2500 diesel tire pressures

The doorplate on my truck says to fill the tires to 65 psi front and 80 psi rear. Are those pressures ok for tire wear if the truck is being driven with no load?

If not, how would I determine the correct tire pressure to create an uniform tire "footprint" for even tire wear?

Reply to
JustinW
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I would leave front at 65 PSI because it is pretty heavy up there (a lot heavier than rear is with no load) In rear you can safely drop back to 50 or 55 PSI with no load in it.

----------------- The SnoMan

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Reply to
SnoMan

Justin, For what it's worth, my '06 says to inflate the rear to 40psi and the front to 50psi when not loaded. When loaded, it says rear at 70 and front to 60 psi. The tires are load range E with max inflation to 80 psi.

Kevin

Reply to
kvand

Justin, For what it's worth, my '06 says to inflate the rear to 40psi and the front to 50psi when not loaded. When loaded, it says rear at 70 and front to 60 psi. The tires are load range E with max inflation to 80 psi.

Kevin

Reply to
kvand

Justin, while the door plate is fine for the factory installed tires, ALWAYS use the data cast into the rubber on the tire sidewall as the definitive answer to pressure questions.

The pressure it notes is the pressure at which the tires should be run for maximum efficiency of fuel and wear. You can trade some of that wear life and fuel efficiency for comfort of ride by lowering the pressure, but that is exactly what it is.. a trade.

There is no other proper pressure to run tires than the one listed on the sidewall. You can experiment, but each tire and each truck and each driver will have different results. Thus take any info other than the specified pressure on the tire as opinion rather than proven fact.

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."

-Ed Howdershelt (Author)

Reply to
Max Dodge

This is incorrect which is not surpizing consideing the source. The tires show max pressure and max load and the door sticker is supposed to show recommended pressure for projected loads on axles because tire capacity is related to its pressure. Higher pressure will improve MPG a bit but nothing is gained running much past 60 PSI unless your actual load requires you to run more than that pressure. In the "old" days they used to include tire pressure/capacity charts/tables in owners manuals so you new were to set pressure at if you wanted to but today that info is kinda scarce at times.

----------------- The SnoMan

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Reply to
SnoMan

Normally I wouldn't reply to your repeated drivel. However, THIS drivel CAN get someone killed.

Tire sidewalls show recommended pressure and the load that the tire can carry AT the recommended pressure. If you want proof that a problem can be had by underinflating tires, please see Ford Motor Company and Firestone for the results. Numerous lawsuits, brought on by death and injury caused by tire failure, are on the books for anyone to see.

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I'll repeat for those who are hard of understanding:

USE THE SIDEWALL RATING when selecting a pressure for your tire.

If the tires are NOT rated for 60 PSI, you can have CATASTROPHIC results by inflating to 60 PSI. If the tires are rated at over 60PSI, it is possible to overheat the sidewalls, causing CATASTOPHIC results.

AGAIN: Use the TIRE SIDEWALL as the source for PSI rating for the tires you are running.

The reason is "kinda scarce" is because not all vehicles have the samt exact tires on them as they left the factory with. If I were to inflate the tires on my 2000 Ram2500 to anything over 44PSI, I'd be over the spec for the tire. However, the factory tires were able to handle 65PSI (IIRC).

Again, check the sidewall before doing something that could result in injury or death.

Reply to
Max Dodge

i went to my tire shop and asked them. the shop is a nationally known one. they are very strict with their guidlines, they follow the rules all the way. they have to, the liability is too huge.

i asked them. they said USE THE SIDEWALL RATING when selecting a pressure for your tire. no question, no controversy. USE THE SIDEWALL RATING.

Reply to
theguy

Then why exactly do decent tire manufacturers offer documentation with suggested pressures for given loading, operation speed, and ambient temperature?

Check out Michelin or BF Goodrich's websites sometime. They've got a LOT of documentation online.

With radial tires, overinflating-for-the-actual-load actually decreases fuel economy. Also, you generally get 'funny' tire wear (center wear) and the reduced initial contact patch can be a very dangerous situation...

JS

Reply to
JS

Heres an example why this advice is absolute idiocy...

Ex-GF had a 95 Chevy Crapalier coupe, had Badyear Vivas on it from the factory. Sidewalls said *44 PSI* on them. Having always heard the advice you're spewing here I actually pumped them all up to that level. Drove *really* funny, very busy... Got on the brakes a little bit for a yellow-light-going-red on the way back to the house and the ABS kicked in - ON DRY PAVEMENT. Hmm. Must be the cheap tires. Took it back to her to drive.

