Keep trying. You'll get there!
Airing Down
- Thread starter 05 Blue Unlimited
- Start date
Keep trying. You'll get there!
Then the sand is not very deep and sugary and the rocks arent very gnarly.
KennethS
TJ Enthusiast
Your teeth and kidneys would appreciate airing down.
Along with every bolted and screwed connection on the Jeep.
With more experience you'll understand why everyone here is recommending airing down to offroad. When I see someone having more trouble than the rest of the vehicles in an offroad group it's usually from them having not aired their tires down enough... or in the rare case not having aired down at all. Not to mention airing them down makes the tires far less susceptible to damage/cuts from sharp pointed things on the trail.
Try some difficult terrain then. If you're getting through areas with street pressure, then they aren't difficult areas.
Yesterday we had to air down rigs to 3psi in the snow just to get them up the first of many hills on the trail. I cannot count the number of times just in the last year we had someone struggling on a wet/muddy/rocky trail UNTIL we convinced them to air down more, then they walked through the rest of the day.
You mean like 22 miles of sand from Sheep Hole Pass to Cadiz.
We did that run the weekend before KOH.
curious what pressures you’re talking about when you say, “air down more.” From what to what?
so we ran the Kings rd yesterday, out to Castle Dome. we ran across only 3 other Jeeps, but a bunch of S x S.
We left the Palm Canyon Rd area at 20 psi, and headed straight south on #44 trail. the trails are marked, but not on any map I could find. Anyway, I dropped the tires down to 15psi. #44 trail was smoother than most roads out here, LOL I did 10 miles in 2 WD at 20 to 25mph. Finally got to Castle Dome Mine rd, aired down to 15 psi. That made the trip far more comfortable, but the trail is so worn, I did 80% of the trip in 2WD. There were only a few spots that I went 4WD.
In total, went just under 80 miles yesterday, when I got to a half tank of gas, we started heading back. I air'd up at Kings Rd and 95, went straight north to Quartzite to fill up. The Escape Pod is exactly 18 miles from Quartzite, and 2.4 miles from rt-95. It is freak'n dead quite out here. The starts gazing is amazing. Its supposed to be windy AF, today thru Thursday, and cooling off a little. So today, we will be exploring the west side of rt-95 and try to make it over to the Cibola Wildlife Refuge, we'll see how that goes
TALLY-HO
We left the Palm Canyon Rd area at 20 psi, and headed straight south on #44 trail. the trails are marked, but not on any map I could find. Anyway, I dropped the tires down to 15psi. #44 trail was smoother than most roads out here, LOL I did 10 miles in 2 WD at 20 to 25mph. Finally got to Castle Dome Mine rd, aired down to 15 psi. That made the trip far more comfortable, but the trail is so worn, I did 80% of the trip in 2WD. There were only a few spots that I went 4WD.
In total, went just under 80 miles yesterday, when I got to a half tank of gas, we started heading back. I air'd up at Kings Rd and 95, went straight north to Quartzite to fill up. The Escape Pod is exactly 18 miles from Quartzite, and 2.4 miles from rt-95. It is freak'n dead quite out here. The starts gazing is amazing. Its supposed to be windy AF, today thru Thursday, and cooling off a little. So today, we will be exploring the west side of rt-95 and try to make it over to the Cibola Wildlife Refuge, we'll see how that goes
TALLY-HO
Before installing beadlocks, I would air down to 9 psi for rocks. Now that I have beadlocks, I usually start at 9 for easy trails, 8 or lower for harder trails. For people that are afraid to go that low, I will try to get them to at least go down to 12 psi.
20 psi is really only going to help for fire roads, but not on rocks.
20 psi is really only going to help for fire roads, but not on rocks.
More experience?
Anyone on this forum do Baja back when the road ended at San Quintin?
My first time was back 1969 in VW bug.
I started off-roading back in the mid sixty's with my dad who drove a two wheel drive pickup all over the Mojave desert.
If I do seriously rough off roading I break out my dirt bike.
Yeah I am that guy, the senior citizen riding a 510cc Two stroke.
Anyone on this forum do Baja back when the road ended at San Quintin?
My first time was back 1969 in VW bug.
I started off-roading back in the mid sixty's with my dad who drove a two wheel drive pickup all over the Mojave desert.
If I do seriously rough off roading I break out my dirt bike.
Yeah I am that guy, the senior citizen riding a 510cc Two stroke.
No one size fits all.... people come with 15+psi to play on wet rocks.... nope air down more. Heavy 4 door with all the aftermarket steel addons you could believe airs down to 12psi on his load range E (brand new) tires to wheel in the snow... nope air down more... he airs down to 8... gests stuck again, nope air down more...
Last weekend a guy showed up with a tire pressure gauge that didn't even register below 10, on a snow run. He ended up at 3psi after getting stuck and holding the group up a bunch. I gave him a digital gauge.
Just depends on rig weight, tire size/stiffness/age, terrain, etc.
That feels uselessly low to me. I have been doing 8ish psi on my nonbeadlocks for years. One thing I have noticed is that when I get too far below that number, the lateral stability of the tire sufferers to the point that the lack of stability can become detrimental. Then there is the issue is the deflated tire cupping where there is less traction than there would be with a little more psi.
I’m trying to convince myself I need beadlocks. My rig weighs ~4115lbs with hardtop. In the deep stuff would I need <11psi? I know that’s probably not possible to answer. I need to make it back to the W side some this year to wheel.
My problem is I got new wheels to replace my DC-2’s. I never lost a bead on DC-2’s at 10psi. Very frustrating bc on the new wheels I’ve lost a bead 3 times at 10psi in 6 months. I finally gave up and adjusted my Coyotes to 12psi, and since have been fine.
3 times in 6 months. I can’t tell from physically looking if the wheels have rotated on the wheel. I haven’t noticed any balance issues. I could mark them where they are currently, but I don’t expect to lose any beads at 12psi.
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What PSI would you guys recommend for loose sand? 33" tires (E rating) on 16" rims. What kind of budget on board compressor would you recommend in order to deflate and inflate?
I run down to 7 in the snow, tires don’t look overly bagged out or deflated. Don’t have much of a desire to push the psi level to a point where I need to reset beads.
This is a guideline to help figure out what that recommendation would be.
The maximum contact patch is the psi before the center of the contact patch starts to cup. In my experience, that seems to be about 8psi.