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Tire pressure question?

17K views 53 replies 19 participants last post by  FSTDANGO3  
#1 ·
have a question about tire pressures.
I went to check the pressure in the tires the other day. first thing I did was read the sticker on the door and it said 41lbs for the rear and 35 for the front (thought that was a bit strange cuz of the big difference?.) then, while filling up the tires, topping them off a few pound to the spec on the door, I read on the actual tires that they should be 50lbs cold (They were cold).
the tires are Firestone Destination LE`s.

my question is, which pressures do I use? the one listed on the door or the suggested pressure on the actual tire?
 
#27 ·
Actually, with his speeding habits and over inflatted tires? he should only be on the road at MIDNIGHT. This way he'd be less dangerous to other traffic patrons, lol.
J/K Midnight, but on a more serious note, I think just running 35 to 40 max psi max would be your best bet.

Joe
 
#29 ·
JoMc67 said:
Actually, with his speeding habits and over inflatted tires? he should only be on the road at MIDNIGHT. This way he'd be less dangerous to other traffic patrons, lol.
J/K Midnight, but on a more serious note, I think just running 35 to 40 max psi max would be your best bet.

Joe
lol good one?

keep in mind I don't have the stock tires? ihave the falkens 'zeix' 35 series tire?



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#30 ·
Midnite Try Mike method of testing with Water or mine.
You have said in at least 2 post that your tires have blown out after hitting a hole or turning and hitting a defect in the road.
Lower the pressure to what the Door says and I'll bet you ride is nicer as well as saving those Rubber band tires
Steve
DOC Pres
 
#32 ·
you guys got me wondering about my 30psi all the way around but sware that's what's reported in the supplemental tire info that came with the truck for 16-in tire. The 35/41 on the sticker should also have the recommended tire size and should be a 15-in at that pressure. If I think of it I'll scan this in 2nite for reference.
 
#33 ·
I have 16" factory wheels on my D with the Mitchelin LTX M/S and run 40psi all around.,any lower and I don't like the tire stance, looks low.

Ron
 
#34 ·
qwassy111 said:
you guys got me wondering about my 30psi all the way around but sware that's what's reported in the supplemental tire info that came with the truck for 16-in tire. The 35/41 on the sticker should also have the recommended tire size and should be a 15-in at that pressure. If I think of it I'll scan this in 2nite for reference.
30 all the way around? Ford and Bridgestone lost a billion dollars on 26-28# Explorer rollovers. That's too low IMHO

DCDAD said:
I have 16" factory wheels on my D with the Mitchelin LTX M/S and run 40psi all around?
On my 15's, Michelin LTX M/S I've always ran 40 all the way around. X2!

IndyDurango
 
#35 ·
attached is portions of scanned Tire Inflation Pressures 2002 LT Trucks, Wagons, & Vans.
Includes information for Ram 1500, 2500, 3500, Vans, Dakota, & Durango. It appears that 35 psi is called for Ram 1500 with 17-in tires and 30 psi is the minimum for the 16-in optional tire size on the D. Let this post rage on! :)

With all this said I continue to run around 30psi all the way around according to the manufacturer recommendations.
 

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#37 ·
Regaurdless of the data on that sheet, which states 30psi minimum for my 16's, I'm stickin with 40psi. 30lbs would almost make my D squirrly in the turns. Sticks like glue at 40. I'd consider 30 psi dangerously low. But that's just my opinion.

Ron
 
#39 ·
IndyDurango said:
If those are the minimums like you said, then the listing for 4x4 15" is 35-41lbs front and rear. I think on my 15s thus I'm justified at 40 per earlier post.

IndyD
Agreed. By the charts I was justified in my original statement about a link to pressures & tire size as provided by Dodge. According to the chart 40 would be too high for your fronts. It's up to you what to do with the information. based on this post I have decided to go up a few #s myself to say 32 all the way around; based on the chart for my tire size 255/65/16 and 4x2 anything higher than 35 in the rears is too high (30 front.) Guess another way to look at it's the 4x4 has heavier parts (differential, drive, xfer case) so makes sense to need more pressure up front. Just check out the pressure reqmts for the ram truck with snow plow, whoa!

Hopefully there'll be others out there who use the info from the chart to provide the best conditions for their tires. On the flip side, most of you all have the 4x4 with larger tires so higher pressures are probably in order.
 
#40 ·
Without further comment on what the "right" pressure is? one of the nice things about tire pressure is you can try out the different pressures with a 10 minute adjustment that's free, and change back any time you like. So, if you run one pressure and have never tried another, I suggest you give it a try, look at the profile, do the water or chalk test if you want to get detailed, and then see how it handles. Kind of fun to play around a bit.
 
#41 ·
GreenD said:
Without further comment on what the "right" pressure is? one of the nice things about tire pressure is you can try out the different pressures with a 10 minute adjustment that's free, and change back any time you like. So, if you run one pressure and have never tried another, I suggest you give it a try, look at the profile, do the water or chalk test if you want to get detailed, and then see how it handles. Kind of fun to play around a bit.
will likely go up to 35 all the way around myself. :oops: even on 16's
 
#42 ·
Just look at your tires when they need to be replaced. Is the center of the tread worn out/way thinner and the sides thicker/pretty good? You have too much pressure. Are they just the opposite? Too little pressure. If they wear evenly across the whole tread, you're running the right pressure.
 
#43 ·
OK, every thread needs a guinea pig, so I ran a test today. I don't quite believe the results.

I'm running Goodyear Fortera Triple Treds in 275/60R17 size. I've run 35 psi all around since new. The sidewall says 44 psi max pressure.

