Quote:
Originally Posted by Cracker
In most cases that would be true - but if you’re driving a heavy duty truck (GMC 3500 Dually) that spends most of its’ life pretending to be a passenger car and then periodically gets loaded to the hilt, you’ll appreciate the find art of “selective tire inflation!” If I ran my dually at the max tire pressure, all the time, I wouldn’t have any fillings left in my teeth and I wouldn’t average over 65,000 miles on a set of tires. I also changed to a higher load rated tire on my Airstream - but I still held to the 55 psi inflation OEM recommendation and I made sure that the trailer was loaded accordingly. In 60 years of driving I’ve never had a blowout on any vehicle I was driving or towing. I attribute that to religiously monitoring my tires - and to a lot of luck with avoiding road trash.
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Exactly, the problem is, people seem to confuse the
recommended tire pressure for the
trailer (which is what I believe CW's post was referring to) with the
max pressure rating for the
tire. They are not the same thing, although in cases where the trailer manufacturer specs a tire whose load range is barely adequate for the trailer, they
may be the same number.
The tires that came on my F350 have a max inflation pressure of 80psi, but the recommended inflation pressure set by Ford (and shown on the vehicle sticker) is 65/55. Like you said, if I drive my truck around empty with 80psi in all 4 tires it would rattle my teeth, handle poorly and the tires would wear unevenly. When I'm pulling the fiver, and the truck is near capacity, I most definitely air the rears up to 80psi.
Our toy hauler came with Trailer King Load Range E tires, barely adequate for the weight of the trailer, so the tire's max rated pressure of 80psi (shown on the tire sidewall) is the same as the trailer manufacturers recommended pressure (as shown on the sticker on the trailer). I replaced the OEM tires with Load Range G Sailuns that have a max pressure of 110psi, but if I run them at that pressure the trailer rides like the tires are made of solid rock. CW's post "
NEVER use cold inflation pressures below vehicle manufacturer recommended cold inflation pressures for your OE tires" means I should never run the Sailuns lower than 80psi (NOT 110psi). I usually run them at 90, which still gives me extra headroom above the OEM tires, but is compliant enough not to beat my trailer to death. Ideally, I suppose, you would compare the
trailer's recommended pressure (as per the sticker), and the tire manufacturer's chart value for the actual load (based on the real weight of your trailer), and use the
higher of those 2 values as your minimum safe pressure.