FINALLY taking my green jeep out tomorrow for some wheeling for the first time but I dont have my tires yet. All I have are some 235/blah/blah blah all terrains on stock wheels. Would dropping the air pressure help me out on the trails and if so what is the lowest I would want to go down to without the worry of popping a bead off?
Yes droppinf PSI is extremeley helpful I go 12 -15 range, and have only lost a bead once, but the front end came off the ground and slammed on that tire first....
With stock tires, they have very weak side walls and are more prone to rolling the bead off. So the lowest I'll go would be no more than 12PSI. That will get you out off alot of situations over bigger axles and or tires, espically since its mostly a stock rig.
On my DD Yota I have 33" BF Goodridge Mud Terrians and I ran them down to 7PSI and it took all day to finaly pop off the bead and thats with no beadlocks. It couldnt have happened at any more worse of a time. About 5 feet short from the top of a hill climb at Hollister and wound up almost sideways and with two wheels on the ground. Luckily I had my buddy go up first and he just winched me up.
For Generic trails I run 10-15 PSI with GY MTR 31-10.50 on stock wheels.
For sand dunes i run as low as 6 PSI with them... I have only lost a bead one time at this pressure and then I was being silly by doing donuts in the sand. I had a weak moment and the stupid pedal got the better of me.
I recommend that you get a low psi tire gauge also. Most generic pressure gauges are for like 0-40 or 0-60 PSI... Some are even 0-100 psi and the difference between 8 and 12 PSI will not even register on them. But that maybe the difference between loosing a bead and not loosing a bead
Get a good 0-20 or 0-15 gauge that you trust... They will only be about $5-$8. No need for one of those crazy accurate ones the quarter mile guys run, just a good one.
