Howdy all,

I have a question regarding proper tire inflation. I just replaced the tires on my 2003 3500 RAM pickup. This truck is not a dually.

The new tires are BF Goodrich radial trail TAs LT 265 /70/17 mounted on factory rims. The door sticker reads 50 PSI for the front & 70 for the rear.

This truck is my daily driver; 99% of the time I am not towing and carry a light load. What I used to do when towing my 8500 pound RV was to run 70 PSI in the rear & drop it down to 50 PSI when not towing. 70 PSI seemed too bouncy a ride when the truck was running light.

Looking in the Dodge service manual reveals direction to follow the PSI on the door sticker when traveling at 75 MPH or below and to follow what is on the sidewall of the tire (95 PSI in this case) when sustaining over 75 MPH.

I don’t want to prematurely wear the tires. What are you guys running for rear inflation pressure?

Thanks

Vic

 

The door sticker is there from the marketing dept. With factory tires, it will provide a good average smooth ride during the new truck test ride and an average psi to inflate tires for most people. When you do more than average things with your truck, like tow a 10,000 pound camper, then you don't go by that. There is a chart for your specific tire. You can read that and know what capacity your tires have at various inflation. When your not towing, it won't hurt a thing to let some air out for a smoother ride. You can come up with your own preference, but I would start by reading the chart for your tires so you don't run them under inflated for what your truck weighs. personally I prefer a more rigid ride and I've got alot of miles out of my tires. I keep them at full sidewall psi and I rotate them alot. When i sold my 99 using this practice, it left with a pair of tires that were at 90,000 miles with plenty of meat still left.

 

I always run as close to max tire pressure as I can while still retaining good wear characteristics. On my 2wd quad cab SRW I ran all four at 75psi and they did great. Yeah the rear was a little bouncy at times.

On my DRW I run 75 front and 45 rear unloaded.

 

On my '03 QC Dually, I run 65 lbs. all around. I normally get 75K plus on tires. 60 lbs. rides a bit smoother but steering feels a lighter harder. 50 lbs. will get you new tires in a sooner time frame than you'd like. A one ton isn't going to ride like a sedan regardless and I don't mind a little stiff ride if it gets me good tire mileage. Just don't exceed the mfg. pressure of the tire.

 

I run with less than recommended air pressure in all my tires AND I keep less in the rear than in the front because if I keep more in the rears then they tend to wear faster. This has been my experience with every CTD truck I have owned.

 

The proper answer is that you need enough pressure to maintain a flat contact patch. Too mmuch pressure and the patch lifts the outside edges, so your putting all the weight in the center. Too little, and it lifts the center of the tread.

The factory recommendation works well for the stock tire. Once you change the height, width, or type of tire, the factory recommendation is a ghood general guideline.

The best method is to check tire temps. A probe type temp gauge works best, but not a lot of people have them. You can use one of the infrared no contact temp gauges.

Divide the tread into thirds, and check the temp in the middle of each third. The fronts should have a gradual increase in temps from outside to inside. The rears should be even across the tread.

 

i just do what the sticker says and have had no problem

 

Huntsville 3500,

I run the B F Goodrich rugged Trail T/A's 265/70/17 on my 03. That's what came on the truck new. I just installed my third set yesterday. Got 70k miles on the first set. I ran 50 in the front and 40 in the rear when not loaded or towing. I take the pressure to 60 on all four when towing the fiver. Combined gross weight is arond 20k to 21k lbs. The weight on the truck takes it to 9500 lbs. The treads were worn evenly and flat all across the tread. I rotated about every 15k miles. Most driving was freeway and mostly straight roads and around 20k miles were towing.

The second set did not fair as well, but not the tires fault. The roads in NW Arkansas are very crooked, out of one turn into the next and the roads surface is chip seal that is tough on any tire. They were worn evenly but I only got 40k out of the set. One of the second set was the spare that came on the truck. It was worn slightly more than the newer other 3.

I went with the B F Goodrich because I liked the way they handled on the truck and the price was right. I got the last set from Sams Club, $765 installed and balanced.

 

65 fronts
45 rears
yields best results-air up when loaded

 

The DODGE tire pressure ratings are a mirror of a Load & Pressure Table chart of an LR-E tire in stock size, and work beautifully when followed (and Dodge limits respected). Scale the truck to find the point where you need to be. There is no need -- nor is there any benefit -- to inflating past the point specified (overinflated).

Use a tread depth gauge to monitor performance over time. I got 120k from the first set of tires, and may get to 250k before I buy the second set of replacement tires. Correct pressure (plus alignment, balance & rotation) is central to this.

 

thier is a suppmental sticker on the inside of my drivers door that states 60 frt 45 rear UNLOADED use the higher pressures when loaded will try and get a pic of decal latter