Air Pressure "Off Road"

[Mal_W]

I have a D3 TDV6 with OE tyres and I was wondering what the thoughts are on tyre pressures when negotiating 4WD type tracks, rocky, muddy etc. Obviously for sand the pressures need to be dropped but I seem to be getting conflicting views on how much to lower, if at all, on other surfaces.

All advice appreciated.

Mal

[DiscoWeb]

Mal,

There are lots of different opinions about this and to some extent it is a little bit trail and error to see what works for you the terrain and the tyres you run.

Generally I would suggest dropping pressures to between 24 -28 psi for rocky and muddy terrain however you then need to be careful about rim damage on rocky sections.

You can go lower, down to low teens and possibly lower for sand and really tough sections however this is not something I have done yet. Obviously the lower the pressure the great the chance of rolling of rims etc so alway be careful when running very low pressures. Most would suggest that really low pressure should be used to get out of a tight spot and then re-inflated to more normal off road pressures, being the 24- 28 psi.

I am sure you will get other better informed responses than mine but so far this has worked for me.

Regards,

George

[rmp]

The reason there are no fixed answers is becase the correct pressure varies so much dependent on:

- the terrain
- speed you intend to drive at
- tyre profile
- tyre construction
- vehicle weight

At an extreme, a loaded Defender 130 vs an unloaded Suzuki Jimny have totally different pressure profiles.

What I can say is that lower pressures always work better offroad, and you must then lower your speed to compensate for safety and the sake of the tyre. If you are running the OE tyres on 18"s then I would not want to go below about 24psi for the terrain you mention. Replace with tougher tyres on say 17"s and you can go to 20psi, and the 4 psi makes a difference. As has been mentioned many a time before however, the D3 is ultra-capable so there's less need to lower pressures than before.

That doesn't mean to say there's no benefit to lower pressures such as doing it easier, less puncture risk and less track damage, and get in deep enough and you may only be coming out with low pressures.

I agree with George's response too.

[WhiteD3]

Mal,

I used to run my Wranglers around 24-26 off road, lower on sand. I did manage to break 3 tyres by doing various things to the protruding tyre wall, so be warned:eek: