Request: tire pressure recommendations

[BobW9]

Hey, Blue, nice to see you're back

That said, I do have to disagree with you about tire pressure, based on my experience. My Concourse had Bridgestone tires when I bought it, with tire pressures of front 55 and rear 45 or 50 (can't remember). It was very stable and solid feeling.

Then I bought 2013 (14?) BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tires, inflated to the same pressure, and it felt unsafe driving, really mushy. The Concourse was moving and swaying, and on the highway in Austin even lazy turns with a down/up hill component at 65 resulted in a feeling like my shocks were bad and I didn't have an anti-sway bar. After a few days of careful driving, and getting ready to drive a ways back to where I'd bought them, I aired up and found it better. Ended up airing the front to 72 and rear to 66, and then the driving felt better (still not as solid as the Bridgestones). Aired up any higher and the ride does get rough, but lower and it feels mushy. I think it is either because of the sidewalls being less stiff or possibly the thick, kind of open, pattern on the tread allowing flex.

Whatever the reason, I do believe the best tire pressure to use is a factor of the tire itself as well as the weight of the vehicle, and personal ride preferences, not just a generic chart.

[chin_k]

Same as Blue on the tire rotation. Unlike a regular 4 wheels car, if you can get more than 30,000 miles out of the rig, you are doing really good on the utility of the tires. Vast majority of us just do not put 150 miles on it 5 days a week as if we are commuting on it. If the tire wears out or ruined due to lack of rotation before it rotted out (due to aging), you already got your money's worth. If you really want to feel that you are doing the best for the tires by rotating them, don't forget to include the spare

Maybe as a compromise, you switch left and right, but frankly, I don't think it is really necessary.

[Blue~Go]

Hey, Blue, nice to see you're back

Thanks!

That said, I do have to disagree with you about tire pressure, based on my experience. My Concourse had Bridgestone tires when I bought it, with tire pressures of front 55 and rear 45 or 50 (can't remember). It was very stable and solid feeling.

Then I bought 2013 (14?) BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tires, inflated to the same pressure, and it felt unsafe driving, really mushy.

Just curious: What size were the KO's? It would be interesting to have a look at the inflation chart for those, but it depends on the tire size.

[Blue~Go]

Hey, Blue, nice to see you're back

Thanks!

That said, I do have to disagree with you about tire pressure, based on my experience.

Well I'm just going by manufacturer's recommended inflation/weight, so you are actually disagreeing with Michelin, Bridgestone, Yokohama, etc. I'm only the messenger

My Concourse had Bridgestone tires when I bought it, with tire pressures of front 55 and rear 45 or 50 (can't remember). It was very stable and solid feeling.

Then I bought 2013 (14?) BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tires, inflated to the same pressure, and it felt unsafe driving, really mushy.

Just curious: What size were the KO's? It would be interesting to have a look at the inflation chart for those, but it depends on the tire size. (It may be the same as for other tires of the same size, but did you go larger or stay the same as stock size?

[Blue~Go]

I just want to add that my reason for posting in this thread is to promote knowledge. If a person understands how tire inflation and weight relate to each other; how to access inflation charts (vs. just inflating to the max psi stated on the sidewall); and why the door sticker says what it does (Ford's best guess at time of build of chassis cab), then they can make their own decisions vs. just doing what the tire shop employee says (and hey, these are the same people who sometimes twist off your simulator "lug nuts," torque your wheels to 3,256 ft. lbs, and spray tire dressing on your paint).

Knowing the recommended pressure (and why) is a baseline. After that any decisions made on inflation will at least be made with a basic understanding. That's what I care about.

One last note on the door sticker: On a typical small passenger car, it's quite likely that the weight of the car will be very close to what Ford (or any mfgr) recommends. I mean, few people decide to add a house on the back, and the variation between loaded and unloaded is typically much less than it might be for a van or RV. So it's very likely the door sticker will be correct (or very close to it).

[BobW9]

Both my Bridgestones and the T/A KO's were/are the standard LT225/75R16. The KO's have a max of 80, I'm not sure but I think the Bridgestones did also, though that's just from memory. It was the massive difference in feel between them at the same pressure that surprised me. Though the Bridgestones were designed for highway, while the KO's are all-terrain and definitely look it (so maybe are meant for having more flex in them offroad and such, which it ended up I almost never do in the Concourse). While they've been okay, my next tires will probably be Michelin Agilis CrossClimate, with a more standard sort of ride, and I imagine I will probably air them up closer to the pressure on the chart.

