Airing UP & DOWN (1 Viewer)

[RagoFabrication]

Is it really needed when you are out on the trails?​

The answer to this question is absolutely. Whether you are on simple trails or intermediate ones, airing down your tires can significantly help your comfortability, traction, and prevent punctures.

Comfortability: If you trail ride, this should be one of the main reasons you air down your tires. When it comes to riding on rough terrain, not airing down your tires will give you a significant difference in ride comfortability and traction. Keeping your tires at standard PSI can not only give you an uncomfortable ride but can also knock you around and puncture your tires. Airing down your tires allows you to cover more surface area with the rubber of the tires and softening the blow by allowing your tire to absorb the tough impacts, rather than bounce off.

Traction: With Standard PSI, your tire will not be capable of gripping the terrain when you are trail riding. Lowering the PSI will allow your tire to deflate and more of your tire will be on the ground allowing your vehicle to gain more traction.

Preventing Punctures: Using normal PSI on the trails can cause punctures to your vehicle. Imagine a balloon that is filled completely and comes into contact with a sharp object. The balloon will instantly pop, right? Now imagine, if you were to deflate some of the balloon, and it comes into contact with that same object, it is less likely to pop. The same idea applies to lowering your tire PSI.

 

[folivier]

Nice, but what pressures should I be airing down to?

 

[RagoFabrication]

Nice, but what pressures should I be airing down to?

Hey, that's really a loaded question. The Psi your tire should be at really depends, snow, sand, dirt. Depends on your tires as well if your running stock or not. I'm sorry for this direct answer but here is a blog about airing up and down your tires.

Off-Road Tire Pressure: When to Air Down

You can enjoy a softer ride by dropping off-road tire pressure when you venture onto uneven surfaces. Learn how and when to air down.

knowhow.napaonline.com

 

[markthegrea]

I'm heading to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I will be driving on sand. What should I air down to?

 

[RagoFabrication]

I'm heading to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I will be driving on sand. What should I air down to?

Hey Check out this blog on Airing up and down. I don't know what you have or what your rig has on it.

Off-Road Tire Pressure: When to Air Down

You can enjoy a softer ride by dropping off-road tire pressure when you venture onto uneven surfaces. Learn how and when to air down.

knowhow.napaonline.com

 

[rommelrommel]

That blog link sucks. It’s a little strange to make a thread about airing down and then provide little useful information beyond the general principle. 5-10 psi is not/barely worth the hassle depending on where you’re starting from.

 

[xychromosome]

I'm heading to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I will be driving on sand. What should I air down to?

If you are running on stock tires, I have had good success with airing down to 18psi. I was at the OBX last month and didn't have probs at the northern or southern beaches with this pressure. Plenty of youtube vids on driving in sand, suggest you do a little research before you go.

 

[Mr Chuck Norris]

Low pressure is good, too low and you'll pop a bead off or burp air. This is why we run beadlocks. Narrower wheels help hold the beads on and can run slightly lower pressure, and different tire models can handle lower pressure better than others (stiffer sidewalls need less pressure, but also pop beads easier).

For my GX, with 32" C rated BFG KO2s on stock-ish wheels (and other similar rigs I've had in the past), I have typically ran:

40 psi on the street.

25-30 psi for rougher forest service roads or faster trails.

20 psi for slow trails, mixed snow, or sand.

No less than 15 psi for deep snow or soft sand, and that's only at low speeds. This is my personal cutoff for "normal" LT tire setups without beadlocks. If you have P-rated tires, you need to get LT tires anyway . But really, P-rated tires will get damaged way easier aired down as the sidewalls get more vulnerable.

Now with beadlocks, 2-3 psi is NBD. Just have to watch the inner bead and maybe do some glue/tape trickery if needed.

Oh, and when I say "normal" setups I mean no oddball size combinations. People will sometimes run narrow wheels for the tire, like a 12.50" wide tire on a 7" wide wheel, which helps to keep the beads seated at lower pressure. But that setup has other funky issues so it's not really recommended. And then if you run really wide wheels for the tires, like a 12.50" wide tire on a 10" wide wheel, it does the opposite and pops beads off more easily.

 

[rommelrommel]

I have 255/80r17 E load on a 7” wheel, what I’ve done is:

40 street
20 for forest service roads if rough or washboard
15 for a trail if it’s slow/technical
If I were stuck and working my way out, I’d try less if I needed.

 

[rmswins]

I have 255/80r17 E load on a 7” wheel, what I’ve done is:

40 street
20 for forest service roads if rough or washboard
15 for a trail if it’s slow/technical
If I were stuck and working my way out, I’d try less if I needed.

+1, my exact setup is Toyo Open Country 255/80r17 E load on TRD Pro wheels. 16psi for trails and even washboards. For street I used the chalk method to determine psi:

D = Drivers side
F = Front

I’ve got a lot of extra weight and parts so ymmv:

 

[rommelrommel]

I really need to do a chalk test on these tires now that the asphalt is dry for more than 10 minutes around here lol. I have the falken wildpeak at3w because there were no toyo AT3 to buy in Canada at the time.

 

[kem]

285/70/17x8.5 Load C with method wheels (can't really comment how effective their bead grip tech is, but it may help with lower PSI).

That said I have had no issues going to 15psi (by ARB deflator, my old school tire gauge read 17psi) on rocky trails.