[AT] OT truck tires/driveshaft?

charlie hill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Thu May 15 03:49:57 PDT 2014


Jeff I know you mean well by posting that and since I don't
remember seeing you post here before I don't want to discourage
you with a negative reply but I just can't agree with that.

Generally speaking your tires should be inflated to the pressure that 
creates maximum
contact with the pavement.   Put a set of load range  E  tires on a pickup 
truck and inflate
them to their max and try to drive on wet pavement.  You'll be lucky to keep 
the
vehicle under control.   I nearly wrecked my truck once when I bought a set 
of tires
out of town at a chain tire store who did just that.  My vehicle recommended 
36 psi.
The store set them at 50 psi.  I noticed they were very squirrely feeling on 
the way
home but didn't think much about it until I hit some rain and nearly 
wrecked.  Those tires
weren't Load range E, they were just good quality load C tires with a high 
max pressure
rating.

I drove a tractor trailer for many years and we always adjust tire pressure 
to load.  Most of the
time we were running heavy loads and when we were dead heading somewhere and 
it started
to rain we had to be very careful.   Tire pressure is often adjusted down 
for running off road on
soft surfaces as well.  In fact, some tractor trailers now come with a rig 
that allows them to adjust
tire pressure from the cab of the truck.

Running too much pressure (just because the tire says you can) will cause 
premature wear in the
center of the tire as well as making the vehicle hard to handle.   If you 
really want to know how to
precisely set your tire pressure get yourself an infrared thermometer, drive 
the vehicle until the
tires are warmed up good by going around some curves.  Then stop and have 
someone take
temperature readings across the face of the tire.  If the temps are about 
the same on all of the
treads you have them right.  That is how race teams set up their cars for 
racing assuring they
have maximum tire contact.

Others might have different opinions but I know what has worked for me for a 
few million miles
in all sorts of vehicles.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jeff & Ginny Pomije
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 10:16 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] OT truck tires/driveshaft?

Can't speak to the vibration, but tires show the max PSI that they can
handle.  That is not the same as what is recommended by the vehicle
maker.  Usually on the driver's door frame of vehicles is a tag that
gives the recommended tire pressure for that vehicle.

Jeff Pomije

On 5/14/2014 8:39 PM, jtchall at nc.rr.com wrote:
> Dropped the air pressure in the front tires to 65 and the vibration 
> dropped
> to tolerable levels, at times not even noticeable. I had close to 80 in 
> the
> tires, I'm thinking the tires call for 85 or 90 psi. The guy that sold me
> those tires says 65 should be fine. I don't understand the discrepancy
> between what he is telling me and what is listed on the tire.
> Could vibration with higher pressure be a sign of bad shocks (I guess it 
> has
> them on the front, haven't looked). Anyway, got a small load of scrap iron 
> I
> need to haul. Not enough weight to load the truck but I should be able to
> get an idea if the vibration is going to be tolerable.
>
> John
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at

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