Oh, I would never blame the messenger! That recommended is, I believe, more the minimum recommended for a given weight, as opposed to what any given person may want for their personal ride feel. No, I wouldn't overinflate or recommend it when the ride becomes stiff and you feel every bump (and never over the max, of course). And overinflation can contribute to tire wear, as can underinflation (which can also lead to blowouts). But after 35,000 miles on the KO's the treads look new, while I'm now having to age them out. So a little possible extra wear was defintely not an issue, while feeling like the RV was wanting to sway around the road on turns and such was an issue. It was scary unexpected a few times those first couple days, and I'd swear there were some times with hard braking coming to light that changed where it would take feet longer to come to a stop - though maybe that was just because of a swaying forward on the tires? Don't know, but really, really, didn't like that feel.

Totally off-topic, but I just started watching Reacher season 1 on Amazon Prime last night and ended up watching all 8 episodes between then and this morning! If you like action movies with a decent (not great, but decent) plot, then I recommend trying it. I was very pleasantly surprised, and thought their casting was good (for both the good characters and bad).

[Blue~Go]

Thanks for the added info, BobW9,

I think you may be onto something with the knobby tires and/or softer sidewall making them feel more squirrely. 55 psi might still be technically the "best," but if you are wobbling all over the road (or even if it just feels that way), no thank you.

My Michelin LTX/MSII aged out just before the pandemic started (luckily I was going to replace them in late March, so I just put it off for 1.5 years and sat still on old rubber). I replaced them this summer with the Michelin Agilis Cross Climate (since they quit making the others). Not enough miles to say much about them yet.

That's interesting to hear your thoughts on the KO's though. I drive a lot off pavement in the desert, and have often thought hmmm, should I have burlier tires? (I do on my car.)

But for me it's already non-sports-car enough on the highway and I don't want to make it worse. Plus with the combination of not wanting to drag spiky shrubbery down the side, poor departure angle, and having a mini-house inside (with all the associated stuff) --- I'm not exactly burning up the trails anyway. I inch in far enough to get past most of the bigger RV's then call it a day.

I could be tempted by the Yokohama G015 though. I have them on my car which I use a lot on the highway, and which I take further in to the backroads than the Chinook. They are barely any worse than the former (car) Michelins on the highway, and much more confidence inspiring off pavement. I forget who it was, but someone here a couple days ago said they have those on their Chinook. (They are also a lot lighter than the KO's, at least in my car's size.) Might be a good happy medium?

[BobW9]

The G015 might be interesting. I do think if I was doing more off pavement, I might keep the KO's. But I'd want to have a compressor on board then, so I could air down a bit off road and then back up again on pavement going faster. The large treads do give traction... and look cool

[NUUKEEE]

Hey all,

TIRE PRESSURE: Agree with Blue-Go.
Go with tire pressure ratings on the tire.
Had an alignment done at an Alignment Shop resently because there was a slight pull to the right (since I bought "The Nook" in July 2021). I was a bit taken aback when I took the RV home and had a good look at things. The shop had inflated the front tire pressure to 80 PSI on both sides.
So a quick call to the Alinment Shop got me a quick explanation (and a little SCHOOLONG). The tires that are on this Chinook (Cooper) are rated for a max cold fill PSI of 80. Ford door jam sticker shows fronts to run at 65 PSI and rears to run at 55 PSI. The shop said the profile of the tire at 80 PSI will give an even wear (all alignment things being correct) and that if the ride is too stiff, I shoulda, coulda, woulda play with (decrease) the pressure till I am happy ... but again, I need to be clear that the profile of the tire at lower (softer) pressure would likely wear the sholders of the tire faster than the center tread.

TIRE ROTATION: Not to futher confuse anyone (including myself) but, I've got a tire rotation question. While reading the Ford Manual, I see that it calls for only rotating the front tires. To me, that means we leave the rear tires in the rear where they were positioned when initially installed. In other words, Do Not Rotate the rear dual tires.
This is different from every car or light truck I've owned in the past 51 years.

WOW. So, what say you ??

Cheers

N~