tyre pressure on camper trailer

G'day Steve , thanks for that , we kept looking and went into Top End Camper Trailers to see if they would be doing any upgrades soon , he is just starting to get the sales side of the show up and running , so we basicly have No 1 of this model , new so hopefully it is a good one , have to get all the rest of the gear as we go !!

Funny that ,, we get sick of the tent and get a camper , you go the other way !!

All the best mate , hope to see you somewhere one day !!

G'day Duncs , thanks for that , good way of looking at it , might take it over to work tomorrow and put it on the weigh bridge , if i remember right he said its about 580 , 600 kg , empty , not sure now , Paj is 2.18 Tonne on the bridge full of fuel and wife and 2 kids in it ,, as you say , by the time we load it up it'll about half the weight of the Paj ,,

Thanks Duncs , Neil ..

Wouldn't the compliance plate show the tare weight?

Hi Duncs.
I noticed your comment about airing down on dirt.
I understand the need to stop trailers from jumping around too much. However, dont you increase the risk of staking your sidewalls.
On a trip to Birdsville (from Brisbane) a couple of years ago, we ran 50psi in the LT's tyres while our m8's ran 30~34. They staked 3 tyres though not LT's, we had no flats.

This is a genuine enquiry, I'm not looking for a fight LOL.

G'day Ava191,
I too am a great believer in airing down as soon as I get onto rough dirt roads. I run 42psi in the Patrol (weighs over 3 tonne) and 32psi in the Ultimate Camper (weighs about 1100kgs).
When I am on, say the Birdsville Track (like we were just the last week or 2), then I drop all round by 10psi.
We then did a crossing of the Simpson Desert and I dropped them to 16psi on all 6 tyres.
I was with 6 other vehicles and we all ran similar sorts of pressures and nobody had any tyre problems at all.
I am seriously against high tyre pressures on gravel roads......I firmly believe the theory that it is these high pressures which cause corrogations; not to mention the extra work your suspension needs to do to cope with the additional shock loads. If the tyres are deflated a bit, they tend to help soak up some of the rough conditions.
Please accept this as constructive critisism.....like you, I am not after a slanging match, just answering your question.
As for the 2 mates who both experienced tyre problems, there are soooo many questions I'd need to ask before forming an opinion...eg: what brand tyre? Were they "highway" style tyres? How much wear had they had before the trip? Was the damage done to the side walls or in the tread area? etc etc
AFAIK, airing down the tyres does not automatically increase the liklihood of "staking" (which usually infers a stick etc through the sidewall). Reduced pressures of say 32 psi (as I do on my Patrol), hardly has any effect at all on the tyre "bagging" out to the side and making the sidewall more vulnerable. Indeed, even when the pressures are dropped to 16psi for sand, the risk of staking is still only marginally increased.....it is the 'length' of the footprint which increases as the pressures are reduced, providing more rubber on the road.
Airing down allows the tyre to sort of "mould" itself over rocks rather than trying to ask the tread to take the brunt of a relatively hard object on a relatively small surface area.
Sorry if this seems tooooo long-winded.
Cheers
Roachie

According to the tyre distributors, we 'air down' on gravel & rough terrain to prevent sidewall fractures.

Thanks Roachie and shaker.
We certainly do want a civil discussion.
The theory behind running high in the LT's, as described by the tyre outlet, was to prevent the sharp triangular rocks piercing the sidewalls. With high pressure, the rocks 'glance' off rather than penetrate. Lets be careful and clarify that this was for the particular tyre in question - name escapes me but it is the square profile light truck type with reinforced sidewalls. We are also talking about use on roads we knew had plenty of triangular shaped, sharp rocks - as opposed to the sandy type.

I do follow your logic Roachie regards the 'absorbtion' aspect and this makes sense. Perhaps that is the method to use for the bulk of the highway friendly so called LT tyres commonplace today. Old m8 did say he took those tyres off for the Birdsvile adventure, in favour of the square shouldered type.

Airing down in sand and mud for the flotation works extremely well for the modern 4by tyre. We also used to do it last century for the Road track Majors, almost always with better results than the wider sand tyres available in those days.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Like Roachie I air down on the dirt for a number of reasons.

In another thread I mentioned dropping tyre pressures to about 24psi on the Oodna Track. On that occasion I did it primarily for comfort, and adjusted my speed to suit the pressure in the tyre. On that occasion the track was like driving over piles of loose bricks and at 30psi the whole car was jumping around like you wouldn't believe. I figured that could not be doing anything a lot of good so aired down to ease the strain on car and passengers alike. No tyre probs at all.

The way it was explained to me was like a balloon. You blow it up as hard as you can and it will burst as soon as it touches anything. Leave it a bit soft and you can wack it around all day, even hit it with something sharp with a reduced risk.

Also softer tyres are able to mould around the gravel rd thus providing a larger contact patch. This has to be better than skitting about on top.

I know a guy who uses skinnies at 65psi and reckons he has never had a puncture, but I have seen pics of him well and truly bogged.

I am happy with what I do, it works for me.

Duncs

Thanks Sand Man , have heard of this rule a long time ago , forgot all about it good thing about this forum , you either learn something new , or you get promted to remember ,, thanks for that ..

Was that you i saw up this way about 2 weeks ago , a blue Jackaroo with a EO spare wheel cover ,, all the best and thanks ,, Neil ..

No not me Neil. I have a EO spare wheel cover but that is on the camper.

Actually I will be up your way in a couple of weeks. Heading to Port Douglas by plane for a bit of non 4WD R&R.

Having said that, we are hiring an X-TRAIL so I can drive the coast road to Cooktown, etc. Looking at the Cooktown Web Site, it reads like something we just have to do.

Doing that this weekend , we have a public holiday in Cairns friday , (show day), so i'll be parking the truck up tomorrow arvo and outa here about 6am fri morning , will try to get a few pics up for you as soon as i can , hope the weather lets up by the time you get here , rather wet at the momoent , but you'll be right , bit of luck we'll meet up somehow ,, have a good one see ya !!

Sand Man,

Excuse my ignorance but would the 4psi rule apply equally to tubed and tubeless tyres?

Hi Gramps,

Yes. Tube or Tubeless.
The heat is generated primarily by movement of the sidewalls.
Too low pressure....too much movement....increase of pressure due to excessive heat = greater than 4 psi. And visa versa of course.

Sand Man,

Thanks for that.

Thank you all, seems myself and a few others learnt a bit here ,, just need to pack it up and head bush with it , see how it really goes !!

Thanks ,, Neil ..