Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire LT tire pressure range for Taco

I'm running Michelin E 80 lb max tires on the 1T crew-cab Dodge with Cummins under the hood. My mechanic - who seems to know his sheet - told me 75 all around, bump the rear to 80 when the 3,000 lb camper is in it.

Seems to work, and the ride is fine, but it ain't no passenger car ride, if that's what you want.

The door sticker, IIRC, calls for 55 and 65. Maybe.

My Taco, a 2018 SR5, came with passenger tires and the door sticker said 32 lbs front and back. I've always been meticulous about following the door stickers on all my vehicles and I always got more miles out of my tires than the tire company advertised, even though some of the tire companies publish load charts that indicate that a fully loaded passenger car should have more air. I followed the same policy with the passenger tires that came with the Taco, and there was a lot of even tread left when I bought the ATs.

But we learn new things every day, and now I will be driving a light truck that will sometimes be lightly loaded, sometimes moderately loaded, and sometimes pretty heavily loaded, on pavement and rough gravel roads.

I'm prepared to put the effort into adjusting the tire pressures as needed to get the most mileage out of these - to me - expensive new tires.

I like what I'm seeing about the chalk-test. I'll definitely be doing that.

I like what I'm seeing about the chalk-test. I'll definitely be doing that."

They should be checking your tire wear when they rotate your tires.

"My mechanic - who seems to know his sheet - told me 75 all around, bump the rear to 80 when the 3,000 lb camper is in it."

He doesn't know sheet. I'm running Toyo E 80 lb max tires on my crew-cab Dodge with the Cummins. Max load per tire is 4080 lb at 80 psi cold so with single rear tires my max load based just on tires is 8160 lb. The rear of my truck empty probably weighs around 3000 lb. If I put a 3000 lb camper in it (and all the weight wouldn't be on the rear tires) it wouldn't be near the max tire load of 8160 lb. Like I said Toyo says 51 lb rear for heavy loads in my Dodge diesel. I was told in the past to always inflate your tires to the max cold pressure when hauling a heavy load and that was always wrong. I got 93,000 miles out of the original set of E rated tires my Dodge came with so I must be doing something right.

Lower is almost always better. Beats the truck up less, beats you up less, doesn't puncture as easily

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kz8mmLkeks

Airing them up is for tow trucks, not Tacos.

Out of my last half dozen sets of tires on compact Toyota trucks, I've liked the C and D rated tires best. P-metrics are too light duty and the E-rated are too rough.

I run 35 on my wrangler. Dealer put them at 55 when I had them installed and I kept them that way for 5yrs and 12000 miles. In between the tread are all cracked now

I drive a Nissan Frontier, a similar-sized mid sized truck with D load rated AT tires. Door says 32psi, I usually run 40psi due to the issue K1500 highlights.



This. Heat, baby.



Started hunting and going into the woods with the kiddos. Punched a rock through the factory P-rated tires. Decided I wanted both more mud/off-road grip and less susceptibility to punctures. Been happy.

The biggest downside is the fuel economy hit. Comfort may improve. The factory tires on the Frontier rode like iron. Going to D-rated tires at more psi was less jarring. Going from highway to AT and MT tires can be a sacrifice as AT and MT can wear oddly or be molded oddly and not balance as well as a highway all season tire.

Thanks for the tip, flintlocke. Watched a couple of YouTube videos and did the chalk test this afternoon.

The counter guy at Discount Tire said 38-40 for an unloaded truck. I put 40 in all four tires and tested twice. (Unloaded.) Just the smallest bit of chalk at the edges, both times. I think 38 will be right on the money.

I'll put a little extra in the rear when I'm loaded.

For those who asked about this earlier: These ATs only come E-rated. I didn't get bigger tires. The ATs are the same size as the passenger tires that came on the truck.

I am noticing that in my searches, C rate tires are much fewer in options. I may just go with E rate to get the ruggedness needed/wanted. D rated tires seem to be all but gone.

However, I have found the Falken WildPeak AT3WA, which is a great looking C rate (6-ply) tire that may be a happy medium. The only downside I can see is a lack of reviews in the US as it was primarily a Euro tire, that is now sold more in the US.

Pahntr: I was aware of the Falken, but I based my choice on local knowledge and local conditions.

I talked to local people who were doing what I want to do and asked them about their tires.

I also spent a lot of time looking at pickups in parking lots, and paying particular attention to those with scratched paint and enough dirt to satisfy me that these owners do take their vehicles off the pavement.

BFG ATs are not the only tire of choice here, but there are a lot of them. I do see Falkens as well.

The BFG AT KO is about the gold standard for AT tires that actually highway as well. I can get the Falken from SimpleTire, installed locally to my wife for $807, so I figure that is the way I am going. The C load rating should be a solid compromise in the ruggedness to ride quality ratio.

ETA $850 after Tax

I have 20" d rated "8 ply" ko2s on my 1/2 ton ram I ran them at 40 pounds usually but sometimes I take them down to 35 for a little softer ride. Cant see a need for more than 40 # on a taco.

Bb

Indeed. My next truck tire purchase will be E-rated, not D-rated. Weigh almost the same, but Es much more available.