Maria Langer | 📝💎🌵🛥️Tire experts? The boat has six of these #tires on it. They have a total of 3000 miles on them, mostly with the boat on board. They are labeled for max psi 80lbs and I just checked them all and found that they are all at 65lbs. I was going to bring them up to 70lbs but now I'm wondering if I should. After all, either they all lose pressure at the same rate (which is doubtful) or Discount Tire, where I had them installed while the boat was on the #trailer, set them to 65lbs for a reason. Opinions?
Airplanista 🇺🇦@mlanger Maria I have taken all my vehicles to Les Schwab for years and they have free air pressure checks. Just pull in and they jump right on it. I have never seen them look at what the tires say for recommended pressure, they just seem to know. Never had a problem with their tires or pressures. My guess is that your tire shop probably knows something. Maybe they bounce less with lower pressures because you have a big boat? #NotAnExpert
@Av8rdan Discount Tire does the same. I had a bad experience at Les Schwab so I stopped using them. Plus, they're almost only in the west and I tend to drive farther afield.
I'll ask my trailer guy on departure Friday. He should know. I need to stop by there anyway to show him the trailer, which needs repairs when I get the boat off of it.
Wandering HermitDoes the trailer have a tire pressure sticker, or pressures listed in the owner's manual? I'd go with that pressure unless your boat is near or above the limit of the trailer.
Depending on the tire manufacturer, you may be able to call a help line, describe the tires, trailer, and load, and they will tell you what pressures to run. I did that on my truck with BFG.
I never assume that the tires store set the pressures correctly, even when I tell them up front what pressures I want. Although Discount Tire is usually better than most.
@wanderinghermit That's a really good point. I bet it does. Now I just have to track down that manual. I suspect they followed some sort of guidelines when they installed the tires on the way back from Chicago in August 2024. I also had the trailer looked over last year and there's a pretty good chance my trailer guy adjusted the pressure, too. I suspect it's going, but I'll check the manual just in case. I just thought it was weird that all six tires were exactly at 65 pounds.
All of them being at 65 means to me that it was done on purpose. That doesn't mean it was done *right*.
I went through some of this trying to figure out what pressure to use on my wife's horse trailer.
Peter Henry@mlanger You would expect to get 30,000 miles from a tire. A boat trailer is unlikely to clock that distance. Setting the pressure a little lower is likely to wear the tires a little more but the trailer will "bounce" less - just as safe at car+trailer speeds and a better ride.
@thanetric Good to know! This particular boat trailer never goes fewer than 200 miles on a trip. Its longest trip was 2000 miles and there's a pretty good chance I'll be doing that again in October.
Alex K@mlanger I’m with wanderinghermit, I see RVs all the time that have 80 or 90 PSI tires with the RV spec wanting them at 65. Running them at full pressure when not specified can cause all kinds of things to shake loose as the tires are inflated too hard for the size of load they have. Check to see if your trailer has a pressure sticker. I’ve never not found one, except on really old beat up trailers. Usually on the inside of the A frame at the tongue.
@McYukon I will check the manual. I do have it around here somewhere, with the registration paperwork.