What air pressure should I run (now with picts)

[EIB8400]

I just picked up some 37" tsl's for $120 bucks off of craigslist on thursday. What type of pressure do I need to run for street use? They say 65 max psi but, I know there is know way I should run that much. They have about 53 psi now and I still think that is too much. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Are you looking for the best wear (least amount of wear) or best gas mileage? I would rather care about tire wear over anything else if it's a DD. In this case you do a "wet" test. Basically you'll mist the tire tread with water and then drive over a piece of paper and see how much contact pattern you have, add or subtract air until you have a full contact pattern and this will give you the best tire wear. Of course if you care more about mileage then you'll add air to reduce the amount of tread contact which means less rolling resistance which will help with mileage.

 

[CherryK5]

Are you looking for the best wear (least amount of wear) or best gas mileage? I would rather care about tire wear over anything else if it's a DD. In this case you do a "wet" test. Basically you'll mist the tire treadwith water and then drive over a piece of paper and see how much contat pattern you have, add or subtract air until you have a full contact pattern and this will give you the best tire wear. Of course if you care more about mileage then you'll add air to reduce the amount of treadt contact which means less rolling resistance which will help with mileage.

wow testing it like that never even crossed my mind.

 

[EIB8400]

I only drive a couple of times a week so gas mileage doesn't bother me. The tires have some tread left and I figure they will get me through the next year. I know these tires are stiff but at 53 psi it is pretty harsh.

 

[EIB8400]

I never thought about testing it like that either... Scott is the man with a lot of knowledge

 

[4X4HIGH]

Well, if you don't care about mileage or tire wear but rather the quality of the ride then let some air out until you like the ride. FWIW I run 45 psi in my 35" BFG's and the ride quality is good and I can get 50K out of a set of tires at that pressure.

 

[EIB8400]

Cool thank you..

 

[76zimmer]

I would try about 30 on a set of TSL's, they are stiff.

 

[NorCal_Chris]

yeah i run 35 in my tsl's. Works pretty well

 

[EIB8400]

Cool... Thanks for the info guys.

 

[tRustyK5]

Ideal air pressure is when you end up with a 10% gain in air pressure between cold and hot tires. Take it for a run down the freeway to get them warmed up...if the air pressure has gone up more than 10% you need to add air. If the air pressure has gone up less than 10% you need to drop some air. That should give you the best wear and ride.

Rene

 

[Avery4jc]

I run 15-20psi in my 35/15.5-15 TSL SX's but the max on them is like 30psi. They have so much tread and I hardly ever drive it on the street so I just leave it at 15-20 and roll with it.

 

[70jimmy]

Ideal air pressure is when you end up with a 10% gain in air pressure between cold and hot tires. Take it for a run down the freeway to get them warmed up...if the air pressure has gone up more than 10% you need to add air. If the air pressure has gone up less than 10% you need to drop some air. That should give you the best wear and ride.

Rene

Interesting!! never heard that before.

 

[EIB8400]

I got these for $100 and gave the kid an extra $20 for holding them for me. I think I got a good deal. I've been looking for a good deal for months.

 

[tRustyK5]

Interesting!! never heard that before.

Got that from Grim Reaper way back in the day. He spent some quality time with some tire manufacturer reps getting background info for an article he was planning that never got written. It makes sense, and it does work better than most other methods I've seen although it takes a few days to get the tires dialed in.

Even on the Garbage truck I drive it applies. Our fronts (425-65's) are set to 120 psi cold. When I check em at the end of my day and they're 'at temp' they read at 130-133 psi.

When I ran the 39.5" TSL's I found 22 psi rear and 24 psi front was ideal according to this method. They wore evenly across the tread face and lasted reasonably well for big bias TSL's.

You do need a pretty accurate gauge though.

Rene

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

Rene's method is a good one.

~25 psi is a much better starting point than 53 however.

 

[EIB8400]

I will have to try Rene's method. Yes 53 psi was deffinately high, that is why I was asking. The guys at the small shop that I had put the tires on had no idea on how much to run either. That is why they had 53 psi in them to begin with.
Thanks for all of the help. Erik

 

[munepit]

You got a good deal on those tires! Nice find! I have some 38" Toyos running 20psi. And some 42" TSLs running 20psi.

 

[EIB8400]

Munepit, how do they handle on the highway at that low of a pressure? I guess it will be easier for me to play around with different psi once I get a damn air compressor at my house. I guess I could get one of the kids out there with a bike pump??

 

[easttxryda64]

sounds like you found yourself a deal.