I'm still listening. I like to know how things actually work.
No need to " sense" anything. I can tell you I am far from being finished with this topic. Otherwise, I'd be in my " little bit of the universe by myself" instead of engaged in a discussion on this forum.
When you state that by running my tires at 35 psi, at highway speeds, that my tires would overheat and self-destruct that's not been my experience in over 50k miles with these tires. And in all honesty and without the slightest hint of sarcasm, I wonder why not?
I have 180k miles on my LC - over 100k of those I put on in the past 2.5 years. The majority of that time I've been loaded up, and running at 33 psi. And in the past year, I've spent a lot of time in the Mojave and Death Valley areas, at speeds of up to 105mph on pavement and up to 60mph off road. At times it was over 115 degrees outside. I wonder why I didn't experience tire failure under these conditions. I would be less puzzled if I just cruised around town. It seems unlikely that I just got lucky for thousands of miles. That is why I'm skeptical of the 46 psi number.
I would like to know how these load limit numbers are calculated in the first place. Example: what calculations or experiments were conducted to conclude the load limits at a given psi?
I'd like to be able to check the work of the TRA. I see no reason not to question any claim made by any organization or individual, no matter how established or revered. Especially when I'm getting dramatically different results in over 50k miles of testing in the field- specifically:
1- tread wear pattern doesn't match that of an under-inflated tire
2-no excessive heat build up- psi doesn't increase by more than 4psi from cold starting pressure
3-no blowouts
My hunch is that IF you could take away the risk of lawsuits, the persons that actually came up with these industry standard numbers would tell us that within a certain range, it doesn't really matter what psi you run. I also wonder how low you'd have to go and for how long you'd have to drive before you did actually see excessive heat build up and eventually a blow out. I wonder if that number for my tires is more like 15psi rather than 33psi.
If I could find the science behind the load inflation tables perhaps I could work that out for myself. Or perhaps I'll just have to go run them at 15psi and at high speeds out in the desert until one of them blows. I'd prefer the former.
I believe the max load on the door placard is significantly higher than you quoted, but I'm going to wait and check tomorrow. The LC is parked about 1/4 mile away.
In the meantime, any ideas as to the science behind the load limit tables?