Why do you air your tires down?

[Stu Olson]

Have you ever had someone ask you that (I assume this person would not be an avid off-roading kind of person)?

I went up to a mountain top radio site location to help some guys in my radio club. It was going to be a short trip for me.....up to the mountain top, install an antenna on the tower, and then back home for lunch with my wife.

I hit the access road about 10 minutes behind the Chevy Tahoe with the other 3 club members. Half way up the first east face of the first ridge, the front tire shreds. (damn Goodyear Wrangler tires)

While changing the tire, I catch up to them. We get going shortly, with one of the other guys now riding shotgun with me (he likes Jeeps). Before we finish the last 500 yeards of the trail, (it takes about 45 minutes) the Tahoe has two more flat tires. These are leaking slow enough that he makes it to the site and parks before they are on the rims.

I spent the remainder of the day shuttling him back and forth to the tire store getting tires.

What did we learn from this lesson? Well, we discovered that the local Chevy service department put 46 psi of air in his tires (or, should I say the one remaining tire that did not blow out). He didn't check them before hitting the trail and they split open on the little shale/limestone rocks on the trail like a ripe tomatoe getting a sharp knife put to it.

Oh well, he learned a valuable lesson. I've never thought about it until today, but this is not the first SUV that has gone to the mountain top (from our club) and suffered a blow out. I can recall several others over the past half dozen years. I've never lost one on that trail (or any other for that matter). I'll bet that the other SUV blow outs were over inflated as well.

Oh....I dropped his tire pressure to 28 psi for the trip home. He made it to the access road with all 4 tires in fine condition....including the one remaining original!

The ONLY cabana boy in this community who has won a raffle!
http://www.stu-offroad.com

[Stu Olson]

As if the above was not enough, I get a call from my wife this morning, after having gotten to work. She asked me if I knew that the right rear was flat on the TJ.

It would appear a previously inflicted sidewall cut finally let go....or, I just got unlucky and caught one on the trail yesterday. It was a slow leaker and it may not have ever leaked flat except that it was positioned at 6 o'clock when I parked in the garage.

Road hazard time!

The ONLY cabana boy in this community who has won a raffle!
http://www.stu-offroad.com

[TJRON]

Well,
I also poked another hole in a GoodYear on my trip out to AZ. This is my second one with the new GoodYears. I have very few miles on them. I ran my BFGs to death and never had a flat.
I'm thinking that the tread on the sidewall is great for rocks and traction, but is a magnet for sticks and pokey things. Unfortunately I do trails with lots of sticks and pokey things. I'm sure glad they're guaranteed but $30 every few outings is kind of expensive. I hope our luck improves.

Ron

I like the way my Jeep is now..... I'd just like it, well, a little higher off the ground with more ground clearance!

[mrblaine]

Ron, Stu, the MT/R's are sorta like u-joints in stock axles. I ran for a year in JV without cutting one, then a previous slice finally let go. If you want, I will be glad to trade you a set of BFG's straight across for those GY's.

You all do realize that time goes by, you do harder and harder stuff. Probably not all the tires fault.

It is impossible to ascertain the value of something until you have paid for it a few times.

[TJRON]

Naw Blaine, I'm doing the same kind of stuff I always do. It's just luck I think. My son went through a set of BFGs in no time with pokey things and swears they are total crap. He didn't have the guarantee either. I'll hang on to 'em and be a little more carefull when I'm in the sticks.
Ron

I like the way my Jeep is now..... I'd just like it, well, a little higher off the ground with more ground clearance!

[Joe Dillard]

Stu, I've had air loss problems too. But mine were caused by driver error coupled to very low pressures. After a few trail attempts to recover by just using my dinky ARB unit, Robert helped with his expertise & got me back to where I needed to be with the help of OBA.

So why do I air down?.....Hopefully to get past where I was before!

[Jolleyman]

I've got a number of people convinced that I need to be able to air down quickly so I can park in my garage. That's also my explanation to "these folks" for why I need OBA.

Since this also a MTR testimonial post, I poked a hole through the Durawall logo with a tree root. The tire only had about a thousand miles on it. Other than that, these tires have taken a beating.

Justin

[Stu Olson]

Blaine....please do not misunderstand my comments about my tires. I am completely happy with my MT/Rs. The fact that mine went flat as a result of this specific trip was what I was commenting about.

As to the difficulty of this trail....well, the trail is well graded multiple times per year in order for standard service vehicles (ie., propane trucks, radio maintenance utility vehicles, etc.) to make the trip up to the radio towers. The average vehicle going up this trail is usually a 4x4 half ton pickup truck with a shell type camper on it and tool boxes in the bed. So....after having spent the previous 3 weekends crawling through some 4ish rated trails, mine let go from a SUV quality graded trail. LOL

I thought that was quite ironic, IMO.

As for doing harder trails....without a doubt this past year that these MT/Rs have seen are much more difficult than what the BFGs did before them.

The ONLY cabana boy in this community who has won a raffle!
http://www.stu-offroad.com