I was on my usual upstate NY trip the last 2 days. 200 miles each way, same route each way. 150 miles are at 52-62 mph so perfect for optimum mpg, the other 50 miles are highway at 72-74 mph. There was a bit of around town mixed in.

I reset my console when I left my house, and got 13.8 mpg on the way out. This is about what I've gotten this winter on a trip like this, maybe 14.3 max.

I was waiting to meet with a guy today so I pumped my tires up to 40 psi and reset the console, with the entire return trip at the higher pressure. I just got home and the console read 16.2 mpg.

My common sense tells me that 5 psi couldn't have given me 2.4 mpg more, a 17% gain. I'm just reporting the numbers as I saw them, and this was about as even a test as you could have, same trip in each direction. I'll check a few tanks of gas by the numbers and let you guys know what I'm getting now, and I'll have some more highway driving in the next week to test.

The ride was great on the highway and good secondary roads. Its bouncy and hard on bad local roads, with some wheel hop that tells me I probably ought to put some new shocks on. All in all I'd prefer to run a few psi lower but if I keep getting the mileage gain I'll stay with the 40 psi. That's the story, like I said in my prior post its fun to play around with, made the trip go by a bit quicker.
 
#45 ·
GreenD - good test, but I'm not sure it's 100% valid.
We make periodic runs from Albany area to Rochester area and return the same day. We always see better mileage on the return (West to East) than we do on the trip out. Typically 14 out, 16 home. Ditto when we were visiting our daughter in Oneonta - always significantly better on the West to East trip. The prevailing west to east winds have much more of an affect than you'd imagine. Although your trip involves traversing the mountains in both VT and NH, I imagine you're seeing some of the same effect.
I'd agree with Indy - if you can, run the same test, but reverse the pressures. You may still see better mileage on the way home, even with lower pressure, but it may not be as dramatic.

Joe
 
#46 ·
I run the max on the sidewall as well. (didn't want midnite to think he was "wrong" for doing so)
At this point I couldn't care less about the ride. Anyone knows higher pressure = less friction = better gas mileage.
I've never had any uneven wear issues or blowouts.

Sure, running that high for some of you who have offroad tires would be stupid, but a truck that's 100% street, if you can live with the ride, there's nothing wrong with it.
 
#47 ·
Joe, I'll do exactly that, run the same test in the opposite direction. I may make the trip next week, or in 2 weeks at the latest. I know what you mean about wind on the NY Thruway, I used to head out to Rochester/Batavia and then up to Ontario quite a bit. The surprising thing for me was seeing the over 16 mpg, I've never seen that since I've had this D, so no matter what I'm seeing some solid gains.

I'll let you guys know the results.
 
#48 ·
Connman said:
Sure, running that high for some of you who have offroad tires would be stupid, but a truck that's 100% street, if you can live with the ride, there's nothing wrong with it.
I found on my '99 that running with high tire pressures made the wheels hop on rough surfaces (like highway expansion joints) (even with aftermarket shocks), and this caused the ABS to be over-agressive and seriously hurt braking?

but YMMV?

the '03 was much less prone to this due to the very different braking setup?
 
#49 ·
GreenD said:
OK, every thread needs a guinea pig, so I ran a test today. I don't quite believe the results.

I'm running Goodyear Fortera Triple Treds in 275/60R17 size. I've run 35 psi all around since new. The sidewall says 44 psi max pressure.

I was on my usual upstate NY trip the last 2 days. 200 miles each way, same route each way. 150 miles are at 52-62 mph so perfect for optimum mpg, the other 50 miles are highway at 72-74 mph. There was a bit of around town mixed in.

I reset my console when I left my house, and got 13.8 mpg on the way out. This is about what I've gotten this winter on a trip like this, maybe 14.3 max.

I was waiting to meet with a guy today so I pumped my tires up to 40 psi and reset the console, with the entire return trip at the higher pressure. I just got home and the console read 16.2 mpg.

My common sense tells me that 5 psi couldn't have given me 2.4 mpg more, a 17% gain. I'm just reporting the numbers as I saw them, and this was about as even a test as you could have, same trip in each direction. I'll check a few tanks of gas by the numbers and let you guys know what I'm getting now, and I'll have some more highway driving in the next week to test.

The ride was great on the highway and good secondary roads. Its bouncy and hard on bad local roads, with some wheel hop that tells me I probably ought to put some new shocks on. All in all I'd prefer to run a few psi lower but if I keep getting the mileage gain I'll stay with the 40 psi. That's the story, like I said in my prior post its fun to play around with, made the trip go by a bit quicker.
I finally did the NY trip again, same as usual. I left the tires at 40 psi both ways, and got 15.8 mpg on the way out to NY, 16.8 on the way back. So, here's the summary:

NH to NY - 13.8 at 35 psi, 15.8 at 40 psi
NY to NH - 16.2 at 40 psi, 16.8 at 40 psi

I don't know how accurate all this was, the numbers are all off the console. I'm sold that the 5 psi increase gives me around a 2 mpg gain until proven otherwise.
 
#51 ·
I agree Joe, 40 psi is the most I'll go. I do notice the ride difference at the higher pressure. I don't mind the extra bounce, in fact now that I've run the higher pressure for a month I barely notice it, but I'd like to get rid of the wheel hop, shocks should do that.

Like I said in my earlier post, this is a near-ideal trip for mpg, lots of driving at 50-60 mph. Still, I never thought I'd get 16 mpg on any trip so I'm happy seeing these results. I tracked 5 tanks by the numbers since the higher tire pressure and got 1374 miles for 94.8 gal = 14.5 mpg in mixed driving, lots of around town, lots of 70 mph highway. So, overall I'm maybe 1 mpg higher than I was earlier in the winter.