OK to "air-down" & drive on asphalt?

C

canyonier

New member
Hi,
I have a 2015 4Runner, Trail. I just mounted a Yakima basket onto the roof rails. Love the T4R and love the basket.
But there is a problem:
The basket height is 1/2 to 3/4" too high for me to drive into a parking garage that I have to use every now and then (medical offices).
As I see it I have 2 choices:
1. Remove the basket, store it until needed, then remount it. (But I love the looks of it on the T4R.)
2. Drive to near the parking garage, air down from 35psi to ? to lower the vehicle about an inch. Then, slowly drive home and pump up the tires. The mileage while underinflated would be about 4 miles.
Now, when we drive off-road in sandy areas it is common to air down and drive thru the sandy desert. But that is mainly driving on sand.
In town, the 4 miles would be on asphalt.
Do you see a problem? Would I be causing tire damage?
Your thoughts and suggestions please?
Glenn
 
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Agreed, buy a lower profile rack, that sounds like a hassle. That said you can drive as far as you want aired down, you just can't drive as fast safely, and your MPGs will be poop-tastic. I drove 150 miles aired down, it sucks, but I did it.
 
canyonier said:
Hi,
I have a 2015 4Runner, Trail. I just mounted a Yakima basket onto the roof rails. Love the T4R and love the basket.
But there is a problem:
The basket height is 1/2 to 3/4" too high for me to drive into a parking garage that I have to use every now and then (medical offices).
As I see it I have 2 choices:
1. Remove the basket, store it until needed, then remount it. (But I love the looks of it on the T4R.)
2. Drive to near the parking garage, air down from 35psi to ? to lower the vehicle about an inch. Then, slowly drive home and pump up the tires. The mileage while underinflated would be about 4 miles.
Now, when we drive off-road in sandy areas it is common to air down and drive thru the sandy desert. But that is mainly driving on sand.
In town, the 4 miles would be on asphalt.
Do you see a problem? Would I be causing tire damage?
Your thoughts and suggestions please?
Glenn
Click to expand...
sounds like a hassle..

im guessing you will have to drop the pressure down pretty far to drop the necessary distance. you will be causing excessive tire wear, and possible lack of vehicle control. it all depends on how low you have to go.

if you feel you must do this, I would suggest getting a good on board compressor.
I REALLY like my Smittyiblt, but there are many out there that will work.
for my 35's from 10psi up to 30, takes about 15-20 minutes for all 4.

smaller tires would take much less time.



http://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-2781-5-65-Universal-Compressor/dp/B004K25GMG

not all compressors are created equal. so check the specs carefully if you decide to go that route.
 
canyonier said:
Hi,
I have a 2015 4Runner, Trail. I just mounted a Yakima basket onto the roof rails. Love the T4R and love the basket.
But there is a problem:
The basket height is 1/2 to 3/4" too high for me to drive into a parking garage that I have to use every now and then (medical offices).
As I see it I have 2 choices:
1. Remove the basket, store it until needed, then remount it. (But I love the looks of it on the T4R.)
2. Drive to near the parking garage, air down from 35psi to ? to lower the vehicle about an inch. Then, slowly drive home and pump up the tires. The mileage while underinflated would be about 4 miles.
Now, when we drive off-road in sandy areas it is common to air down and drive thru the sandy desert. But that is mainly driving on sand.
In town, the 4 miles would be on asphalt.
Do you see a problem? Would I be causing tire damage?
Your thoughts and suggestions please?
Glenn
Click to expand...

Never drive at highway speeds with underinflated tires. Ever.
 
Heat generation occurs in the shoulder of a tire.

On-road, tires cycle faster than off-road because speeds are typically faster and more heat is generated. The tire pressure is critical for minimizing the sidewall compression at the shoulder and heat generation in the shoulder of the tire.

Off-road, speeds are typically lower therefore heat generation is lower which is why deflating off-road is considered acceptable.

Best recommendation is to keep your tires at the recommend pressure based on the sticker on your vehicle.

Regarding the rack:
Keep it and find another place to park
Or get the Gobi Stealth
 
Positives-
You can fit into a parking garage and your rack looks cool

Negatives-
Bad gas mileage
Premature tire wear
Time spent deflating and reinflating
Bad handling which in an emergency causes you to crash
Heat buildup which could cause a blown out
Sidewall damage that later causes a blown out
Etc, I think you get the point
 
The obvious answer is to only use the rack when you need it.

However, if you just HAVE to have those cool points you could surely figure out a way to mount it closer to the roof.

Post up a picture of how it mounts and I'll offer any ideas I may be able to think up.
 
