What are the best tyre pressures for different terrain?

Some idea of expected load, tyre size and type of tyre would help answers Oz Bad Dude.

Go to your local Coopers dealer and they will give you a handout showing tyre pressures for various terrains.
It a good general guide but is only a starting point. You will vary these pressures to suit your circumstances, as you gain more experience.

You'll find a wealth of information here;

TYRE PRESSURES


Cheers Mick

Have you done a search on "tyre pressures" using the red search button in the top RH corner of this page? If you do, have a look at the multitude of forum posts that have already covered this topic in great detail.

There is no one correct answer or method, and you need to be prepared to do some experimentation, adjusting your pressures to suit your rig, your driving style and driving conditions. After a while you will gain experience and you will more easily be able to work out what suits your situation. Just remember that lower pressures require lower speeds.

Mind you , there are still some who swear that higher pressures are "better" in that they may result in fewer stakings etc. However if you are a responsible driver you will be thinking not just about your own comfort and convenience but about the impact you and your vehicle has, especially on outback tracks. Lower pressures are generally considered to cause less damage, especially over dunes.

Cheers,

Val.

This is going to be a long thread....

I have started something a bit different and started running higher pressures than I once did.

We have Copper ST Maxx's on our 200 series that weighs in at just under 3800kg, the tyres have done 11,000k with about 7,000k off road at high speed, we have run the tyre pressure at 42 front 46 rear and have had no problems, the lugs are still square with no signs of chipping.

I have a few friend who have adopted the same theory including one who has done a 9,000k trip through the Kimberlys with no tyre damage or abnormal wear.

The way I look at it is tyre design and development has come a long way over the years but people still think old tyre design and pressure...... a tyre at low pressure turns into an uncontrolled spring causing the tyre to flex more and the suspension that is meant to be working on the vehicle to not work correctly.

I don't see much difference in good fast dirt roads and second grade sealed roads...... nobody drops their pressure for bad sealed roads.

My other thought is after speaking to a lot of large transport companies who mostly run the dirt and mining people none of them ever drops their tyres pressures when running dirt and we are talking trucks weighing up to 120 tons sitting on 80 - 100 Kph.

Real rocky stuff we drop to 25-30, sand anywhere down to 26 and mud ????

I have better thing to do than worry about tyre pressures and the 4 psi run.....LOL

For now I will stay with my higher pressures and see how that goes.

Tyre pressures vary depending on the tyre size & type and the load being carried.

The first thing you need to do is get a load V pressure table or graph for the tyres you have.

Then weigh the vehicle in the condition that it travels in.

From the load V pressure tables you will then have the minimum cold inflation pressure for highway speed driving.

That is your starting point.

Remember you may have a different load front and back and thus different pressures front and back.

Remember too that if you reduce your tyre pressures you have to reduce your speed.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding, hokus pokus and mumbojumbo arround about tyre pressures.


You must start with the correct highway speed, minimum cold inflation pressure for the load carried.

Unless the other person is running the same tyres ( size and type) with the same load AND doing the same things, what they run may have nothing to do with what you should be running.

If you are traveling faster than 80Kmh, you should be running highway pressures.

cheers

You have to be flexible with your pressures.

Some dirt roads like the Gibb, Oodnadatta, Strez, Birdsville etc are safe at 30 all round. But when maintenance hasn't been done for a while it may be better at 20/25.

For all our trips into the high country we start with 20/25. A few times we went to 15/15 to get up, or down, some steepish or slippery tracks. But generally it has been 20/25. And then if the weather is fine and the tracks dry it is 25/25.

Sand and mud: No particular setting as we don't generally go playing in mud, driving on beaches or sand dunes unless they are a part of the track. Like the Simpson and Canning. But if I had to do some it could even be 15/15. And all at a slow controllable speed. Never rushed.

This is for our car which is an auto 4.2TD. It can be quite heavy (3.5T) for a month in remote areas or relatively light for a weekend trip. That can also dictate a change, up or down, in the pressures given above.

The Coopers Tyres booklet is a good starting point.

Phil

I like comfort and safe handling. If the car is rattling around and I'm feeling every bump then I let a few pounds out. If it feels a bit spongey and the handling is a bit indirect then I put a few pounds in. On sand, I keep letting air out until the car feels right for how the sand is on that day. The actual numbers for psi are different for all conditions, how much I'm carrying and what car I'm driving. My starting point is the manufacturers recommended. If anyone gives you a number it means it's good for their car, tyres and driving style..it could mean twat to you. I have always found that if the car is comfortable and in control, then there is less stress on all it's components even the driver.
PS, Tyres with air in them are an integral part of a car's suspension and shock absorbtion system. If not, we would still just have solid rubber tyres like the old days. I still remember my first pump up scooter...it was heaven. :-)

Thanks everyone for your feedback. If I take anything away from these varied responses, it's that only experience will show me what works for me. There's no consensus on a standard approach.

I'll try both the soft approach and the firm approach and find my happy place! :)

OzBadDude