Airing tires down

[J_Winslow]

Keep in mind the chrap 20 buck walmart special will not work. They will melt before you get all your tires refilled.

I use the ARB twin compressor mounted under my passenger seat.

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[kah.mun.rah]

I air down with the built-in deflate valves on my TeraFlex wheels:




And air up with an ARB Twin and Speedflate:

 

[6.2Blazer]

In my opinion, airing down in most situations is more about ride comfort than traction (The same reason I disconnect the sway bar every time we go off road regardless of the need for articulation). Wash board roads in the desert are rarely lacking for traction, but rolling over them at 15psi sure is a lot more pleasant. Obviously if I’m just driving 10 minutes down a dirt road, the time isn’t worth the effort. If I’m traveling multiple hours down even a simple graded dirt road, the increased speed I can travel thanks to the comfort factor is going to save me time even with the air down and up time. I’d rather drive home at freeway speeds at 20psi than wheel for hours at 30psi, but to each his own.

I agree with this comment. Didn't mention ride comfort in my post simply because it's not really relevant for the trails in my area. These are all tight and low speed technical trails. If riding for miles on rough roads through the mountains or deserts than airing down can definitely be worth it for ride comfort.

Back to air compressor recommendations. Don't waste your time with anything that plugs into a cigarette lighter plug as those simply don't pump out enough air to inflate the tires in a halfway reasonable time. For a portable compressor it needs to be one that has clamps that connects to the battery.

 

[txj2go]

Its not a question of Safe, unless you are driving at high speeds.

I meant safe with respect to not unseating the bead of the tire. This is what I had read, but as other people have posted here this might not be completely accurate.

 

[smokeythecat]

And you have a day or two to air up. LOL.

imagine the triceps you’d build up…

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