First truck; looking for tire inflation advice for hauling weight

Hello everyone. This is my first truck, so my first time really “hauling” anything of significant weight and I had some questions in tire inflation when hauling stuff in the bed.

I had 23 50lb bags of sand (1150 lbs) I needed to return to Lowe’s. Got it all loaded up before I thought to check the limit on the amount to haul around. The sticker on the door jamb says something to the effect of “all persons and cargo should not exceed 1200 lbs”.

First, this amount seems really low; is that really all the 2021 Tacoma's can haul? I mean heck, I get myself and a couple fat guys in the truck with me and we’re damn near at that amount. lol.

Second, after loading the bags I noticed my rear tires were pretty noticeably squished. Not to the point where the rim was touching the ground or anything, but maybe about 20-30% squished (if that makes sense).

Question is, should I have aired up my tires more prior to hauling that much weight? Would this do any good? Or harm? I have 265/70R16 Duratracs and the manual says to run them at 30 psi (again, seems low to me so any input in that would be helpful as well). I believe they had about 34 psi in them, but it was fairly warm today so “cold” would have been closer to 31 or 32 I would guess.

Any input would be extremely appreciated. Like I said, this is my first truck, so I’m kind of learning as I go. Tried searching on here but didn’t find anything of value.

 

I wouldn't put more air into it, they'd be more prone to pop. I've been well over that limit with pavers, you're good lol

 

Thanks. I stayed on service roads to be safe. I know it’s not the most scientific method, but I hopped a few times on the bumper and it had plenty of bounce left. Again, not scientific but seems to work. Haha.

On my “squished” thing; say without the load in there from the bottom of the rim to the ground is 100%. “Squishing” down 20-30% isn’t terribly bad? May have been a little more than that, but didn’t measure or anything.

 

You typically add more air to a tire when more weight is added.
The tire sidewalls can flex and cause the tire to over heat and become weak and potentially blow out.
I personally use my utility trailer for hauling heavy loads now, but if I do haul heavy stuff in the bed, I usually air up to 32-34 psi or go by the look of the tire. This is NOT the correct way to do it. But I’d rather have a little to much than not enough air.


If you want to know more see here
https://isdacenter.org/tire-pressure/

 

Thanks for the info. You mentioned you typically air up to 32-34. So I know for reference, what was your starting point before airing up?

 

No idea, I keep 32-34 in them now.
I tow quite frequently and haul wood in the bed at times.

I think they had close to 29/30 in them.

I run the fronts at 30 / Rear 32-34.

I’m not telling you to do this. As every situation is different.

 

Understand. I was just curious what you were originally at before airing them up to 32-34. No worries though. Thanks again for the info!

 

Side wall of tire should tell you the max psi.

 

Can you elaborate on how that answers my question? I’m not sure what I’m missing there. :/

 

These are mid size trucks. The payload isn't great, but it isn't going to blow up if you go a little over. You can always upgrade the suspension if you want more payload, however.

 

So having the tires a little squished like I mentioned is ok? And I shouldn’t have aired the tires up more than the normal 30 psi cold?

 

Not sure if serious, but the load rating for a tire goes up as the tire pressure goes up to the max pressure the tire is rated for.

 

Yeah. I was serious. Lol. Thanks for explaining. I honestly didn’t know that.

 

Personally, unless you are doing some serious off roading and need to air down, I'm not much of a fan of playing with tire pressures outside of the recommendation. I nearly max out my payload when fully loaded for camping trips and I never worry about the tire pressures. You'll likely bottom out the suspension before tire pressure becomes a factor; although I've never even come close to doing that.

 

Bet me to it.

 

Might be worth a read then.
How to apply the load inflation tables (toyotires.com)

 

Yeah. Definitely won’t be off-roading at all. I just wasn’t sure if the tire compressing like it did was bad and if I should have aired up to compensate for it. Sounds like I’m good at the level it was at.

Door says 30psi cold and I’m usually right around 31-32 cold, so I’m guessing it’s good. I did the chalk test and it was closer to 34-35, but I’m just gonna leave it at 31-32.

 

Thanks! I’ll check it out later tonight!

 

I was wondering why your username looked familiar. I remember now. Yeah, I'd say you're pretty good where you are at. If the temps dip again, the cold pressure could go down so it gives you a little wiggle room. Just remember to keep an eye on that because too much above and you'll start running into excessive wear on the center of the tires.

 

Look on your tire around the inner ring. You will find load with max psi.