Poll: To Air Down, or Not to Air Down, and WHY

[Tooltime19]

Ok boys and gals, post up your thoughts and reasons for each.
Im 100% in for airing down for the conditions period. It does work well. It does save long term and short term drivetrain wear and tear. The tires will work better and as advertised guaranteed! You wont break as many axles. You wont need as many attempts at the climb. You wont scare your wife as much. You will impress your friends and impress your neighbors. You will upset those guys with all the crazy high end mods because you showed up to the same spot they thought you would never dare!
The bad part; I wont get to laugh out loud and make fun of that guy driving my dream rig equipped with every mod in town while running full street air pressures make several attempts at a nasty up hill. When a friend who is a rookie running the same vehicle with not one chassis mod except stock size a/t tires, climbes up the same hill the very first time. I will say that tires are just one of many important factors in this story. Yet aired down tires do perform better than the same tire aired up to every day driving.
:cheers::driving:

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Depends, I've been able to do obstacles at Hollister without airing my tires down much, but I tend to have better traction and less wheel spin when I do air down. Also something that stands in my mind is that you're more likely to puncture a more rigid tire (i.e. street pressure) on rough terrain than one that is more squishy and deforms more easily.

If I am going to take the truck on something a bit more rugged than a dirt road with some ruts in it, I'll air down the tires.

 

[ebg18t]

I only air down on the rough stuff. Which for me isn't super often. I just let my pizza cutters do their thing.

 

[fourwd1]

An aired down tire will mold itself around rocks, etc to give better traction, and it provides a wider foot print in sand, mud, snow for better traction. So there's little reason not to air down offroad.

 

[Vantage]

An aired down tire will mold itself around rocks, etc to give better traction, and it provides a wider foot print in sand, mud, snow for better traction. So there's little reason not to air down offroad.

+1.

The difference airing down, even 10psi, is amazing.

When i ran 285/75/16's on 7" wide rims (narrow for 285's). I would air down to 8psi and it was absurd how much traction I had over ~40psi regular pressure.

 

[Doozi]

I always air down when I hit the trails. Aside from the increased traction and reduced chance of puncture, it makes for a much more comfortable ride when you're out on the trails all day.

 

[Casper421]

So, where's the poll?

Airing down is key offroad. I even air down a little if im on washboard/rutted fire roads.

 

[Canazes9]

An aired down tire will mold itself around rocks, etc to give better traction, and it provides a wider foot print in sand, mud, snow for better traction. So there's little reason not to air down offroad.

Well yeah, but you might have to spend $2-300 on a quality compressor (more if it's vehicle mounted). You get no "bling" factor from a compressor - lets talk about rims....

David

 

[zopperman]

Well yeah, but you might have to spend $2-300 on a quality compressor (more if it's vehicle mounted). You get no "bling" factor from a compressor - lets talk about rims....

David

or you can just go to the gas station after :biggrin2:

 

[Canazes9]

or you can just go to the gas station after :biggrin2:

Depends on where you are. I don't fancy having to cover 20-30 miles on a high speed hwy w/ 15psi in the tires.

David

 

[zopperman]

Depends on where you are. I don't fancy having to cover 20-30 miles on a high speed hwy w/ 15psi in the tires.

David

Fair enough. We don't have those problems on the East Coast :wink2:

I usually air down to ~20.
so like [MENTION=1857]fourwd1[/MENTION] said your tires can mold to stuff

 

[Doozi]

Well yeah, but you might have to spend $2-300 on a quality compressor (more if it's vehicle mounted). You get no "bling" factor from a compressor - lets talk about rims....

David

I spent $60 on a dual-cylinder, 12-volt compressor (from Overland Warehouse when they were around) and have used it for about two years without issue. It's gloss red with a yellow hose... kind of blingy!

 

[Canazes9]

I spent $60 on a dual-cylinder, 12-volt compressor (from Overland Warehouse when they were around) and have used it for about two years without issue. It's gloss red with a yellow hose... kind of blingy!

There are a lot of good deals available if you look - sorry if my attempt at sarcasm was lost in typing. I'm a 100% believer in airing down. Good tires aired down make a HUGE difference in all off-road performance situations. I'm continually amazed at the people that will buy a $40K vehicle, spend $10-20K modifying it and then balk at the price of a compressor to refill their tires.

David

 

[JB.]

I think I can attest to the value of soft tires in reducing long term suspension wear. Have accumulated around 5k miles off-pavement on original suspension (xreas) on a wide variety of surfaces. Never had an alignment and the truck tracks perfectly straight. No flats, either.

I'd be hard to convince that airing down is in any way overrated.

 

[JD914]

Aside from the traction improvement is the comfort! Even if I'm not doing any rock crawling, if I'm going off pavement for any amount of time, I air down. It makes the ride so much better - dirt roads go from punishing to tolerable, even comfortable, at nearly any speed.

 

[03_4x4Runner]

Aside from the traction improvement is the comfort! Even if I'm not doing any rock crawling, if I'm going off pavement for any amount of time, I air down. It makes the ride so much better - dirt roads go from punishing to tolerable, even comfortable, at nearly any speed.[/QUOTE

I agree. This is the main reason I air down. It takes a lot of the harshness out of hitting the rocks on the trail in the Arizona desert. It is a day and night difference. There is also a lot more flotation in sandy areas. I air back up with a C02 tank.

 

[Offroader5]

I don't usually air down when just tooling around on forest roads, but if that road is unusually rough or if I'm traveling a pretty backcountry route, it makes the ride that much more enjoyable. If the surface seems very loose and/or covered with sharp rocks, I will usually air down for that. You will have better traction on loose dry dirt with more contact patch and if the trail is rough with sharp objects, the tire will conform so they are less likely to puncture.

Airing down was a normal thing when I was more into rock crawling. My XJ has 35's and was right at home in the rocks and would be aired down every time we hit the trail. I used to air those D range tires down to about 15...but others would go as low as 5-10 if they were running E's or much larger tires in the 40"-42" range. All about traction in that case in lieu of comfort level.

I used CO2 for my air duties and the tank had a permanent home in the XJ, and I'll still take it along in the Runner if I foresee the need to air down during a trip.

The 285/70-17's on the Runner only get aired down to about 20 since it's usually just for comfort level on rough roads.

 

[KingPrat]

An aired down tire will mold itself around rocks, etc to give better traction, and it provides a wider foot print in sand, mud, snow for better traction. So there's little reason not to air down offroad.

Airing down in snow will not increase traction, it will actually decrease traction. You want your tires cutting through the stuff to grippy surface, not floating on top...

 

[JB.]

Airing down in snow will not increase traction, it will actually decrease traction. You want your tires cutting through the stuff to grippy surface, not floating on top...

Only if there is something firm to cut down to that won't drag the frame first. Otherwise, flotation is desired. Since we're talking mainly offroad, aired down is probably going to be desirable in more snow circumstances than not.

 

[KidVermicious]

Well yeah, but you might have to spend $2-300 on a quality compressor (more if it's vehicle mounted). You get no "bling" factor from a compressor - lets talk about rims....

David

$70 for my Viair 90p. You can find the MV-whatevers for less than that. You don't need to spend hundreds on a compressor.

I almost always air down, even if I don't need the traction. It makes the ride much smoother.