Low tyre pressures.

[breamexplorer]

Just a bit of advice to those that regulary drop tyre pressures for extended runs, mainly long beach runs like double island, After getting new tyres last week end i was going through the old ones looking for a good spare and inside the tyres there were a good half dozen bubbles in each tyre, the largest being the size of a dessert bowl, the tyre guy said it was most likely caused buy running low pressures at speed for extended periods, and most of the time this is what happens on the beach. The tyres showed no signs of this from the out side. The tread was seperating from the carcus of the tyre, could of blown out without showing any warning signs. Makes me wonder about airing down but some times its unavoidable..

[manchild]

Makes me glad that i never drop the pressure .Could be a disaster in waiting the way you described it.
George

[BenDover]

g thats bad!!!! I guess it depends on what tyres your running! size, make etc... I always run bf's as they have a 3 ply sidewall and a rim gaurd on the edge of the tyre (also they have a good stick and rock deflector aswell) . But running 35's we usually in the bush run about 5 - 7 psi with some long road trips in between from track to track (advice using beadlocks though), but on the beach 10 - 12 is usually good. And we always let our tyres down on the beach, bigger footprint and uses less petrol and engine work aswell (just makes life much easier when staying longer than a day). Stay at fraser for weeks at a time and do about 120 130 on the beach allday everyday but shhh.. And i have never had any problems like that... On my 5th set. So maybe try a tougher sideway and purpose built tyre. bfg's or coopers.
It sounds like something a cheap import tyre would do. Do you want to disclose the make?

BD

[finding_time]

I would be interested in the make as well as just been to the shed and had a look at some old bfg's tyres that have done 90,000km's a been driven on at low pressures alot( bush and beach) no apparent problems.

Ian

[choppa]

Makes me glad that i never drop the pressure .Could be a disaster in waiting the way you described it.
George

i'm with george here and can honestly state that i do a fair amount of beach work,,, both here on b/isl and the various beach runs around,,,, i have never dropped psi yet

the days of old when standard tyres were as thin as matches created the need to drop pressure to give a greater spread for traction,,,, and yes before you all start yelling,,, there are places that MAY need psi adjustment,,, but in my opinion,,,, 99% of the beaches in se qld aren't part of the equation by a long shot

also as a foot note,,,,, watch your insurer throw any claim out the window if its found that you were running below pressure,,, makes sense your car is unroadworthy,,,,, and in that frame of mind,,, your car is still unroadworthy if any damage has occured to tyres from running under pressure and creates a blowout which in turn creates an accident,,,,,

there was one of those accident scene investigations shows on tele a month or so back where it showed a cruiser accident on the beach which rolled and killed 3 people (passengers),,,, they pulled this car to pieces,,,, and in the end,,, all was in order,,,, bar the tyres,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

choppa

[breamexplorer]

The tyres were hancook dynamic, 275/70/16 fitted to a 100 series cruiser, new tyres which i hope are worth the money Micky Thompson Baja MTX 285/75/16, the guy told me he has seen a few in conventional car tyres but not as common in offroad tyres,

[finding_time]

you'll be happy with the MT's bit noiser than your used to i think though.

[BenDover]

Choppa, Yeah we have helped people get their cars onto the beach before and even they go allright at low tide in the hard stuff. Its not a case of who's the better driver and has the better truck and dont have to let them down. But when doing alot of soft stuff (high tide) or some tracks on fraser not many people use or even know about (really soft stuff). It saves so much feul and time keeping them down. But the same can be also said for locking in hubs. When my tyres are down i dont even use 4wd and can do all the tracks very comfortably in 2wd with a good lsd or locker. You would be surprised how much more feul you save over a week on the beach.

Mickeys are really good. I had a set of baja belteds. And they where really hard to kill. But noisey as all f#$!. Sounded like a train on the highway. So bfg's all terains for me. 70% road 30% mild offroad.
BD

[choppa]

some good points there ben,,, but all in all if i read this right your agreeing that you don't really need to drop psi if you have enough confidence in your rig,,, whether its hard or not,,

i have no objection in dropping pressure,,, i just think that the hazards in doing so outweigh the benefits,,, most of my life i've had a 4b of some description in the driveway,,, and all up confirming with mrs choppa,, theres been over 20 of em,,,and each had there own character in the sand/mud,,,

we also have been part of a 4b drive day through work commitments that take away 15-30 """new""" owners and give them a taste of what their rigs are capable of to try and show them that they can venture into new territory's without getting into any major prob's,,,,, tyres are always a taboo subject,,,, and thats not from me,,, but the guides on the day

each to their own i 'spose,,, but i think dropping psi to cover se qld ground is a bit of a unwarranted exercise,,,,,

that stated,,, i have a compressor fitted to my truck,,,,, but more for the emergency/help of others than opposed to my dropping pressures,,,,,

choppa

[Tangles]