Option 2 is not an option. I am not sure why you would even think that it was. Hobbling to the gas station for an emergency fillup is one thing, daily commute, not matter how little the mileage is just not wise.
Most people could care less about your own personal safety, that is our right to put ourselves in danger, it is completey stupid, selfish, and insenstive to put others at risk for a descision you know to be wrong. Just sayin. EDIT: the circumstance is everything, you live in San Deigo, i think it would be far less an issue if you lived in a small town with few drivers and your chance of an accident were a millionth of that where you currently commute.

Hell 4 miles buy a bike and leave the truck at home :-) that short of a commute is almost sixes if it's surface streets... With bike lanes, of course.
 
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Regarding daily commute, OP said "now and then" and the distance is 4 miles.

For years I've used a scheme for "airing down" I learned from some Western "Desert Rats" for my sand driving on the beaches at Cape Hatteras. I stay in that condition for weeks at a time. Make numerous short trips per day of 3-10 miles on pavement; even sometimes make a trip of 30 miles to get to a good fishin' hole.. Thru many sets of tires I have never seen any noticeable reduction in tread wear or uneven tread wear. Never seen or experienced in sidewall problems. And there are no handling problems.

It works for radials, don't know about other types.

With the vehicle loaded, including people, like you would be in the sand and with the tires cold and at the recommended street pressure, measure the sidewall height from pavement to rim. Check front and back as it can differ depending on load. Then drop the pressure until sidewall height is 3/4 the street pressure height.

This will give a fully flat tread contact with the road surface and not have the center of the tread rolled in toward the rim so you would riding on the tread edges and maybe even part of the sidewall. Thus you have a balloon affect to roll over the sand but will not experience serious tire problems on pavement.

Now that said, sidewall heat is the main problem, even with this scheme, so you keep your speed down on pavement. I do 45 mph or less in cold weather and 35 or less in hot weather. Also be very vigilant for potholes as tire/rim damage are more likely at the lower pressure.

Don't know if this would lower OP's height enough, but if it does, I would not hesitate to "air down" at the house, go to the facility at lower speed, then hit the nearest "fillin' station" with air available upon leaving.

Based on many years experience using this scheme I see no safety problem involved for a "now and then" trip of 4 miles.
 
Why not get a basket that has less height than the Yakima basket? This Rocky Mount 14'er cage basket (43" wide x 53" long x 4" high) has 2.5" less depth/height than the Yakima LoadWarrior model (44 x 39 x 6.5" high) and MegaWarrior model (52 x 48 x 6.5" high), looks good, and is cheaper than the Yakima models. Get your "look" and parking spot in the garage at the same time... 14'er- Cargo Cage Roof Basket
 
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I drive on asphalt with the tires aired down when going from one trail to another in Sedona or Flagstaff. But its never more than 3-4 miles and I never go above 40mph. Also I don't put my tires through that daily, but only every other weekend or so when I go wheeling.

It sounds to me like you would get tired REAL quickly of airing down and filling back up daily. That would be about 30mins a day of work. I agree with everyone else to find another solution. Buy another rack, mount your existing one lower, take the rack off, or put lowering springs on your truck and install 22's with low-profile tires (and then of course add a bunch of stick on chrome from the local auto store).
 
The tires will generate a lot of heat by being underinflated. It's not worth the effort to fill/drain them all the time.

Also even if you don't see obvious damage you can wear out the sidewalls - especially of radial tires - by too many miles even at low speed with low pressure. I've had tires where I ended up breaking the radial cords on a more trail dedicated vehicle before the tires tread was worn out. There were sharp pieces of steel wire that began showing through the mid section of the sidewalls. I never had a complete failure, but I retired those tires early due to the risk. So even at slow speeds it can shorten the tire life if you spend enough miles at low pressure.

Another vote for - take the rack off.
 
Dropping the vehicle 1" is going to require removing almost all the air in the tires. They will basically be flat.

Those roof baskets are actually super easy to take on and off once you have the crossbars and mounting hardware positioned. You should be able to do it in just a few minutes. Honestly I think it would be quicker to remove the basket then air down / air back up.
 
This takes the cake for dumb thread of the day.

Any "cool" factor you get from your Yakima roof rack will be negated by the fact that you look like an idiot driving around on 4 flat tires all the time. Take the rack off, put a Patagonia hat on the dash and a Yeti sticker on the rear glass so people still label you as "cool" and outdoorsy, and for goodness sake keep your tires inflated.
 
I driven about 80-90 highway miles As 22 psi on my KM2's on asphalt to the next off road point. Was too lazy to air up. I had zero issues. Everything will be fine, just drive slower than normally.

If you keep on doing this for a prolong period of time your tires will wear unevenly.
 
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