Recommend tire pressure for logging roads?

[Scott R Nelson]

I drop my tire pressure down to 20 psi off road. I air down as soon as I get to the dirt and air back up once I'm on pavement. I'm not concerned driving 5-10 miles on pavement before airing back up when necessary. I have the 35" Sasquatch tires, but we aired down the same on my daughter's Bronco with 33's and that seemed to work well too. It makes a significant difference in ride quality in rocky areas.

I hesitate to go much below 20 psi because of the risk of popping the bead, which will give you an instant flat tire.

Gratutitous photo from earlier today at a local fire lookout at 7550 feet.

Sponsored

 

[EOS]

As @Valhalla has put it well, you get different performance for different situations at different PSIs.

High (36-42 psi): Better gas mileage on highway, stiffer (rougher) ride on road

Medium-High (30-35 psi): Smoother ride on road, worse gas mileage (sometimes -3-5mpg depending on tire)

Medium (25-29 psi): Softer ride on fire/gravel roads, not safe for high speed on road

Medium-Low (18-24 psi): Softer ride on rocks, not safe at higher speed on road

Low (13-17 psi): Softer on the rocks, watch out for your sidewalls if you're not on M/Ts

Super Low (12 psi or lower): Need special tires and config (bead locks) and only needed for max traction on technical rock crawling or mudding

Excellent guide! Should probably be slightly improved and made a sticky! @Moderator !!

A few very minor suggestions:

• 11-14 ish works great on fast/deeper sand without bead locks, even going fast and cornering aggressively.
• "Super low" doesn't necessarily need special tires. You might also call this "Very low"
• Super low should be 5-10 psi for wheeling in deep snow, bead locks advised.
• Lastly "high" will indeed provide improved mpg but at a cost of significantly unbalanced tire wear across the width of each tire.