So a few days later I notice theres a 'suggested' pressure on the door sticker thats something like 30 PSI or somesuch. Set it down to that, handed my girlfriend the keys and told her to 'drive it like she was late for class'. 5 minutes later she returns and the damned sidewalls are scored halfway up, but damn she had a smile on her face. I pushed them back up to 35 psi and it drove fine and the tires wore evenly after that.

On my 92 Explorer XLT, I almost always ran 32 psi. It drove best that way. You could barely go around a curve in the road without the tires squeeling at the sticker-suggested 26 psi, but the sidewall 36 psi was

*WAAAY* too high.

Oh... and I ran 120 psi on my Schwinn 10-speed.. 27x1.25" tires... Tire sidewall rating was either 130 or 150 psi, but 120 is all my old compressor could work itself up to. 120 psi was enough to break all the neighborhood posted speed limits and have the ability to coast *forever* after hitting top speed.

JS

Reply to
JS

Ever check to see what the manufacturer suggested pressures are? Are they the same as the door pillar tag? Which pressure recommendation is readily found while on the road? What pressure would keep the tire in its designed profile and flexibility design, door pillar or sidewall? What tire pressure will keep a tire from excessive sidewall flex?

Congrats! Now, which info is on the sidewall of the tire, the stuff BFG and Michelin publish, or the door pillar specs?

Pure bullshit. Proper inflation via the info on the sidewall (I run 2 lbs less due to variation in guage temp, air temp and tire temp, to keep it just under spec) will keep the tire at its proper contact patch with the road surface while keeping sidewall flex at a minimum, thus lowering rolling resistance.

Center wear is an indication of overinflation of the tire under ANY conditions. A tire inflated to the spec on the sidewall will have proper profile and contact, and will wear evenly.

As could the contact patch of an underinflated tire, seen here in the second drawing.

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As you can see, the tire ALSO loses contact patch when under inflated.

Again, use the info on the tire sidewall for inflation pressures.

Goodyear Viva tires are manufactured exclusively for Wal-Mart, so yeah, It WAS the cheap tires. Furthermore, its very hard to believe that a tire designed for use on a typical passenger car had a pressure rating of 44PSI, since thats well over the norm. They also are guaranteed for 80,000 miles, not exactly a tire that grabs the pavement very well.

This guy found them to be terrible tires and replaced them after 2000 miles.

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Wonder of wonders...... maybe you misread the sidewall and it was 34 PSI like MOST passenger car tires without a speed rating??

A Ford Exploder is automatically DQ'ed as a test vehicle because of well publicized problems in the ratings on the tire and the vehicle. According to easily found data, Ford was incorrect at 26PSI (on the door) and Firestone claimed that anything over 30PSI would work, AFTER they dropped the claim that 36PSI was proper in light of losing money after Ford and Firestone had a huge falling out and $$ started flashing.

Which is irrelevant given the drastic differences in the type of tire and the vehicle.

Reply to
Max Dodge

You may find this more helpful, page 7 of the first link is probably what you're looking for.

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Reply to
BigIronRam

It depends on who you talk to.

I am running BFG 245/75-17E on my dually. I got no documentation other than the doorpost sticker when I bought the truck new.

I emailed BFG and asked for load/inflation tables since they were not to be found on the web.

BFG snail-mailed me the requested tables. They show ratings from 35 psi @ 1100 lbs to 80 psi @ 3910 lbs. for single tire usage. There is no dual tire rating, yet on the sidewall of the tires, they do show a dual rating.

They included a letter that said I should adjust the tire pressures according to the loading.

I emailed them back and asked about dual tire configurations. (My truck has 3600 lbs on the rear axle, 4800 on the front.)

Their answer: "Use the door sticker information." which conflicts with their first answer of "inflate to the pressures shown on the inflation tables for the loading on the tires."

Greg

Reply to
Greg Surratt

I had 2 new front tires put on my dually last week. I took it Discount Tires. When they input my truck (2005 3500 Dually HD) and which tire I had (General) it spit out the tire pressures for a loaded and unloaded truck. Pretty cool.

Loaded Mine was 80 pounds rear on all 4 tires and 65 front. Unloaded 50 to 65 pounds rear and 50 to 65 front.

