Question About Airing Down Tires and Disconnect Sway Bar

Awesome pictures. I always love seeing so much vegetation
It's a temperate rain forest. It generates it's own rain from moisture in the air from the Pacific Ocean. There are plants and critters everywhere. It only takes about a year or so for the plants to take over a skid road and make it pretty much impassable without busting brush. You can drive down a trail and two or three days later your tracks are just gone. The dry side is much different and takes a much different TJ build. More like the folks in Colorado.

Edited to add: One of the reasons that I air down, and it's not for traction, is to keep the ground loading to a minimum. Soil compaction is a real issue on the coast range trails. If the soil gets tightly compacted, the plants won't grow in it as easily and the rain and runoff tears the trails up something fierce. Worst case, it can cause the whole hillside to come down from erosion. There is more than one reason to air down and tread lightly. Same sorts of things can happen if you decide to get a little loose and enthusiastic on a muddy trail. Tear it up and it tends to wash out and get really ugly really fast.
 
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It's a temperate rain forest. It generates it's own rain from moisture in the air from the Pacific Ocean. There are plants and critters everywhere. It only takes about a year or so for the plants to take over a skid road and make it pretty much impassable without busting brush. You can drive down a trail and two or three days later your tracks are just gone. The dry side is much different and takes a much different TJ build. More like the folks in Colorado.

Edited to add: One of the reasons that I air down, and it's not for traction, is to keep the ground loading to a minimum. Soil compaction is a real issue on the coast range trails. If the soil gets tightly compacted, the plants won't grow in it as easily and the rain and runoff tears the trails up something fierce. Worst case, it can cause the whole hillside to come down from erosion. There is more than one reason to air down and tread lightly. Same sorts of things can happen if you decide to get a little loose and enthusiastic on a muddy trail. Tear it up and it tends to wash out and get really ugly really fast.
It is gorgeous, I need to visit Oregon soon. I travel to Montana once a year and I love how green it is there.
 
I’ve been reading his forum for a while and I have never posted a question. So I have a question. Your out trail riding. Old Forest Service fire trails and logging roads. A little bit of water, a little bit of mud, the usual ruts and crap. Maybe a log across the trail. Do you air down your tires? Do you disconnect your front sway bar? And what is your reason for doing it or not? Just trying to learn some best practices.
Yes to both. It certainly makes for a more compliant ride. Plus, you are ready in case the "fire trail" gets "sporty." Of course that means you need to have the ability to air back up. Plenty of good compressors out there to take care of that. Try it for yourself and see what you think.
 
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A county road, forest service road, trail are all very nebulous terms out here.

County road


Forest service road


Forest service road


The few trails we have seem to be buggy territory or single track. I can't think of any that I have taken the Jeep on. Speed, or lack thereof, isn't necessarily a defining factor.

Man .. beautiful photos. I really gotta visit Colorado sometime.

Do you have these in an album somewhere that I can go see to kill time at work and dream of summer?
 
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Soon as I hit dirt for any considerable time I like to air down to about 8-10 psi. County road, or trail.

I wanna post some pics:D

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Mainline:
View attachment 78723
Branch Line:
View attachment 78724
Skid Road:
View attachment 78725
Trail:
View attachment 78726
Snow:
View attachment 78727

Right now I can go from the beach (sand) to the snow in about 45 minutes, and hit all five of those conditions. It's not very technical, or difficult to traverse. It's also why my SE, manual, on 31's works out just fine.

I air down when I have to, always on sand and usually on trails and skid roads. Especially in the winter when it's wet and slick. I disconnect rarely, and then only on the trails where the terrain is very lumpy and broken.

This is definitely more like what I see in my neck of the woods in PA/NY/OH. Thx for the input.
 
Airing down 4 tires from 25 to 5-9 psi(depending which rims are on) takes me roughly 3-5 minutes depending on how much I'm running my soup cooler while doing it. To disconnect, maybe 20 seconds. If I haven't already done it the night before when I throw it on the trailer. Bottom line is, to me it makes no sense on "waiting to see IF I might need it"...I will based upon my groups wheeling style and locations.

If I don't do it the night before, then I do this at the start of the trail, no matter where or what type of terrain. I prepare for the hardest trail conditions we might encounter, (usually rock crawling for our crew.) If there happens to be some dirt roads or logging roads in between our obstacles we keep our speed in check. If it turns out the trail was a let down and we didn't need to be that low or disconnected, then at least it was more comfortable. LOL

For strictly forest roads or dirt roads, I'd probably just drive my pickup or stay home....
 
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