Tyre pressure suggestions wanted RE trailer

[no eye deer]

G'day,
What tyre pressure would you all suggest for my off road traler/
I'm running 31"s on it (604V's). Looking at about 600 KG all up. 50% tyres and hot bitumen (Stuart H/way November)
Should I keep 'em lowish or run 'em at say 28 LBS?. Dunno.

Thanks
Mark

[matt h]

I would run them at around the 30Psi and after half an hour to an hour of driving pull over and feel them if the side walls are hot then you will need to put more air in them.

Off road it depends. If you are on corrugations or sand I would drop them to ease the vibrations through the trailer. Again this all depends on trailer suspension, how fast you are traveling.

The best suggestion is to set the tyres and then pull over and checkthe tyres on a regular intervals until you are happy that you have the right pressure and the tyres are not heating up excessivly.

[Peter @ Aawen4x4]

I use the 4psi increase after an hours worth of driving for EVERYTHING, including the trailer!! And it works!!! Choose a start pressure, and if you consider that most 4 by's weigh well over a tonne, and your trailer fully loaded is less than that by a factor of at least 0.5, AND it's not DRIVING any wheels, they should be LOW! Drive it for an hour, then check the tyre pressure again! If the pressure has gone up by LESS THAN 4psi, then your START PRESSURE WAS TOO HIGH!! Let 2 psi out now! If it has gone up by MORE THAN 4 psi then the START PRESSURE WAS TOO LOW!! Add at least 2 psi NOW! This method is the ONLY method that takes ALL the variables into account, 'cos it works on WHAT ACTUALLY OCCURRED OVER THE LAST HOURS' DRIVE! It will work for just about everything, the only time I've ever heard of it not working was for a Suzi driver here, who had big tyres, lotsa air, no weight and the tyres NEVER went up 4psi even when they had virtually NO AIR PRESSURE!!

This method will work for any driver, any vehicle, any surface, any temperature, any condition; it's just that you need to do it individually for each, so you've gotta make your pressure guage your best friend for a while!! Check pressures every time you stop, it won't take long to work it out for you, your vehicle, trailer, and most common circumstances, ie sand on a hot day vs a cold day; mud on a cold day; rocks on a cold day vs a hot day; bitumen on a hot day vs a cold day. Once you've got a good start point, it'll be a good guide for just about every condition and you can guess to within one psi or so!!

Used this method on the 1600 kg trailer that we took thru Madigan's line during July this year - very soft sand, quite hot, NO tracks for part of it - vehicles and trailer running as low as 8 psi for extended periods, but we were travelling very slowly and carefully!! On the Birdsville track the vehicles went up to about 24psi front, 32 psi rear, trailer went up to 18 psi and stayed there!! The trailer was a specially manufactured and configured Challenge Camper set up for our trip and it went fantastically!!! We were accused of swapping the tyres and not taking the supplied tyres but running our own for the 10,000 km we ended up travelling, 'cos the trailer tyres looked unused after the trip!! They did it all and worked well before, during, and after!!

So like matt h says, check regularly, but use your tyre pressure guage and see if its gone up by 4psi or more!! Remember, less than 4psi, start pressure too HIGH, more than 4psi, start pressure too LOW!! Work it out for YOU in most circumstances and conditions for your vehicle!!

If it's all too much work, there are methods out there that get close to as good as this, but even tyre manufacturers use (and in Mickey Thompson's case - recommend) this method as the ONLY one that actually takes ALL the possible permutations of variables into account! Enjoy!

[tariadamar]

mate try just running them the same as your car and see where that gets u that is what my dad does.

[nqgu]

With the trailer loaded, see what pressure gives you a tyre footprint that is about 180mm long (not wide- but long). On gravel go for 240-250mm. Sand 300mm.

Cheers
Dave O

[patrol king]

I run my trailer tyres at 36psi and I don`t deflate them because I am going on sand , but then again I pull my trailer with a mighty patrol so the patrol doesn`t even notice the trailer there anyway .

[kerry460]

G,,day peter is on the right mark .years ago with rally cars and 4wds ,a top trye technichian at major aus tyre manufacturing company gave me the same advice ,only difference , he worked on an optimum of 10 percent increase ,which is near enough to the same .i have used it for many years with good success. listen to good advice.cheers, kerry.

[Sea-Dog]

I would have said that 28 sounds about spot on for them! that way you will get a mix of enough air to run down the highway and not worry about killing the tyre but still have enough softness to iron out a few of the bumps in the road...

I run 265/75/16 on my camper and I usually run them at a bit over 30 pound if I am doing mainly road work but when I went to the cape ran them at around the 25 mark for the most part to iron out the dirt roads...