Thread: 2014 Defender 110 - Tyre Pressures

Originally Posted by PAT303

I don't understand the side to side body shake,I've never driven a defender that does anything resembling that,the opposite in fact,coming home from driving LC's at work I had to get used to my defender driving straight and turning with the wheel,LC's turn as an afterthought. Pat

Maybe its my description of the symptom PAT but basically under certain circumstance the vehicle body as a whole will sway side to side, enough that my daughter can hit her head on the window if Im not careful enough over uneven terrain. This happens if my tyre pressure is lower then hard.

The owners handbook and workshop manual for my MY13 DC ute says unladen should be 30psi front, 48 rear. (no tyre placard required in Malaysia)

Fully loaded: same 30psi front. 65 rear

That's all on the boost alloy wheels with 235/85R16 Conti Cross Contact tyres (same as OP)

So I am wondering how you guys in Oz get the mandated tyre placard stating much higher numbers!

I found 30/48 too rough unladen around the city and have been experimenting with 28/28 for the past few months. (I increase pressure with load, or on long high speed highway use).

I run 23/34 on the empty trayback around town. takes some of the banging and crashing out without the tyre temps coming up. SYD-BNE runs much higher closer to book figures. 7.50/16 Michelins

All Terrain BF Goodrich 265/75R 16 I run 29 all round un loaded, 36 rear loaded nice plush ride and tyre wear is fine .

Originally Posted by dromader driver

I run 23/34 on the empty trayback around town. takes some of the banging and crashing out without the tyre temps coming up. SYD-BNE runs much higher closer to book figures. 7.50/16 Michelins

May give these numbers a go, how's tire wear and steering ?

sorry make that 28/34on the 7.50/16.

about 90 000k on a set of 4. Didn't get a bit more as one wheel bearing decided to have a holiday and it wasn't picked up early enough.

No probs with steering.

I run 38-48 psi on road. Depending on load and weather (higher pressures improve traction on wet bitumen).

I have slightly higher wear in the centre of the tread (not much), but it saves the lugs for offroad where they are needed - where I run as low as 7 psi.

I have stopped counting how many km I have done on my MTRs but it is >>60000 km and they are only half worn.

The Maxxis Bighorns are almost worn out at ~85000 km but have travelled coast-coast E-W 4 times and N-S once including the canning and gibb. In fact they have visited every state in Australia at least once (including TAS)!!!

I have 235/85-16s and run 36psi all round unladen, although unladen includes an Outback drawer and a Kaymar tyre carrier, both reasonably heavy items. I recently bought a tyre pressure monitor from Jaycar, about $150 and on a recent trip to Cameron Corner I watched the tyre pressure as the tyres heated up, both at road and off road pressures and with the rear upped to 40 due to the load, the pressure increased 3-4 psi when hot, which I thought good. I ran 30/32 once I hit prolonged dirt and they rose about the same. If they rose more I would have upped the pressures, if less I would have lowered them.

Jeff