BFG All Terrain TA 315x75x16. Any have a recommended tire pressure for normal highway driving? Thanks

 

If you go by the door sticker, you might as well strap on a set of bricks. For normal day to day driving with no heavy hauling I use 60 psi in front and 50 psi in the rear. Check your tire manufacturer to be sure. I have 35" TOYO MT and am just going by tire buldge as a guide. Its a heck of a lot better ride than the pressure recommended on the door (which at this point escapes me but I think it was in the range of 70-72psi).

 

Brother in-law works for major tire dist. He talked to Bridgestone tire Engineers about this very thing and they said "Running tires at anything less than recomended pres. on sidewall of tire will increase potential sidewall damage". So in otherwords run the recomended pres. You bought a truck not a luxury car. LOL

 

I agree with fxstdi. If you are running stock size and stock load range, run the tire pressure on the door sticker. Anything less will smooth out your ride but also create friction. This will heat up your tire (decreasing the life of the tire) and increase fuel consumption.

 

The 70 psi indicated by Ford is primarily for load carrying capacity and is higher than the tire manufacturers recommended pressure. So I'd say it kinda depends on the tire use as well.

 

No, a Load Range E tires max inflation is well over 75 PSI.

 

But the load range only indicates what weight you can carry at a specified tire pressure to maximize the trucks GVW. It is not an indication that the tires should be run a max psi at all times.

 

70 psi + stock F350 suspension + unloaded truck = A ride so firm you need to wear a kidney belt...

While I agree that lower pressures will cause some unwanted effects, primarily extra heat, I don't think you will experience anything like that unless you drop well under 30 psi or so.

IMHO, 45-50 psi for an unloaded truck is optimal, offering a much better ride without any concerns.

 

When i worked at the tire shop we ran most truck tires like this at around 45-55 psi. Any more is just not needed, unless you are hauling stuff. Hell one guy even ran his ten ply tires in his f250 at 35 psi. That was a little low, it wore his tires out faster, but man did it ever ride nice.

 

Who said anything about max inflation?

I told him to run what the door sticker says, which is what the Ford engineers determined to be optimal for the truck, given the truck weight, tire size and contact pattern. Decreasing your pressure changes that contact pattern, resulting in less traction and higher rolling resistance (which leads to shorter tire life and higher fuel consumption). More pressure while unloaded will result in less contact pattern and less traction.

My F-250 door sticker calls for 75 PSI front and rear. This is not the max inflation of the tire. Engineers didn't just pull this value out of a hat and decide to use it.

Feel free to play with the numbers all you want, but the original question was " Any have a recommended tire pressure for normal highway driving?" to which I replied go with what your door sticker says.

If the door sticker is over the max pressure of the tire, you have the wrong load range for your truck.

 

The door sticker is in relation to the exact brand/model tire thats on the truck.... What your lookinng for as to what PSI to use YOU NEED TO LOOK THE SPECS up on the mfgrs chart.. for instance My Generals that came on the truck carry something like 3047# at 80 PSI.. So Ford for towing purposes says run 80 PSI and 65 PSI up front...I dont remember the carrying spec for 65 PSI.. but it HOLDS less. idea being I wont plop extra weight up front but likely will with the rear. . However say If I put a 22" rim on it with a different brand tire the tire may hold 3100#EA @ 50 PSI... Basically will carry more load at less pressure.. and 80 PSI would be well over the max..

 

This has been my bone of contention forever. Mine says "max 80 psi" and "max 50 psi" (rear and front respectively). It says nothing about "normal vs full load" etc. In other words, the 80 is the max psi at a certain load (whatever the load rating is). But it never says anything about unloaded. I rarely drive with a full load, even when pulling my camper. So I have to go with the confused, and say, where do you find the figures for "normal" everyday driving vs "loaded", max tire pressure, which is all I've ever seen?

 

On your door sticker, Ed.

 

The sticker on your door is going to be for the tires shipped on your truck, but more importantly, it's the pressure to run to match the maximum carrying capacity of the truck. Ford only cares that if you load the truck up to the capacity they stated it will handle, that the tires are safe at that load.

The only correct way to inflate your tires is to weight each axle of the truck and set the pressure based on that weight. Does anybody do that? Not most because you don't want to be changing pressure each time you load. But if you are usually running empty, by all means lower your pressure for longer tread life and a better ride.

Bill

 

I don't believe that Ford Engineer has ever had to ride in one of these trucks for extended periods otherwise there would have been a little forgiveness in the suspension to soak up the tooth smashing ride these things have when operated at the recommended tire pressure indicated "ON THE DOOR STICKER". Or maybe the guy was being let go and as a last laugh he decided to make these trucks ride like a brick.

You go to any Ford dealer and complain about the ride and the first thing they will do is make sure that your tire pressure matches what is indicated on the door. You indicate that the sicker is intended to apply only to those tires that came with the truck? Maybe you should send out a bulliten to these clowns advising them that it applies only to the stock tire size and rating. I was charged 125.00 for them to increase my tire pressure and make the ride even worse. I told them to stuff it and they did.

I have been running my tires well below the recommended tire pressure indicated on the door sticke with absolutely no ill effects. I now have 45,000 Km on these tires and based on remaining tread I should get another 30K out of them.

So in answer to the original question "MY OPINION" is to adjust the tire pressure to what you feel is comfortable and monitor you tires for excess wear and heat and adjust the pressure accordingly.