damage is being done.
You also need to remember that the companion tire has to "pick-up" part of the load so you could be doing damage to that tire too.
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I get the point and passion, but are you only talking about trailer tires? I would just pump it up on the side of the road and drive it. I am pretty sure 90% (Dilbert estimate) of people would not replace the tire because it went "flat" at some odd percentage of full inflation. Which, BTW would only be 6 lbs low, on my Subaru by your 20% number (if this is all tires). If I did decide to replace it, I certainly wouldn't even replace it until I got back home. To me it sounds like an anti-lawsuit nanny state answer, versus a common sense recomendation.