It seems to me after reading a lot of comments on roll overs of 15 passenger Ford vans that there are a couple of thoughts.
Most of them don't have the correct tire pressures when carrying a load and many people wonder why they wander all over the road. Even with 80 psi in the rear tires like its supposed to have when loaded, if there is a blow out there is a good chance the van will go out of control. If someone swings the wheel hard to avoid anything there is a good chance that it will roll over too.
My 15 passenger van handles and corners better than my E150 7 passenger van, but they all have their limits. People need to be informed by reading the manuals and door jams and tire side walls.
You cannot drive an 18 wheeler like a Mini Cooper there are things to think about. You cannot tow a travel trailer an survive well if you don't read up on weight distribution and tire pressures and vehicle weight limits.
I believe that many of these accidents have been caused by negligence. Many church vans sit in the church parking lot for month after month and nobody checks the oil let alone the tires and then they load it up with kids to go to six flags at 70 mph with 45 lbs of air in the back tires, its going to have a blow out.\
I ride motorcycles. The number of motorcycle accidents that are caused by under inflation of tires is amazing. that is the drivers responsibility.
All vehicles are potentially hazardous material cruising down the road, some are worse than others and some we don't have a choice but to make sure that we have done our part to avoid a catastrophe.
When empty I run 55 lbs back and front on my E350. When loaded at all with a decent load or travel trailer I jump straight up to 80lbs psi and with a load it still rides very reasonably well.
Thought I might be able to save someones life.
Andrew.

 

Thanks for the great post! I'm a new E350 owner and would never have thought that high pressures like that were appropriate.

 

Mdub, you, like many other new vehicle owners, need to check the driver's side door sticker for the proper tire pressures under different conditions. Unfortunately, alot of people don't even think to check their tire pressures unless the tire looks low. With a 1 ton rated vehicle class E tires have stiff enough sidewalls that tires can be quite low without looking low. This is even starting to apply to other classes of tires. Like Andrew mentioned about motorcycles I just had a tire at 20 lbs that didn't look any different when I inflated it back up to 40lbs but it sure made a difference in handling.

 

theres a cool dually kit at chromewheel.com for van stability.

 

Friggin tire shop put 40 psi in my e tires after mounting them early this week, sad that they don't use the proper inflation according to the sidewall. I've had my 15 passenger for 4 years, installed air bags inside the coils up front to keep my wheelchair lift from causing premature wear on them, in a manuver to prevent an accident, I sure could tell a difference.
Look at the accidents, all the Firestone/Explorer accidents could have been prevented by driving with common sence, sure a blow out can cause accidents, but you're guaranteeing them when driving it like a car. I get run over more by pickup's and SUV's more than cars, speeding down the HWY weaving in and out of traffic, using it's size to intemidate people, making manuvers that are insane.
Seems the thing to do in the event of an accident most times is skip right over driver error and straight to blaming the manufacture for fault. My legit lawsuit over a bridge that failed a state inspection a year before my accident, guard rail fell off allowing me to go over was getting thrown out, no one is responsible for accidents caused when roads fail. Yet a drunk speeding down the HWY, not seatbelted in, runs off into the median, flipping his Ext cab F-150, buckling the cab causing the drivers door to open, ejecting him, then the truck rolled over him, killing him, family sues Ford for millions and wins. I see it time and time again, yep, I'm pretty bitter over it, how is it that they get paid, when it's their fault, following the law would have saved their lives?

 

> Friggin tire shop put 40 psi in my e tires after mounting them early this week,
> sad that they don't use the proper inflation according to the sidewall.

Not exactly ... when mounting the tire most machines blow in exactly 40 psi to seat the bead. After the bead is seated you are suppose to increase or decrease the pressure. I do not think the guy put that much effort into the job to actually check.

 

Even if the garage did fill them properly, they wouldn't fill the fronts to the max on the sidewall because the proper inflation on your door sticker should be less than the rated max. Very few passenger vehicles have factory recommendations to fill tires to their rated max. The class E tires on the rear of 1 ton vans and trucks are the common exception. The normal pressure for the front tires on 1 tons is usually 55 to 60 PSI instead of the 80 PSI the tires are rated for. In your situation 80 PSI in the front may be the best pressure to use but unless the conversion company changed your door sticker you shouldn't expect to see more than 60 PSI from a garage.

 

You should have seen them, they looked low, squatting actually, that's not very good for those tires, I parked in a spot that made it look like the tire was flat, that's when I realized something was very wrong.

 

All of the above is correct.

I have a CDL to drive everything including school buses. The 15 passenger vehicles are trucks...no way around it. Driver training is severely inept in most cases and licensing requirements for "passenger" vehicles is minimally sufficient. These (and ALL 4x4's that sit higher than their 2x counterparts) are a specilty vehicle and require extra training AND experience to drive them safely. Few average drivers even recognize this. Few average drivers (present company excluded) can look at a vehicle and tell one or more tires are soft.

The "RIGHT" to drive ought to be taken away and the act of driving should be returned to being classed as a "RESPONSIBILITY' like it used to be.

 

I just noticed that my '04 E350 15 pass has Bridgestone Dueler H/L Load Range C tires, not E as spec'd in the manual. I have all 4 corners inflated to 60 psi, and those sidewalls are plenty stiff! There's no "low tire pressure sag" to the sidewalls at all. The ride is great-no leaning or swaying in turns, and it's much less harsh and jittery than with 80 psi. I removed 3 of the 4 benches and have shelving and tools. The total weight in the back is probably about 1000 pounds.

 

I'd suggest tires, your van weighs 8,000 lbs, C tires aren't designed to carry that much, you are playing with fire, over inflating them does not correct the issue either. I took mine over a scale, it's a 99 15 passenger E-350, I removed all but one rear seat and put in a speaker box, you'll weigh the same or more, fix it right.

 

The Bridgestone tires I have are rated for 50 psi, not 80 psi like the load range E. I just deflated them to 50. They are rated for 2205 pounds X 4=8820 pounds. The curb weight for this van is just over 6000 pounds-subtract 250 pounds for the 3 bench seats, add my gear plus a full tank of gas and I'm still at or below 7000 pounds. I have a scale nearby, I will go check the weight and let you know. When it comes time to replace these tires I will go with D or E load range.

 

Hi all, just a quick note, mine is a 2000 E350 SD cutaway van with a house (motor home) The sticker on the door says 65 psi for the front and 60 psi for the duals. The manufacturer of the house recommends 65 for the duals also.
When the tire shop mounted my new Michelins they inflated the duals to 60 psi as per the sticker. When we returned from a short drive the duals were a bit warm and sort of stinky. I filled them to 65 psi as recommended and they never smelled hot since.
May be useless to others, but Just a thought.

 

So I went to the public scale at the landfill, my E350 clocks in at 7500 pounds. That's with all my tools and a full tank of gas. I'm still safe with the load range c tires, but the next set will be at least a d range tire.

 

how can I found out where a public scale in my area is? (jacksonville)