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Here's a pertinent example from that Toyo document.
You'll notice the procedure is to take your sticker inflation pressure with your sticker tire size, then back out the loads that the manufacturer was designing the tire for their by using the tire table....... Then look up that load on your new tire and select the correct pressure to duplicate it with the new tire size.
No where no how is there any mention of any minimum pressure that's not on the chart for an LT tire. These are tire manufacturer standards. The correct pressure is the pressure that's intended to carry the loads.
My truck sticker is p265 70 17 at 30/35 front/rear.
The design loads for that are 2026/2163
To switch to an LT 285 70 17 requires 35/36.
You will also note the a caveat that says that putting heavy duty tires on light trucks will require higher inflation pressures to meet the minimum pressure for the tire possibly resulting in a very rough ride.
I can 100% assure you that lower pressure rides much more comfortably. But it definitely gives worse gas mileage..... And these trucks already suck at gas mileage.
But if you want to know why the super duty trucks say 65 psig minimum or such.... Again it's for load hauling capacity. My little F-150 GVWR is 6750 lb. A super duty curb weight is 6750....and its GVWR is about 10,000 lb. Doing a little math the manufacturer seems to rate the tire loads at 1.25 x gvwr. My tire loads for my F-150 seem to be intended by the manufacturer to add up to about 8400 lb.
So that puts the super duty at needing E tires capable of carrying darn near 12000 lb load. Or more if you're going to load it up. It would make sense for a door sticker to say something like that. However that don't apply to a much lighter truck that can't carry nearly that weight. Inflation pressures depend on load.
In short. There's countless other places out there that can answer this particular question accurately. Combining this heavy tire selection with 1/2 ton trucks confuses many.
Suggest going elsewhere to confirm what I've been attempting to make clearer and easier to understand. Fighting hype postings, half truths with little fabrications here and there gets old.
Keep them right around 65 psi and you'll get the most out of them.
My intent was not to start an “oil thread” yet there are some great points made. I am fine with E rated tires on my 1/2 ton as I typically pull an RV, trailers and a 21 ft. Pontoon. Not my daily driver. The previous tires were 11 years old and were about done.
I’ve been running 55/60 unloaded and while the ride is a bit rougher though I believe this will work well for the trip pulling a medium tandem axle with two Motorcycles.
The take always I have seen is contact patch. Being an off and on road Motorcyclist I am very attuned to this.
At these pressures I see full contact and will test the rears once the trailer is on and may increase psi.
Forgive the lengthy post, this also made sense from BFG….
Truck Tire Pressure
BFG; Please understand that the max pressure listed on the sidewall is for heavier vehicles, like 2500 or 3500 style trucks. Your original equipment tires are standard 4 ply tires. So, you would not need to inflate your tires to 80 psi.No, we highly recommend that you don't reduce your tires to 35-40 psi which could cause irregular wear or damage your tires. There may not be a need to inflate your tires above 50 psi. We recommend that you review your owner's manual for the vehicle's payload on what your vehicle can carry in the bed. The BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tire size LT275/65R18 carries 2535 per tire at 50 psi which is very close to the OE tire load at 35 psi. So, you may not need to change the pressures when loading your vehicle. Also, if you are towing with a hitch behind trailer, normally, the tongue weight is 300-500 LBS, so again, there may not be a need to increase the pressures.If we can assist you further, please respond to this email or call us at 1-877-788-8899 (toll-free) between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. EST Monday through Saturday. We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing BFGoodrich.
Sincerely,
Alvin
Consumer Care Department
Certified BFGoodrich Product Expert
First part , about 80 psi is correct. Absolutely no argument about that here from the get go. For a gen 10 150, keep them at the low end 65 psi. 4lbs from yield is probably fine.
The difference is with the way heavy wall /E/10 real truck tires plane at highway speeds..no load. Running them low at no load screws them up. Tread cross section temperature should be consistent the total width of the tread,- at 3 points, special when new at speeds previously mentioned. Yea, looking at your track in the dirt or walking the chalk is not accurate. E's will track at 20 psi...they have the sidewall for it.
Like I posted earlier, you can get 80,000 out of these tires with these trucks.
BTW, I have been running the very same tires you mentioned in post #1...from 2016, - AT3's. Great tires.
They are heavy though. A lot more tire there,
Comfortable tires, If you get the chance to set up for them, -
Fox 2.0's, 7700 calipers /Expy Rotor, -
7 years on them, pretty sure the tread hasn't begun to wear yet...I'll have to gauge them next chance I get.
Btw- Align these trucks yourself, you can do much better job imo...well, vs the shops around here anyway.
