airing down, what PSI

How do you determine best PSI to air down to?



Am on Load E 255/80R17 tall skinny 33
cold inflation pressure 29psi/4 per door spec

when I hit a trail, I usually drop them all down to 20 hot
BUT, the last time I did a particular trail, the tires still slipped.
So I got out, dropped it down more to 17-18.

However, I was able to watch the ride height decrease (bad) while doing so.
I think it's tricky to find a balance between the two; ride height and PSI.

Is there an ideal PSI, or how do you figure it out?
I understand some tire slip is normal. They may need time to warm up. Or find grip on a surface.
Perhaps my skinnies are not wide enough of a footprint.

Am looking at doing another trail, and was just gonna do the same thing again like usual; drop down to 20psi.
I do have Bead Grips, so I'm sure they can probably handle as low as 7psi even, but that would be really low. And I'm sure sacrifice a ton in ride height, unless it's a more giant tire like 35 or bigger, which I do not have

Curious to know everyone's thoughts on airing down

 

12psi. I've never popped a bead with normal wheels. But I am not a high throttle, aggressive wheeler. Lots of rocks out west and the comfort of lower pressures makes a huge difference.

I air up with a 20lb CO2 tank, but I am looking hard at the ARB duals. I had an old 89 wrangler with dual OBA compressors and I wish I could have that much air on these modern trucks.

 

14-16 psi works well for me. With your load E tires and a light truck, I would suggest lower than 20 psi. In regards to your skinnies, remember that the contact patch you are trying to lengthen is parallel with the tire and not the section width. Yes, you do lose a little bit of height but traction is more important.

 

The last time I was out I dropped down to 20 psi and the sidewalls barely changed and that’s on a C load. I saw on Matt’s off-road he runs those Patagonia tires at really low pressures all the time, hwy, off-road, I think he said less than 10 psi. People are running 35s and 37s so you get the best of both worlds , height and ability to run low pressure.

 

10 psi (C load Patagonias) - like others, I am also going slow and haven't had an issue. I think I can still go lower if I need to. I also have bead grips. I had load E before this and 10 still felt like too much at times. I guess I'd trial & error if I were you. But why not give 10 a whirl and see the difference. If you're slipping, lower the pressure. If you're not slipping but need more clearance, raise it.

 

Totally depends on the trail/road and conditions. I do agree 20 is a good medium to start. Where I'm at we have heavy snow and going to 12 or 10 makes a huge difference.

 

5psi and portal axles will give you the best of clearance and traction with 33's. Heck, you could probably go back to the stock 31's with portals.

 

idk who sells portals. I’m sure someone does. Not in the cards right now maybe one day. Maybe one day solid axle conversion, regear, and 35’s if I can find someone to buy my 33’s

insightful replies thank you everyone
going to try 10-16 psi to try and solve the fact that 20 still had slippage.
I’m sure the Method bead grips can handle it.

I’ll see what happens with reduction in ride height and maybe try to choose better lines, go slower, etc

I understand skid plates are sacrificial or repairable
but it’s always nice to be careful and not trash a bolt head beyond recognition, scrape paint off needing touch up to prevent rust, etc

usually any time I scrape it’s because I did something stupid like get impatient and go too fast, where momentum has the truck bounce and compress the suspension low, or take a line that isn’t the best, etc

 

my 90 Toyota on 285/75 16 LT load range E on stock tundra steels I set at 10 to be lazy. but those tires never popped off the bead, and they still did great, did the same the time i took my 09 out on some rougher trails.

 

Yeah! that's the right pressure for wheeling. Those tires are squatting and bulging properly. With that much traction and a calm throttle control foot you will have less problems.

 

Lowest I dropped mine is 8 PSI with method bead grips in the red mountain trails (Fresno, CA). Made a world of difference. I believe you can run them lower. I’ve seen somewhere online someone try to debead bead grips at 5 PSI and was unsuccessful.

 

I believe it with the bead grips. It took a lot of air to seat them.
I wonder how much of a pain they are for shops to replace worn tires on


I just didn’t know if airing down too much causes too much loss of ride height/ground clearance

 

I hate inflating after, I gauge by the trail and air down more if there’s major obstacles.

I do 15 on my e and 20 on my winter sl tires.

 

Depends on conditions, sub 5 PSI for snow and 8-12 on the rocks

 

They are a major pain. When I got new tires last month, a few customers came in after me that left before me. The manager apologized to me and said it was difficult to remove my tires.

 

was doing 18 on sand yesterday seemed to work fine, p-rated coopers

 

Just got new tires last weekend. I figured the "Bead Grip" technology on Methods new wheels were mostly marketing wank but the tire crew STRUGGLED to get the beads to pop. At one point I watched three different techs at three different machines trying to break the beads and they looked pissed off. I ended up buying the crew some energy drinks because they struggled so much.

So yeah... 12psi and I should not have to worry about the beads. I can probably go down to single digits and be fine.

 

I'm another non beadlock and I like 10-12psi also

 

@TacoTuesday1 I had those same tires and often dropped down to 18-20 PSI for rocks, with a truck that weighed just over 6000 lbs.

 

Method bead grips 704’s @10-15 psi.