All good points..Well my 2 cents, you start out with your first 4wd, read a few mags, read stuff on the internet etc,, for beach everyone says drop pressures, OK we do a sand beach course etc.. again drop pressures mantra,,

So go out and after all that and hit a Straddie beach, stop and muck around with the pressures... someone stops and asks if i need help..I reply.. no mate just dropping some pressure etc... looks at me like an idiot etc..drives off with a shake of the head..

Anyway done a fair bit of beach work since then and my theory is ( and feel free to shoot it down in flames) is that for the majority of beach work normal pressures are fine but occasionally for real soft stuff you do need to drop them down, only advantage i see in dropping them down first is your more unlikely to get stuck in the first place.

I found if im going to beach which i know what its like ie straddie for 2 weeks, then you sort of dont worry about it, I didnt worry about dropping pressures at all, but at other places for the real soft choppped up stuff i would.. for me easier on the car... ultimately i reckon its about the comfort or security factor...if you like for the driver/passenger..

Actually for me its really about the 'ease factor' like at Straddie, dropping the pressures for a quick trip down the beach is a pain in the @####.. but for a long extended trip i probably would.. does that make sense?

cheers
Mike

[GBC]

Half the reason the cuttings and tracks get chopped out is from people who don't drop their pressures.

The benefits have been done to death in all the 4wd magazines.

Sorry if I sound gruff, but I've spent too much time stuck behind hopelessly bogged vehicles on single lane tracks who thought they'd "leave them up until they needed to drop them", or worse - stoicly refuse to drop them even though they are bellied out - because it will void their insurance......If I didn't want to go fishing I'd leave them to rust.

Hands up all who've been going for a morning fish north of Ngkala and had to wait an hour or more to cross the rocks because of the above scenario.

Please Mr Parky pull out the corduroy, stop making roads on the islands, and we would not even be having this conversation.

C.J.

[finding_time]

Half the reason the cuttings and tracks get chopped out is from people who don't drop their pressures.

The benefits have been done to death in all the 4wd magazines.

Sorry if I sound gruff, but I've spent too much time stuck behind hopelessly bogged vehicles on single lane tracks who thought they'd "leave them up until they needed to drop them", or worse - stoicly refuse to drop them even though they are bellied out - because it will void their insurance......If I didn't want to go fishing I'd leave them to rust.

Hands up all who've been going for a morning fish north of Ngkala and had to wait an hour or more to cross the rocks because of the above scenario.

Please Mr Parky pull out the corduroy, stop making roads on the islands, and we would not even be having this conversation.

C.J.

Yep !!! I could not agree more!

I'm thinking back 30+ years when getting to sandy cape from hook point took a day. And involved some real effort who remembers the goat track and the section from Indian to waddy The best part of all that effort is you would be lucky to see many other vehicles up there.

Nothing would do Fraser more good than to remove all the ( good idea's) and return it to it's natural state, you wouldn't see a soft roader after about 5 weeks

Ian

[breamexplorer]

From what i seen inside my tyres i will seriously be looking at whether i should drop pressures in the tyres, for beach driving anyway.... For arguments sake,, a 4wd that has standard skinny tyres lets his tyres down and the footprint is simmular or less than that of mine that have not been let down, how could my tyre be doing more damage to the dunes than his?.

[finding_time]

Because its just not about the foot print size, it'a also about hardness of the tyre and a hard tyre will dig in and a soft tyre will float on top. The other area i drop my pressures are when 4x4 in the bush and i generally drop to about 18 psi so i get a bigger footprint and tend to HUG the terrain( eg rocks) not bounce back from it there by loosing traction( very very hard on tyre's though), if tyre's were going to blister on the inside this is where it would happen and i doesn't with good tyres.

[bastard]

In my opinion any one that thinks they dont need to drop tyre pressure of road weather it be beach or bush has obviously had limited off road experience,this is something that has been debated that often that i cant beleive it still gets bought up.