Air down pressure

I got 265/75/16 Goodyear Duratracs load C with no bead locks. 96 regular cab. Mostly sand. How low do you guys recommend airing down to? 12 lbs? Lower? Thanks.

 

Recently spent a weekend at cape lookout and my buddy and I aired both aired down to 19-20 psi with no trouble.

 

I wouldn't go much past 15. Can probably get away with 12

 

You will need to do some experimenting, some wheels/trucks hold beads better than others. 12psi is probably the low end of safe. I don't know anything about sand but in snow I like to run ~15ish below that I have to be real careful.

Resetting beads isn't a big deal though, so do some experimenting. Try working your way down to 10.

 

I have what measure out to be 35x12.50r16 tires on 16x8 wheels. When I wheel, I set my front to 15, and the rear to 12. I have had good luck doing this. The narrow rim helps hold the bead in a wider tire. The lower the pressure, the better the tire is going to grab rocks, but you increase your risk of rolling the bead (obviously).


If you do happen to roll the bead, keep a can of carb cleaner/ ether/ brake cleaner/ and thing in a can that is flammable. Spray some in the tire and light it. Super easy. Just don't get carried away... Be warned, any "spray" that is not in the tire will burn off in about 2 seconds. For those 2 seconds everything will be on fire.... If you go too hard on the spray.....

 

Something to keep in mind when airing down is the temperature of the tires.
Generally for me I have just got off the freeway and the tires are pretty warm.
I have found 18 PSI while warm equals about 14 PSI cooled the next morning.

 

What width wheels are you running? There are a lot of variables involved, including terrain, tires and wheels, driving style, temp, etc. Just have to be careful not to be overly-aggressive when you go with a real-low PSI without bead-locks.

15 pounds is typically a good start to fine-tune from, and narrower wheels do help. I have my 255/80-R17's on 7.5" wide rims; lowest I've ran them was 10 pounds for a week of deep snow driving. Worked great, just need to be mindful.

 

16x8. thanks for the replies guys. I may start at 17 and go down from there experimenting.

 

In the sand I go down to 8 psi, but that's with E load tires. Never had any issue with it. I wheel regularly on other terrain at 15 psi.

 

I've ran 15 psi in my c rated bfgs in the rocks and snow and been fine so far. 33x10.50s on stock rims.

 

I'm still running OEM wheels tires and 265/70-16 KO2 tire.
Would really like to upgrade to 265/70-17 tires but worry about the snowball effect. If I get bigger tires I should re-gear. If I'm re-gearing might as well get a locking front differential. And just to make everything just right I should get the Tundra brake upgrade. Well damn, now I'm getting close to the price of a SAS...and on and on. I can't help myself LoL.

 

I hear ya, but depending on how you use your truck (DD, light off-road, full-time trail rig, etc) there can be a trend of diminishing returns considering cost.

I run the 33's with the factory 4:10's, rear locker, extended-travel coil-overs and Dakars in the rear and, short of going LT or SAS, truck hasn't let me down on the road or trail a single time. Is it a perfect DD? Perfect rock crawler? Certainly not. But it's pretty damn good.

 

I agree. I'm going to be regearing this summer and was really wanting to do lockers too. I have a company vehicle so no DD and don't off road a lot. When I do it's mostly sand, little mud. I rarely use 4x4 and when I have open diffs has worked just fine. I still "want" lockers because I can say I have them. I don't "need" them and the cost would definitely not be worth the benefit for me. So...I'll just be doing gears.

 

Less sidewall ply more air. C rated tires you might be pushing it at 12. I have D rated and go to 18. Sand and rocks. On my crawler I have E rated tires and drop down to 10 psi.

 

I guess this is one of those things where YMMV. I just wheeled all day with my fronts at 8psi and my rears at 10. I regularly do 10 psi and don't have issues ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

31x1050x15 on (I think) 15x8 wheels

 

33x10.5 bfg mud terrains. 10 psi isno trouble off road I just wouldn't drive on the road very long like that.

 

I've heard if youre in Glamis then you should go down to 10 psi if you don't have a 4x4 or need extra tire to ground contact.