Tire pressure with LT tires

[MIHELA]

For everyone with half tons and LT 10 ply tires, what do you run for pressures? For just normal, unloaded driving around. I had mine set at 50 PSI, and I set them at 45 during my alignment and I like it. I have Transforce AT 265-70-17 tires now. In the future I will install a set of 285-70-17 Thunderer Ranger ATRs.

 

[Nad_Yvalhosert]

That depends on what I'm using the truck for.
Now, I only put 6-7k miles on her in a year, so I only rotate the tires twice.
During the winter, with my Western plow, 80 up front, 50 rear.
Come spring, I rotate the tires. Towing my boat, or my 4 wheelers, 50 front, 80 rear.
Basically I never change the tire pressure, just the position

 

[1997]

45 up front.
25-50 in rear depending on what i'm doing, normally 45.

 

[GoToGuy]

Everyday in my 95k2500 is at 35. That keeps the tire profile for good handling and tread wear. If i was towing heavy or heavy load might run up to 45. The reason behind higher pressure is when carrying heavy loads, keeping proper profile, less flexing, less rolling resistance, better handling. If your allways empty or rarely have anything near capacity, running pressure at the higher limit has little advantage if any. My uncle and his suburban " it says 55 psi on the sidewall!?!!" Me" are you carring 5600 lbs per tire? No" " do you have mounted in dual's? No" holy moly it rides like it's on rocks, and everything starting to rattle to death, hit road seams and RR tracks ....reset to 35 when he went for coffee, never told him, over twenty years later....1 win

 

[df2x4]

This is probably going to depend heavily on the specific tire and size, but I find that with stock size tires the door sticker recommendations are pretty close even with stiffer sidewalls than factory. I'm running stock size BFG KO2s on both of my trucks. Load range E on my Suburban ('97 K1500) and load range C on my red truck ('97 C1500). The Suburban's door sticker recommends 45psi for front and rear, and I like it right there with these tires. The red truck's sticker says 32psi front and 36psi rear. I ran it like that for a while but the front end was just a little too floaty for my liking. I bumped them up to 36 to match the rear and that feels great.

 

[Erin]

285/75/16 Kelly edge MT. I run about 35-40 on all 4. Rides like a champ.

 

[Bondovw]

I always run mine at the maximum pressure listed on the tire. I usually tow . If I let some out the truck does ride a little smoother. I like the truck feeling with the max psi more.

 

[Coveman]

Here is the math using a 285/65R18 D with 65 psi in the tire (given the tire’s max load of 3042 lbs at 65 psi) 3,042/ 65psi = 46.8 pounds of carrying capacity per PSI.

46.8 X 60psi = 2,808 pound load carrying capacity per tire
46.8 X 55psi = 2,574 “
46.8 X 50psi = 2,340 “
46.8 X 45psi = 2,160 “

MY TRUCK
Curb weight is 5400 lbs (truck empty) /4= 1350 per tire
MAX GVWR Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is 8600 lbs (truck plus max load) /4= 2150 per tire

so 45 should cover me. IRL not all 4 wheels have the same load so we round up a bit.

 

[scottydl]

I’m not sure about 1500s but my Suburban C2500 had two stickers with tire load info for non-towing and towing. It recommended 35 front / 50 rear for regular driving, and 45 front / 80 rear for towing (which I did with a 9500# travel trailer). Even then I found full 80 psi rear to be way too rough. After weighing my full tow rig and all its axles and looking up an inflation chart for the tires, I reduced to 43 front / 73 rear while towing and that made a big difference. The tires are part of the suspension system so you want them flexible enough to soak up some of the road vibration.

 

[dmhscorpion]

I run 35 PSi all around on my 1999 Tahoe 2 door.
265/75/16 K02 Load range E