time to check your tire pressure!!

[Jeremy airjer W]

With temps well above normal, now would be a good time to check the air pressure in your tires. We all know that tires loose pressure in the winter because of the cold, but tires can actually be over inflated when the warm weather of spring rolls around. I've been seeing this fairly consistently at the shop beginning last week. Remember a properly inflated tire will give the best ride, best fuel economy, and last longer than one thats improperly inflated!!!!

It wouldn't be a bad idea to check the air pressure in the spare tire as well. I would guess that about 98% of the ones I check are flat!

[Surface Tension]

Thanks for the reminder airjer.

[anchor man]

Airjer,

Is it proper to always inflate to the max pressure rating of the tire?

[Macgyver55]

Generally its best to go by the vehicle manufacturers label inside the drivers door for your best ride and handling, (but not necessarily the longest tire life)

Maximum tire pressure is usually needed only when carring maximum loads. Remember if you inflate tires to the maximum pressure then go out and drive the tires will heat up and be overinflated.

Another thing to note is that running tires at the maximum pressure without a load on them causes less of the tire to contact the road surface, thus causing increased tire wear on the part that does.

[Powerstroke]

Max pressure is for using it to its max ability (whatever the tires says ie. "1800lbs at 65 PSI").

If your tires are rated to 2500 lbs then your 4 tires can support 10,000 lbs at max pressure, but your vehicle only weighs 4500lbs. You'll get a very rough ride and the tires will wear out in the center cause the outside edges won't even be touching the ground.

ON a vehicle, I would start with the mfg's recommended pressures on the build sticker. Then adjust to your personal situation. If you carry lots of gear in your car all the time then you may need more pressure.

You want all of the tires contact patch touching the ground at the same time but at the highest pressure before you lose full contact. This will give you better tire life with better handling and fuel mileage. It takes some experimenting with different pressures. When you get new tires (or start carrying more gear in the car like all your ice fishing gear) then I take chalk from the kids, put a line across the tire and drive in a straight line. I want to get my pressure as high as I can , but I want all the chalk to come off (showing me that my whole tire tread is touching the ground).

Its better to be slightly overinflated than underinflated.

A 10* change in temp will fluctuate your tire pressure 1 PSI. Since starting my post I checked my own tires and they are all about 3lbs low, plus I removed my fishing gear so I'm really almost 5lbs low from where I keep my pressure in the winter.

This is a public safety message brought to you by the fine folks at FM.com

[Hookmaster]

Use the same chalk method for inflating your trailer tires after it is fully loaded. A lot of times you'll wear out the center of the tire because they are inflated to full pressure but aren't supporting the full load rating. This method works.

[Powerstroke]

right on hook.....I got so carried away I forgot to mention trailer tires.

[Jeremy airjer W]

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This is a public safety message brought to you by the fine folks at FM.com

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When you guys use the chalk, do you find that the tire pressure is pretty close to the manufacturers recomendations (unloaded vehicle) or are you coming up with completely different inflations. Also, are you checking the front tires as well as the rears or just the rear tires when loading the vehicle? Just curious to see if rear wieght made any significant difference on the front tires.

[Hookmaster]

I've never done the vehicle just the trailer. For the trailer, max tire pressure with a light load was too high. Only the center of the tire would touch. Now I know why the first set of tires wore only in the middle. I would check the loaded vehicle before driving it. I would think the back tires would be more affected by the load.