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Tire pressure ?

9K views 54 replies 20 participants last post by  Haystack 
#1 ·
I just got new tires on my 3/4 ton pickup. They are 10 ply load range E tires rated at 80psi max pressure. The tire shop had them all inflated to 45psi. What do you all recommend for pressure for longest life best ride etc. I was thinking higher than 45psi.
 
#2 ·
Nice smooth ride 45-60 psi. Long life 90 psi so less surface area is on the road at any given time. Traction in the mud 40 psi. Traction on ice a size or two smaller tire(narrow). Usually I try to keep mine at least at 60 psi. That way have a not bad ride but still have the pressure if I haul something heavy.
 
#4 ·
My truck tag says 70, the TPMS isn't working anyway so I dropped the pressures to 45 front and 40 rear. I've hauled over a ton in that truck and I bet the tires haven't squatted a half inch and don't warm up so I think I'll just leave them there. The truck only weighs less than a thousand pounds more then a half ton, I don't know why they want to double the tire pressure.
 
#6 ·
The problem is they list the tire pressures recommended at maximum GVW and also GAWR front and rear but that is when packing the maximum allowed on a truck and the pressures are listed accordingly. If one drives around with very little in the truck and put 80 psi in, that would be way over inflated and ride like a stone boat or at least some trucks would and the contact patch of the tire isn't really what it should be then ether. So often trucks like that get driven nearly empty and why the tire shop put them to 45 in this case because the truck was probably empty when you went in. I don't know if there is such a thing as a tire size/pressure chart according to weight per axle as that would be quite helpful.
 
#7 ·
One thing I noticed with this truck is the stone damage to the tires, I never had that with the old truck. These tires are Hankook ATMs I think, similar tread pattern to the Geolanders or All Terrains I like so much, they always wore smooth with very little gravel chipping, these are chipping like crazy, I had the truck for five thousand km and they went from smooth to chipped tread, the only reason I can come up with is higher inflation makes the footprint smaller and less flexible thus more prone to chipping.
 
#8 ·
I have noticed that when my tires were inflated up to 70-75 psi they wore more in the center. Now I run them at 45 and had the TPM changed lower (Ford 1 ton). If I am hauling something really heavy for major miles I put the rears higher but otherwise they seem fine at 45.:)
 
#12 ·
How did the dealer change it? Here they claim they can't go below 70, I saw it on their laptop, it showed no options below 70. Not that they are the brightest dealership in Canada though... My sensors won't communicate with the smart box and the dealer wants nothing to do with it.
 
#9 ·
That reminds me of a tire Costco used to have which they would guarantee to get X amount of km out of them but soon changed their tune when they saw tires chewed to bits in these rural areas with all the gravel. It seems some tire tread designs and rubber compound do far better then others for gravel. Those that don't do worth crap, its like they are melting off and I expect power, speed, weight of truck, tire pressure, tire size all make a difference to how the very same brand and tread last on gravel.

About tire inflation, and this goes for large trucks as well as its claimed over inflation can cause more potential to bruise a tire or another words start breaking up cords under the rubbers surface. Too much or not enough air is not good ... not enough is the worst though as offroadNT made the comment about checking for tires running warm ... heat a tire up and it will self destruct.
 
#10 ·
I just got new tires on my 3/4 ton pickup. They are 10 ply load range E tires rated at 80psi max pressure. The tire shop had them all inflated to 45psi.
Just changed tires on an F-150...for the second time in eight weeks!
Somehow, no one noticed when they installed 275/65R 20 load range E,
should have been 275/55R 20, passenger car tire so no load range.
Same tread and other than the bigger tires rubbing mud flaps on turns, ride, track and steer all like ****, and throw the speedometer out by 6%, they were perfect.;)
This 95+% of the time is just a glorfied car, I run 35 F 30 R, just above Ford's garbage TPMS threshold.:(
 
#13 ·
Back in the eighties it seemed we could get away with P rated tires. Been experimenting with them the last few years, won't work for us, they just fly to peices. Old man can wreck a P rated tire in less then ten thousand km. our trucks are not just coffee haulers though.
 
#17 ·
On my dodge diesel trucks I run 50-60 on the fronts and set the rear pressure to match the load I'm carrying. Going unloaded to loaded and not adjusting pressure I tend to wear the Center more. Toyo M-55 seem to be the best tire for gravel for me.
 
#18 ·
I found some weight/inflation pressure charts from Bridgestone and as an example on page 99 it shows the popular or at least used to be LT 235/85R16 and starting down at 35 psi and going all the way up to 80 with weight able to be carried at each inflation pressure. All one would need then is to do an axle weight at a scale and go from there depending on if it was empty or loaded with a typical type load.

http://www.trucktires.com/bridgestone/us_eng/load/load_pdf/loadtables.pdf
 
#23 ·
454! How was that for towing? 6 mpg?