So, I assume you would adjust them for the type of ride you want. I run mine 55 front and 65 rear when not pulling my 14.5K 5th wheeler. When towing I run all of them maxed out.

Reply to
MoParMaN

Who are you kidding, you reply to his at just about every opportunity and now you are using the Budd fear tactics as well, LOL!

Really Max, I have yet to see a chart on the side wall of any of my truck tires. I do however see a MAX pressure and a MAX load rating. These however are not recommendations, they are MAXIMUM limits.

What point exactly are you trying to make???? Ford recomended a lowered tire pressure to prevent rollovers and it worked. The rest of it amountd to nothing more than lawsuits and bogus accusations about the reason for some defective tire failures. Even in this article, there is no proof that the lowered pressure had anything to do with it and it went on further to mention that Goodyear installed 500,000 tires on those vehicles at that pressure with NO failures.

While this may be valid advice for a CAR tire, it is complete BS for a LT tire.

Where did he or anyone else say to go beyond the MAXIMUM rating on the side of the tire or is this just another one of your distortions? He was talking about an LT tire which many of them if not most have maximum ratings ABOVE

60 PSI.

Wrong answer. The TIRE SIDEWALL is a source of MAXIMUM PRESSURE and CAPACITY for the specific tire, not the only pressure the tire can be used at.

LOL, the chart is there for a reason Max. It is there because there could be huge load differences form one day to the next and if you think that one tire pressure (the max) is valid for the full load range, then you really need to do some reading on the subject.

At least this statement is valid despite what you actually meant.

Reply to
TBone

Ahh yes, another bullshit reply from Tbone.

My door label has NO chart, and notes that the front tires should be at

65PSI, and the rears at 80PSI.

My tire sidewall says it'll handle 3300 lbs at 44PSI.

So in your obviously professional, "know more than Max does" opinion, at what pressure do YOU feel I should keep my tires?

Think carefully.....you'll need a way to spin your way out of the obvious correct answer......

Reply to
Max Dodge

Really now? They didn't lower the pressure to prevent rollovers. They did so to improve ride quality.

Reply to
miles

Once again, Miles jumps into the thread in an attempt to prove me wrong, slips in his own bullshit and lands flat on his face, LOL! Did you even read the article that I was summarizing Miles???

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Now I know that reading comprehension is not your thing but try re-reading the forth and especially the sixth paragraph. You should be done here but if you wish to further entertain us, feel free to reply.

Reply to
TBone

Now go read the full congressional report especially the first 2 of the

3 rounds. Read Fords testimony. The documents you mention raised questions about Ford's position during testimony that accidents involving the Explorer and Firestone tires aren't related to Ford's recommended tire pressure for the Explorer. Fords own testimony is in contradiction to your statements TBone. Try not to base your baseless comments one what you read on the net. Read the congressional testimony as to exactly what Ford said.
Reply to
miles

Ahh yes, the typical Max response when once again being proven wrong.

Mine has that same bogus sticker and it lists the wrong size tires for the truck as well but the truck also came with a tire inflation pressures pamphlet that the owners manual specifically refers to. And on the back page, it has a few chart showing how much load the tires can handle with pressures from 30 to 80 PSI in 5 pound increments for all of the tires that the truck comes with. Gee Max, that is 12 different pressures. Now not all of the tires have values for all of the pressures on the chart as some pressures are either too high or too low for a given tire size but most of them have at least 6 entries. I guess that always filling them to the max is not the only or correct way to go.

Well, according to your absurd logic, you put the wrong size tires on your truck and that could lead to you getting killed.

I don't know, what size and type are the tires, how much of a load do you have on them, and at what speed do you do most of your driving? Just because they hava a max pressure of 44PSI, it doesn't mean that they must always be filled to that level and in some cases, they actually may need to be filled to up to 10PSI ABOVE the pressure rating on the side wall (LT tires only) and this is directly from the tire inflation pamphlet that came with my truck.

I don't need to spin my way out of anything Max. You have just proven once again that you don't know half as much as you think you do.

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is directly from Goodyear and all you need to do is read the second andthird sentence. I think that I will take the word of a manufacturer overyours, no offence intended.BTW, I see in a recent post from MoParMaN that the new low sulfur diesel isjust now coming out. I guess that you were wrong about that one as well Mr.I have been using it for years.

Reply to
TBone

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