Tyre Pressures

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Octopus
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Tyre Pressures

Post by Octopus »

I recently had a lot of issues with my tyres and rims and wanted share some of what I learned through the process.

So in the past year i had many pop outs, flat tyres, punctures and damaged tyres. The reason; I believe mostly due to tyre pressure that was too low. and here is how i came to that conclusion.

So I was running P-Rated (passenger) AT tyres, Yokohama G015 and they were amazing. Car was light and I felt like i had heaps of power and could climb most dunes and keep up with anyone. However i kept damaging tyres and having bad popouts. It got so bad that I recently changed to LT-Rated (light truck) tyres that I thought would help me avoid punctures and pop-outs.
Whats the difference between LT and P rated tyres? the LT tyres have a stiffer and thicker sidewall that stops the trailer from swaying when towing, what we also find is that most All - Terrain and offroad tyres come in LT rating, especially in the bigger tyres. LT tyres are always heavier than the P rated tyres for obvious reasons. I have been a big fan of the Yokohamas for a long time, with good reason, they are cheap and fantastic for the sand but they have poor sidewall protection to avoid punctures and they have a tendancy to go flat even when running beadlocks.

My situation was unique, as i damaged 2 yokohama's i replaced them with Kumho AT52. I put the Kumhos in the front and Yokohama's in the rear. and started to run the Yokohama's at a higher pressure as i didnt want to have more pop outs. So far I have had no issues after some very hard driving, despite loosing some power and flotation with the soft sand and big dunes.

Here is another very important piece of information. Normally i deflate to 12 in the front and 10 in the back. BUT ! measuring that using my deflator guage. With some testing i found some big differences between different guages, a recent test showed, 10, 8.3, 8.5, and 9 on different guages. Which one is right? I have no idea but what i know now is that if i deflate to 10 using the guage on MY deflator im going to have problems.

So what did i learn?

1. The pressure that you run on your tyres is dependent on so many factors, and keep in mind the weight or your car, and size of your tyre, if you are running, stock rims, or beadlocks, if your tyres are LT or P rated. Mostly i would say that 12 in the front and 10 in the back is a good rule of thumb. But you need to see your setup and figure out what works best for you.
2. Your pressure guage is most likely wrong, but that doesnt matter you need to figure out what works best for your car. my suggestion deflate to a higher number (14) and cautiously reduce to find your optimal setup using your deflator guages. I used to put 8 PSI in the rear, using my deflator, but checking on another guage it would have told me 6.5 PSI which was way too low for my setup, hence all the popouts, and flat tyres.
3. There is always going to be compromises. Yes LT tyres are heavier, and so are beadlocks, I see some guys run LT tyres with beadlocks at 5 PSI. it works for them. You need to figure out what works best for you.

In my case i might switch back to Yokohama's after the Kumho's, for now im at a place where i want zero headaches with punctures and pop outs and hoping that this will serve me well, lets see.

Hope my message is clear.

Happy Offroading.

Ruttan
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Re: Tyre Pressures

Post by Ruttan »

This is all wrong bro. You're overthinking things. Just buy a jeep.

All tire problems solved.

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