Recommended Pressures When Airing Down Truck Camper Tires

Looking for a quick and easy way to improve the off-road performance of your truck camper rig? Try airing down your tires. Sure, you can spend big bucks on flashy, double barrel King Shocks, on locking ARB differentials, and on Banks Engineering air intake and exhaust upgrades, but why spend the money when you don’t have to? This article provides valuable off-road tips on how to air down your truck camper tires and which tire pressures to use when off-roading.

Why Air Down?

How does airing down your tires improve off-road performance? Why is it so effective? First and foremost, airing down improves traction by increasing the contact area of the tire and allows your tires to deform around uneven obstacles thus maximizing grip. Second, tires that have been aired down are easier on your truck’s steering and suspension components. Third, airing down reduces the spring rate of your truck’s suspension system, meaning your tires will absorb impacts more than your springs and shocks. This reduced spring rate results in a softer, much more enjoyable ride. Nowhere were these improvements more apparent than on a recent run we made on Sedona Arizona’s Schnebly Hill Road in our Ram 3500 and Northstar Laredo truck camper.

Schnebly Hill Road (FR-153) isn’t particularly long, it’s only 12 miles in length, but parts of the drive are rough and uneven. The mountain road, which climbs nearly 2,000 feet, really isn’t maintained anymore with parts of it rocky, deeply rutted and pitted. We typically don’t bother airing down our Cooper Discoverer AT3-XLT all-terrain (AT) tires for short runs like Schnebly Hill Road, but after driving on the rough and rocky road for a couple of miles we had enough. On a recent run on Moab’s White Rim Trail we had experimented with a combination of 35 psi front and 40 psi rear and those pressures worked well for us, so we decided to try those same pressures here. We immediately noticed a big difference in how well the truck handled after airing down. We still had to take it slow over the rough and rocky surfaces, but the jarring was much more tolerable.

In contrast with hard and rocky surfaces, the soft sand found in places like the Imperial Sand Dunes and the Virginia Capes provides its own set of unique challenges for the overlander. Sure, it’s smoother and easier on your dental work, but you can also lose traction if you don’t use proper tires pressures. In soft sand, we recommend using pressures of either 20 psi front and 25 psi rear or 25 psi front and 30 psi rear. Other truck camper owners have used pressures as low as 15 psi front and 20 psi rear in the really soft stuff, but we’ve never gone that low. The bottom line is that you have to experiment with the sand you’re driving on.

While on the subject, here are a few tips for driving in sand. Avoid making sharp turns. Doing so with low pressures can peel the tires from off the rims. You’ll also want to avoid sudden stops and fast take offs since these can result in burying your tires. Finally, if you do a lot off-roading, you may want to consider buying a set of mud-terrain (MT) tires like the Cooper Discoverer STT Pro. Featuring aggressive tread patterns, MT tires offer outstanding traction on most surfaces except soft sand. When it comes to tires, contact with the surface is key. The more tire surface in contact with the sand, the better, just be careful that you don’t air down too much to the point where you lose the bead.

Recommended Tire Pressures

What pressures for 10 ply SRW load range E (max 80 psi) tires does Truck Camper Adventure recommend?

• Firm dirt surfaces/Gravel – 50 psi front/55 psi rear
• Uneven surfaces – 40 psi front/45 psi rear
• Rough and rocky surfaces – 35 psi front/40 psi rear
• Sand – 25 psi front/30 psi rear
• Soft deep sand – 20 psi front/25 psi rear

Note: The same pressures apply for both SRW and DRW tires in sand. However, when airing down dual rear wheel tires, care must be taken not to air them down too much where the tires start rubbing.

Deflating Devices

What devices can you use to air down our tires? You can do it the old-fashioned way with the tip of a screw driver, but that takes more time. A much quicker way is to use a set of Staun heavy duty tire deflators. These high-quality tire deflators makes the task of airing down quick and easy. The deflators come factory preset at 35 psi, so if you want a different setting you need to manually set them yourself. Setting them up isn’t that difficult, though. All you need to do is air down a tire to the pressure that you want, then install the deflator and adjust it until air is released. It’s that simple.

If you don’t find this method of deflating your tires appealing, then you might want to check out the ARB E-Z tire deflator. This pretty cool device rapidly deflates your tires, one at a time, by removing the tire’s valve stem core. Air is manually released using the easy to operate sliding valve. The benefit of going this route is that it allows you to quickly air down your tires to individual precise levels using the included tire pressure gauge. The price for the ARB E-Z tire deflator is also half the price of the Staun deflators.

Airing Up

Of course, after airing down your tires after a day on the trail, you’ll need an efficient way to air them back up before hitting the pavement. For this job, we use the VIAIR 450P air portable compressor. This lightweight unit gets its power by connecting directly to your truck’s 12 volt battery. The VIAIR 450P generates an operating pressure of 150 psi for up to 40 minutes before it automatically shuts off for a period of time to cool. It delivers 1.80 CFM free flow at 0 psi while the maximum current draw is 20 amps. The VIAIR 450P comes with its own soft carrying bag, and includes everything you need to air up your tires, including a 25 foot coiled extension hose with quick connect coupler, a gas station style inflation gun with a 200 psi pressure gauge, and an 8-foot-long power cable.

Inflating each Cooper Discoverer AT-XLT tire from 40 to 80 psi takes about eight to 10 minutes, which is a little long, but it’s still within the 40 minute, 100 percent duty cycle spec. You can purchase the VIAIR 450P on Amazon.com for $297.00. Expensive? Yes, but like we always say, you get what you pay for. All things considered, this is a good price for a quality air compressor, especially when you factor in free shipping using Amazon.com Prime.