What's the lowest tire pressure I can air down to to drive 4 miles?

shoot.png
 
  • Haha
Reactions: reddvltj
That's really why I suggested slow. Good practice just like towing a trailer is to get out and put a hand on your tire to be sure the temps are normal after a bit. I've never noticed significant heating but I'm not zipping around either. Every tire and road is going to be a little different. It really is easy to stop and check so you get a feel for it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: reddvltj
When I’m at the beach I set them to 15psi for the entire trip. I’ll typically put on 150-200mi like that without any issues or concerns. That includes a 5mi trip to and from the beach at 55mph.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr. Bills
Your tires are living on borrowed time by doing that. It's not losing a bead that is the issue, that's nothing and easily fixed if it happens. It's that the tires run significantly hotter when aired down that far and they can fail from the heat when run at such speeds when aired down to a lower air pressure like 8 psi.
Guess I would just have to go to 35s when they blow ;)
The good thing is its only 8 minutes between my house and my favorite local offroad spot so I'm not pushing it that much, but I get what your saying.
 
I’m absolutely far far from being an expert, but this is what works for me on a weekly basis. BFG 33” 10.5x15. Street, 25-28psi. Trailhead, air down to 18-20psi. This pressure range gives a better ride on rocks and can still be driven home safely if you don’t have onboard air, but is not low enough for maximum traction. I’ll go down to 12 if I must, but I would never drive home like that. If you only had to go a few miles I’m sure it would be ok but I’m usually 50 miles away from the good stuff.

I will say this, Im never in deep sand or mud. Only rocky passes. No extreme rock crawling either. However, I don‘t even have lockers only LSD and I’ve never had any problems on rocky Colorado passes with those pressures.
 
I think this is probably a situation where the term "serious offroader" was used when "serious rockcrawler" would have been more accurate. The first encompasses the second, but not necessarily vice versa.

There are many experienced offroaders with many decades of experience on multiple continents happily traversing dirt and gravel roads and mild and moderate trails with tires aired down to 15-18 psi and no lower. Would they be happier at 12 psi? Maybe, maybe not. Does not airing down to 12 psi or below somehow make them clueless or render their experience of no value? No, it does not.

In the rockcrawling arena, 15 psi is way too high. Soft sand beaches too. But not everywhere.

For me, in my jeep, 12 psi is my starting point for an offroad pressure. Frequently I go lower. However, in my Xterra 15 psi is a better starting offroad pressure because some trips are constantly on and off pavement and I can go all day without changing tire pressure if I only go down to 15 psi. The tradeoff is that my fillings rattle a bit more on the washboard sections. Everyone's needs and applications are slightly different.

So, what pressure would you choose for your Jeep if you wanted to routinely go 15 miles on the highway @ 60 mph followed by 10 miles of bad fire roads and back? This is a typical scenario for me if I want to go hiking or xc skiing with the dogs basically anywhere around me. If possible, I'd like to not air up and down every time. I've got Toyo Open Range 32s.
 
For your situation I’d start out at 20 and see how it does. That’s not low enough to get any meaningful traction increase but it would definitely improve the ride quality on a rough road
 
We’ve all been stuck in those situations but never a safe or responsible thing to recommend. Unless you never have to exceed about 15 mph