Tow vehicle tire pressure

[jmart273]

What air pressure are you guys running on your truck tires? My truck is relatively new and never thought about it until a buddy mentioned it. I got it straight from the dealer and never messed with it. Current pressures are 60 psi front and 75 rear. That seems high to be riding around unloaded so I did some digging.

According to a scale, my truck weighs about 8700# with me in it and a full tank of gas.

Thats 5150# on front (or 2575# per tire) and 3550# on rear (or 1775# per tire).

According to the inflation table for my tire size, I should be riding at 50 in the front and 35 in the rear. 35 seems crazy low. My thought is what if I ride around at 50 on all 4 tires, then before I go pickup my RV, I press up the back tires to 65.

I don't want to wear out my tires due to over inflation. Thoughts?

[notanlines]

We simply leave ours on Ford's recommended pressures. I would be very, very wary about leaving your pressures as low as you mentioned. Low pressure, not high pressure would be more of a problem for premature wearing. We keep ours on 60 front and 70 rear. Michelins would have made 80K easily except for an odd wear pattern on one tire so bought new before our west coast swing last fall.

[bsmith0404]

I watch the wear pattern on my tires very closely. Typically you can see the line where the tire contact patch is. My goal is to have an even contact patch across the tire. I also use a depth gauge and check the tire wear about every 1,000 miles. For my truck, I run 70 on the front, 60 on the rear when empty and 80 when towing. After 35,000 on the current set, I have less than 1/32 difference in tread depth across all 6 tires.

[Javi]

It will depend on what tires are on your truck... but in general you should follow the little yellow sticker on the door post... The Ford engineers are pretty smart about such things...

[cardinal96ss]

I inflate the tires to the pressures listed on the door tag. Never lower. Tire wear is as expected except for a misalignment issue about 10K miles back on one tire.
bsmith0404- Did I read your post correctly, that you inflate the rear dually tires to 80 PSI when towing?

[concours]

The recommended on mine is 60 and 75 which is what I use when towing but for every day use I drop the rears to 65 that improves the ride and keeps the contact patch very even. I never carry weight in the truck when not towing.

[66joej]

I guess I'm old school. Had a good friend who was in the tire business for over 50 years. His advice was inflate to door sticker when empty and max as per tire pressure rating on the sidewall when towing. Have done this for the last 40 or so years and it does make a difference on tire life. As a side note I have never blown a tire. But to each his/her own.

[Tbos]

What does the door sticker say for your tire pressures. Without fail I have always found tires wear faster at the pressures suggested by the auto manufacturers. They after adjust pressures for a better ride. My 1/2 ton was supposed to run at 35lbs on the OEM P series tires. I ran them at max 50 and they looked New when I switched to LT tires at 25k. The LTs I run at 80 back and 65 front when towing and 60 all the way around when not towing. I have 7K on the LTs and have not seen any abnormal wear.


2016 Passport GT 2810BHS, 2014 Silverado 1500 LT in Deep Forest Green

[sourdough]

My Ram door sticker says 80 (max) rear and 65 front. This is what I run when towing. When unloaded I drop the rear to 65. My tires look great at 43k.

[jamesmc321]

changed my P tires to LT and run them between 40-45 (all around) and never change for towing

[slow]

My F250 sticker says 65 front and rear which per the tire pressure charts exceeds what is required at max payload. Also at 65 psi, the truck wanders and has a harsh ride.

Like others, I dropped the front and rear pressures until I was happy with the contact patch using the chalk test unloaded and loaded. I now run unloaded and loaded with TT at 55 front and 60 rear. Still have over 40% of margin on each TV tire when in tow.

I suspect that the door sticker on trucks with LT tires state tire pressures at max payload whereas those without LT tires do not.

[Outback 325BH]

I run my F250 at max pressure, as listed on the tires... and don't worry about it. Never know when I will hitch-up or throw a load in the bed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[slow]

The key is what tire size you have on your TV and their capacity at max or recommended pressure.



For my LTX LT275/70R18 LRE I have a total 4 tire capacity of 14, 560 lbs at 80 psi and 12,780 lbs at the recommended 65 psi. Both well in excess of my 9,900 GVWR. Loaded with gear and TT, I am at 8,180 lbs at the TV.



It is best to do the math for your specific circumstance and tires. A good resource is the Michelin Truck Tire Data Book that you can Google.

[jmart273]

Originally Posted by Tbos

What does the door sticker say for your tire pressures. Without fail I have always found tires wear faster at the pressures suggested by the auto manufacturers. They after adjust pressures for a better ride. My 1/2 ton was supposed to run at 35lbs on the OEM P series tires. I ran them at max 50 and they looked New when I switched to LT tires at 25k. The LTs I run at 80 back and 65 front when towing and 60 all the way around when not towing. I have 7K on the LTs and have not seen any abnormal wear.


2016 Passport GT 2810BHS, 2014 Silverado 1500 LT in Deep Forest Green

65 Front 80 rear. Max pressure on each tire is 80. It just seems I don't need 80 psi in the back if I have no load there. Plus the tires would wear in the center faster. I'm running LT275/65R20E

[jmart273]

Originally Posted by slow

The key is what tire size you have on your TV and their capacity at max or recommended pressure.



For my LTX LT275/70R18 LRE I have a total 4 tire capacity of 14, 560 lbs at 80 psi and 12,780 lbs at the recommended 65 psi. Both well in excess of my 9,900 GVWR. Loaded with gear and TT, I am at 8,180 lbs at the TV.



It is best to do the math for your specific circumstance and tires. A good resource is the Michelin Truck Tire Data Book that you can Google.