I was talking to a guy before I bought my first dodge diesel and he used to run one. Had the entire box filled will fuel tanks. He was hauling horses around. I asked him about power and he said it wasn't much of a comparison to his dodge.

Trucks sure have come a long ways since '78.
 
#27 ·
454! How was that for towing? 6 mpg?
I be damned if I can remember, it had the two tanks, GM's dumb filler on each side setup, about 140 L I think but I can't remember how many km's (first year for km:))
Towing?
This was my "coffee hauler"!;)
I do know I had gearing and power to touch 200 km/hr.
Any one else run the speedo needle well beyond the 6 o'clock position?:D

You know it's funny, I think a 454 was about 240 hp at the time, my current truck is 411, wish I could run against a original condition pickup like my 78 GMC, I'm not sure where I would put my money!:confused:
 
#25 ·
One thing about 2WD pickups is balance. Unless you have a huge engine in it they have really decent traction. The 2000 F150 I ran until last year was a 2WD and over five years I had to get towed three times. I got my F250 4x4 stuck the second day I had it, each vehicle takes a little getting used to... I like four wheel drive but don't use it too often. I find it nice if I get caught in a rut just engage it and ease my way out, I'll use it to assist through a wet or soft spot, it does make it a little easier on the truck. I think I might get a little more aggressive tires for this truck, it seems like it's running on skis.
 
#30 · (Edited)
In Australia, so perhaps we are talking different vehicles,
But most farm utes ( 1 tone pickups) are pumped up to 40 or 45 psi.
This is great when you put a ton (1000kg) of fert in the back
But for the other 364 days it just helps to rattle the truck apart faster.
I have a 4 km gravel driveway so I run 32 psi to soften the ride.
, I always carry a $40 air compressor (I never remember to pump up before I load her up)
This saves me driving on my side walls to the petrol /gas station to get air
 
#34 ·
1. Get a chevy pickup. They cost more but ride way better.

2. Buy to to M55 tires. They are very expensive but they do not wear hard on gravel. They are as good as studs on ice. And in mud they are unstoppable.

3. Run them at 65 psi on a 3/4 ton that pulls a 20k Lb (10 tonne, Don) trailer. And 45 in a half ton.


Just my 0.01!
 
#40 ·
The M55 I used ( mine were Toyo ;) ) on a 3/4 ton years ago which were LT235/85R16 ten ply, yes I was impressed with how they lasted on gravel and not falling to pieces internally from stone drilling like some tires are famous for and they use them a lot in the oil patch if doing a lot of gravel driving or have over the years anyway. But otherwise my own experience with them wasn't the same as Christian's, not that impressive when it came to ice, very bad as a non studded tire compared to other compounds and a finer tread with siping which stands to reason and I can't say I was too thrilled with them in mud ether like I had hoped, not the mud around here that is gumbo clay or for that matter in some of the top soil we have when it turns to snot.

So would I get them again for extensive spring to fall gravel use, yes. Otherwise though if I was out to find a good tire for mud, that would not be my first or second choice. For ice, really that comes down to ether a studded up tire or one specific for ice like a Blizzak but then forget any gravel driving with a winter Blizzak.

The BFG Mud Terrain as a somewhat comparable example, I'd choose it over the Toyo for mud no question, on ice though its a horrible tire and I'd say gravel its not going to last like then M55 at all ether. Pretty darned hard to find one tire that can do the best at it all. Just don't get a BFG All Terrain for much gravel use, they will chip off like they went through a meat grinder, that's assuming the casing doesn't come apart because of stone drilling.
 
#41 ·
My experience with BFG is quite different Northern Farmer, we used to get new take offs from the tire shops in town, put them on the one ton welding trucks and could almost guarantee a hundred thousand km out of them. Not too bad on ice, not too good in mud (dualies are completely useless in mud anyway). That would be around 30 to 50% gravel and the rest cruising a 120km/hr on the highway. I've had very good luck with Geolanders also, very little experience with M55s but I bet they are similar.
 
#42 ·
Which BFG were you using offroadnt ?. See, the BFG Mud Terrain I was using years ago was the older generation tire and was on a small 4x4 pickup and relatively large tires for the size of the pickup. A lot of it was highway driving in summer and winter with a small percentage of gravel and yes some mud in there too. They wore fast, was pretty sad for a truck that light. As of now I do have some on a older half ton two wheel drive of the newer style Mud Terrain and it gets used a lot on gravel but the km are relatively low on the tires yet but they are certainly showing a fair bit of wear by measuring them, I was hoping for better but at least I can count on them to do something half ways decent in the mud.

