Airing down tires

I’ve heard about partially letting air out of your tires for traction. About how many lbs are left in them? Or is it an eye test based on tread touching the dirt?

 

From YouTube videos they say they air down from 45-20 psi depending on trail

 

Usually you can buy a gauge that has a meter on it , press it down on the needle, and you can see the gauge fall as it's reading pressure. They're like 15 bucks. OR I follow the ol 10 second rule, 10 seconds on each tire letting air out does the trick. Check out ARB they have some of the accessories you're looking for anywhere from 15-20 is usually good for some trails . Highway I roll around at 30-35

 

Depends what you’re doing. Driving a fire road? 20lbs is enough to soak up some bumps and make it more comfortable. Low speed off roading? 15lbs is what I run. Super soft sand and you’re just going in a straight line? I’d go as low as 10lbs, but have never done so myself.

 

20 to 25 lbs seems to be a good range for me. Just make sure you air back up before hitting the road, they can overheat and destroy themselves pretty easily.

 

If you drive around too much on under inflated tires it can crumble the rubber and ruin the tires from the inside.

 

Maybe if you’re running high speeds at low pressure you’ll mess them up. Airing down to wheel and then airing them up when done is just fine.

 

When I use to take my jeep out I aired down to 18psi better traction and better ride.

 

The bigger the tire, the more you can air down to. My jeep with 35s regularly sees 6psi. My Taco with 265 / 17s only goes down to 15.

 

Without knowing what equipment you have, I’d say 15psi is as low as you should go in most situations.

But before you air down, remember you need to be able to AIR BACK UP when the trail is done! You dont want to run 15psi on the highway!! So, make sure you have at least a portable air compressor, and test it out BEFORE you rely on it on the trail. Make sure it is up to the task of inflating ALL your tires from at least 15 psi or less, so you will find out if that cheap compressor from harbor freight will overheat or not, and how long you’ll expect to wait (nicer compressors will be faster, generally). Better to find out in your driveway than on the trail...

So, I’d start with going down to 25 for mild trails, maybe 20. The lower you go, the more you risk blowing a bead (tire comes off the rim), but that’s kind of an extreme example. Don’t go super low if you’ll be on faster fire roads (imo). 15psi seems pretty typical for slow crawling, rocky terrain.

There are lots of you tube videos and tutorials for airing down and driving techniques. There is also a bunch of stuff here too.

 

Helpful advice!