Thor Forums

[Sweetbriar]

Originally Posted by PS Cruisign

That was an absolutely awesome post. Sure it makes one think. The only thought is I am not up at 3 am. LOL. Let me chew on your thoughts a bit. I think I might need one of those stools so I can sit while adjusting tire pressures!

Cheers

The thing is you're constantly chasing a number attempting to achieve multiple conflicting goals. You can set for a comfortable ride but your compromise mileage or you can reduce for fear over over inflating but when temperature cools you'll be under inflated or,,,,. The problem is changing pressure on a hot tire will cause other problems later, specifically where the pressure will end up once the tire and air cools down, at 3AM.

Use the TPMS to monitor (the M in the name). Easy to do a quite check in the morning and ensure the numbers all look good, above minimum. On the road you're looking for consistency. Pressures and temps are rising about the same percentage. There will be some variation and you just need to get a feel for your configuration and how everything settles in once warmed up. Pressure are going to go up due to heat but as long as you started out at the correct pressure you should be OK. There are many years of engineering, mistakes, improvements and research getting you down the road. You can either trust it or head on out on your own. Just keep in mind if you make a mistake the results can be ugly.

And of my scenarios -
1. Hot Side - leave them alone. They will balance back out once cool.
2. Altitude Change - Pressures will be above minimum when you arrive at Pismo due to heat but you probably get a 3AM low pressure alarm IF you reduced pressure while up on the mountain. It's about a 10 PSI change.
3. Air Temp Changes - Much the same as the altitude change. Above minimum while on the move but below once cold.

Tires are pretty amazing considering what we put them thru and the service they provide even after the abuse. But there are limits and a big preventable tire killer is low pressure for the load regardless of is the tire is rolling or sitting still. As long as the pressure is above the limit for the load at any given moment you'll be OK. Be it 3AM sound asleep in the campsite or high noon at 60 MPH crossing the bottom of Death Valley in July.