The BFG all terrains, I should quantify how I expressed that as I had a set on my truck that sees relatively few gravel miles in percentage and they did quite well wear wise and considering I used them only one winter and the rest in the summer ... drives down in the states through the desert and four wheel drive trails in Colorado, those trails didn't take long to start chipping them and that was very slow driving. I believe I had about 90 thousand K on them and they were down to 4/32. When I went to the tire shop to replace them and decided on a Cooper tire instead, the shop owner who I've dealt with for years was shocked that I had gotten that sort of km out of them but I did point out the fact they were only on gravel a small part of the time. What that and other tires shops ( guys that actually know something in the tire shops ) were finding with that all terrain, on a lot of gravel roads we have, the rocks would stick in the tire treads and stone drill the tire and the casing would fail. Up to that point though and I've seen that myself, those tires driven on a lot of gravel will have the rubber flying. So now I find if I go to tire shops that sell that same tire, they ask if I am doing a lot of gravel driving as they just state out right not to get that one if doing extensive gravel driving.

One thing I've sure learned, gravel roads are not all the same in every place one travels. Some area's have natural small pebbles that don't have the aggressive sharpness that another area will have because of its high percentage of crushed gravel from large rocks. Also how deep the loose gravel is and if its always being graded to keep it loose. Highway 40 south of Grande Prairie before they paved it had some really deep gravel area's and you were spinning constantly to get down the road ... now that was a testing grounds for tires, a tire eating road for sure back then.
 
#44 ·
Hmmm, now that is interesting. I expect if one knew what all the small numbers molded/branded into the tire meant it would tell where or what "grade" as you will those tires are, if for OEM or for the aftermarket. Leave it to big business to screw with us ... pretty sad.

The other comment was about how vehicles are so much better now, yes in some ways they are but in others they have gone backwards from what I am seeing and hearing from a mechanic I use to do front end work, throwing in transmissions ( yup got a Chevy ;) ) and electrical weirdness with sensors and on and on. Mine is an old truck now so not nearly as techy as the new ones. What struck me is that all the so called solid front axles for 4x4's have the unitized wheel bearings and can't seem to stand up to the abuse the older real solid front axle bearing systems could. This mechanic said he is constantly replacing the bearings and axle shafts in Ford, Dodge, Chevy trucks but keep in mind these trucks are typically running on a lot of crappy roads and some of them with oversize tires so lots of stress and water/mud coming at the components. And those hub bearings for the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks are very pricey !.
 
#52 ·
Hmmm, now that is interesting. I expect if one knew what all the small numbers molded/branded into the tire meant it would tell where or what "grade" as you will those tires are, if for OEM or for the aftermarket. Leave it to big business to screw with us ... pretty sad.
I had real good luck with those truck tires, had a couple of factory tires get wrecked on a Windstar and the tire shop had the same make and model tires but the tread didn't match, they said it was popular for OEM tires not to match retail tires. Better for tire sales?

The other comment was about how vehicles are so much better now, yes in some ways they are but in others they have gone backwards from what I am seeing and hearing from a mechanic I use to do front end work, throwing in transmissions ( yup got a Chevy ;) ) and electrical weirdness with sensors and on and on. Mine is an old truck now so not nearly as techy as the new ones. What struck me is that all the so called solid front axles for 4x4's have the unitized wheel bearings and can't seem to stand up to the abuse the older real solid front axle bearing systems could. This mechanic said he is constantly replacing the bearings and axle shafts in Ford, Dodge, Chevy trucks but keep in mind these trucks are typically running on a lot of crappy roads and some of them with oversize tires so lots of stress and water/mud coming at the components. And those hub bearings for the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks are very pricey !.
The front end of 4x4s always doubles the maintenance of pickups. It's funny, my 2010 F250 is really heavy built up front, big bearings, seals, steering components etc. but the outer ujoints are loose and one side was full of rust, it's like this truck was parked in a creek for a week in it's previous life. All the steering components are original and I think the front wheel bearings are also (but they seem a bit dry though). Personally I think they should make these trucks in all wheel drive, it's not like we are buying these things for their fuel economy, it seems this stuff lasts better when it's always turning and they can do away with that troublesome vacuum and electric actuated crap up front. Those expensive bearing packs sure do seem to have limited lives don't they?
 
#45 ·
I had used dozens of sets of BFG All Terrains over the years but will not ever buy them again after both me and my son had tires come apart a couple years ago. Nothing a thousand dollars at the body shop couldn't fix, for each truck. The body guys said they have done a few caused by the same tires coming apart.
 
#47 ·
If someone thinks A BFG all terrain stands up on gravel they haven't tried other tires, or they don't run much gravel, or maybe they drive 50km/hr. I seem to have the best luck with Hankooks if I get more than 40k I'm pretty stoked. I've tried them all. Toyos not as good as these either. I will say every set is different even if the numbers and letters on the side are the same.
 
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