Hi...I have a 2wd '92 with standard 245/75 R15 tires. Book recommends 41 rear, 35psi front but I've had the worst time with traction in my slushy street. I need to get sandbags but everyone's been out of stock and I haven't been driving too much because of the traction, I also have a slight coolant leak since the colder weather's been happening (It's now +2 C so everything's wet and yuk)

I dropped tire pressure to 30-35 psi all round and it seems better, but if I do any significant driving, I ought to put a bit more back in, right? As I understand it, underinflation can lead to tires overheating, right?

 

The tires need to be inflated to manufacturer's specs no matter what! Underinflation leads to the outside of the tire wearing too fast and to driving on the sidewall when you turn. Overinflation leads to the center wearing too fast and not as much rubber on the road as is recommended. Get the sand bags and remember smooth on the gas

 

Just to add a little to what 24and14 said, underinflation can lead to the tire overheating, if driven long distances and under load, causing the tire to possibly blow out.

Mike

 

You should run the pressure that the tire says, not always what the truck says!
If you don't think so, look at all the explorers that had blowouts.
I know some will say it was the tires, but it was not the tire it WAS the pressure ford said to run them at...

 

Um nope, it's been proven that it was a bad batch of tires. The compound sat around too long, and a bad call was made to produce tires with it. Firestone is still a great tire, just one bad call. If it was because of the recommended psi there would be a million of them crashed. You should always follow vehicle spec.

Truckin

 

I agree you should follow vehicle specs, UNLESS (Yes there is always a but) they are not OE tires that have the same max pressure and load range as the OE. In other worlds, if you replace a set of OE P series tires with a set of LT load range C tires, do not follow what is on the door. That would be too low for the LR C tires. For P series Ford usually puts 34-35 on the door of an F150. For LT load range C Ford puts 40 on the door. Quite a difference.
Also if it had LT tires OE and you put P series on, you would not want to put 40psi in a tire with a max of 35.

 

I know very well what the outcome was, or should I say what the goverment want's you to think..

All I can tell you is I had a fleet of 150 vehicles and we did a study as well.
We had chevy trucks with the same tire on them and never a problem...

Also when you put a load on a tire that is at "28 psi" which is what "ford" said to run them at it gets real hot and (BOOM)..

I also know that firestone is the smaller of the two companies and since they are both in bed together it is easy to give up the smaller of the two..

Kingfish is very much right here!

 

Firestone knew about the problems,it mostly happened in warmer climates...
you never heard about all the overseas blowout have ya...they knew...but until it happened here,thats when they did something about it...anyhow..

unless your mudding,rock climbing or drag racing,or a nascar racer..lol run the tire at specs

h8louzn,where is your pic gallery? i got a 03 too...you do any mods yet?

 

Not to disagree too much,as you agreed with me , but 28 should really be sufficient for that vehicle at that time. A p series tire will "handle" about 2000lbs at max pressure, which would give you a GVWR of 8000lbs or a 4000lb GAWR. At the limit for an F150, but nowhere near the limit for an Explorer. True it would be lower at 28, but I think still probably sufficient. Also Explorer's weren't the only vehicles having problems with the Firestones. Many others did too. Unfortunately with the family deal between Ford and Firestones, Ford used a lot more of them than anyone else. That is why Ford got the biggest blame and the Explorer a bad name. I watched a video done by Car and Driver where they used an Explorer and set it up to simulate a blowout. With their set up, the tire went flat immediately. At no time did the Explorer show a tendency to swerve, roll over, or do anything other than go straight or have a very easy time to correct up to speeds of 70mph.
Ford also was the one hurt the most both on reputation and monetarily.
I have had Firestones on F150s before, and honestly did not like them. They were okay on dry road, but as soon as you had wet road and hit the brakes, they would lock up and slide. Never had that problem with BFG or Goodyears.

 

I personaly think you should experiment with your pressures. If you are carrying a load,definatly put more air in the rears. But running empty,runn 32 in the rear tires. It will not affect tire wear,and you will have better traction and smoother ride. If you are going to be carrying heavy loads alot,upgrade to LT rated tires. I run 35 psi in the front and 32 in the rear of my truck and i get even tire wear and good traction and ride.

 

Ok Scotte here ya go take a look !



http://community.webshots.com/user/h8louzn

 

Thanks everyone. When I bought the truck it had two good tires and two worn, so I got new tires for the worn ones, the good ones - don't know the load range spec/system but it was rated max 50 psi so they recommended I go with similar so I could theoretically go for the high psi if I was carrying a lot of stuff (this is our second car, the home reno ****ekicker so come spring I might be hauling lots....

So ok, factory/ door label specs....(in Australia, where I used to live, it was widely recommended to go higher than most door label specs, can't remember the reason) but keep in mind the tires themselves - I don't think they specify a minimum pressure so the factory spec is what I should follow as a minimum...is how I'm reading it. Thanks again.

 

If the max psi is 50 on all your tires, they are probably a load range C tire (you will need to verify). I would not go any lower than about 36 on those tires. For my 04, and LR C tires, Ford recommends 40. My 01 had the same load range tires and Ford recommended 38, a somewhat lighter vehicle. Even at 36, you are probably near the lower limit of where you would want to be.