For some reason Michelin doesn't post data on my size tires. Nor can I find any inflation guide from Michelin. Maybe they don't think people with these size tires will pay any attention to tire pressure? LT275/65R20E

[jmart273]

Originally Posted by slow

My F250 sticker says 65 front and rear which per the tire pressure charts exceeds what is required at max payload. Also at 65 psi, the truck wanders and has a harsh ride.

Like others, I dropped the front and rear pressures until I was happy with the contact patch using the chalk test unloaded and unloaded. I now run unloaded and loaded with TT at 55 front and 60 rear. Still have over 40% of margin on each TV tire when in tow.

I suspect that the door sticker on trucks with LT tires state tire pressures at max payload whereas those without LT tires do not.

I suspect the same. My door stick says 65 front, 80 rear for GVWR of 11,500lbs. If I'm running around at 8700lbs, why would I need my tires pressed that high?

[Ken / Claudia]

Here's my take 1st my opinion than my real use. This only applies to pickups since they are made to carry a heavy load or tow and also drive empty. The companies put TPMS in them and print the max psi of the tire is what is to be used. If the TPMS could be adjusted they would work great on trucks but the factory TPMS as I was told are not adjustable. So, me and others drive around a empty F250 with 80 psi. There is no reason to run 80psi in a empty truck. Except they say to. The tires likely do not have full thread contact with the road. To get the best/shortest distance braking the whole tire width should be in contact with the road. The truck will bounce more and over steer on a fast hard curve with over inflated tires.
On my personal truck I run psi on a empty load at 50 to 60 and that works great. Loaded near max I put max psi in rear tires 80psi. Putting max 80psi in front floats the steering. 65 works great. I took the time to actually try different psi to get the best handling of the truck and it also is a little softer ride when empty.
When we finally got police trucks with TPMS. They had all tires at 80psi and that was flat out unsafe as a police vehicle. I aired them down so the truck would stay on the road on a hard fast turn and fast speeds on a gravel road. All the guys( about 100) did so also to avoid crashing. We had to get approval to do so and the TPMS light was always on in the dash. Ford would not turn it off. Now I understand who on here drives there trucks code 3 But, I want full control of any vehicle I drive anytime . You cannot get that with under inflation or over inflation.

[Lic0rice]

Why would one run the tire pressure on the yellow sticker? The manufacturer had absolutely no idea what tires you would be running. They often don't even know what tire is on your truck when it was sent to the dealer.

I go by what the tire manufacturer recommends....not GM, Dodge, Ford, etc.

[RLM5150]

The sticker inside the door with the tire pressures are no longer set by engineers, but rather lawyers. The inflation recommendation is excessive on HD trucks and will result in a rough ride and excessive tire wear. I'm not talking about the 1/2 ton trucks, just the HD trucks.

To go with what that sticker says is correct for most passenger vehicles.

Look at the load chart for the tires you have (I have Firestone on my RAM 2500) You will find that the weight rating for 80PSI is far greater than the truck or axle is rated for.

Firestone ratings for my tire are:
2680 @50
2840 @55
3020 @60
3360 @70
3640 @80

I use a WDH and when connected, fully load my truck is 9000lb and rear axle weighs 4760. Without the WDH the rear is 5240. That is 2620 per tire. So fully loaded I could get by with 50PSI in the rear, less in the front. I have been running 60 front and rear and that gives me a huge safety margin and considerably less wear than all the new 2500's running 80PSI. The truck rides much smoother unloaded too.

Does that mean everyone can run those pressures? NO. It does mean you should look at the tire load ratings from the manufacturer.

The inflation on the sticker is 80 PSI because that is the max for an E rated tire, not because the truck actually needs that amount. Lawyers want to minimize their liability because no one wants you to have a blow out due to underinflated tires. Tell everyone to put far more than necessary and you no longer need to worry about customers not keeping up with the pressures when winter comes around and pressures are reduced.

[jmart273]

Originally Posted by Ken / Claudia

Here's my take 1st my opinion than my real use. This only applies to pickups since they are made to carry a heavy load or tow and also drive empty. The companies put TPMS in them and print the max psi of the tire is what is to be used. If the TPMS could be adjusted they would work great on trucks but the factory TPMS as I was told are not adjustable. So, me and others drive around a empty F250 with 80 psi. There is no reason to run 80psi in a empty truck. Except they say to. The tires likely do not have full thread contact with the road. To get the best/shortest distance braking the whole tire width should be in contact with the road. The truck will bounce more and over steer on a fast hard curve with over inflated tires.
On my personal truck I run psi on a empty load at 50 to 60 and that works great. Loaded near max I put max psi in rear tires 80psi. Putting max 80psi in front floats the steering. 65 works great. I took the time to actually try different psi to get the best handling of the truck and it also is a little softer ride when empty.
When we finally got police trucks with TPMS. They had all tires at 80psi and that was flat out unsafe as a police vehicle. I aired them down so the truck would stay on the road on a hard fast turn and fast speeds on a gravel road. All the guys( about 100) did so also to avoid crashing. We had to get approval to do so and the TPMS light was always on in the dash. Ford would not turn it off. Now I understand who on here drives there trucks code 3 But, I want full control of any vehicle I drive anytime . You cannot get that with under inflation or over inflation.

Agree and that's crazy Ford wouldn't change it for you guys. I just set mine to 55 front and 45 rear, with the intention of pressing up the rear to 65 when towing my 5er. Now "low tire pressure" flashes at me... I don't like that. So I'm just going to figure out what that set point is and bring my tires to that point.

I guess I tried.