Post by Don Ricardo on May 20, 2010 17:51:49 GMT 10
Hi all,
On the recent trip to and from Mildura for the V V Nationals I had an epiphany regarding tyre pressure that I thought was worth sharing.
Some years ago a caravan serviceman recommended that I should run light truck tyres on our 1949 14 ft Don and I have followed that recommendation since. I have run the tyres on 35 psi and have always had some side to side sway on the van over about 85 kmh (90 kmh on a good day) - to the point where traveling faster felt unsafe.
When I had the brakes serviced a few months ago the serviceman (a different one), told me that the pressure in the tyres was too low and that I should run them on 50 psi. I was a little hesitant but the tyres are good for a maximum of 65 psi, so I thought 'why not?'
The epiphany was that the caravan behaved entirely differently - going to Mildura I could happily sit on 100 kmh without any sway at all. In fact at times I forgot the van was there. That's never happened before - previously the van has always wagged its tail just to remind me who was in charge (it was)!
Looking back through the posts on the forum I note that both Loveshack and Daggsey found that 50 psi in light truck tyres gave their vans good stability on their around Australia trips. Daggsey commented that running 50 psi was good for traveling an extra 10 kmh, and in my case I would say an extra 15 kmh.
Searching through the posts it appears that tyre type and tyre pressure is an extremely individual thing. Some get better running out of light truck tyres, others out of radials. Some by lowering the tyre pressure, others by increasing it.
What all this shows is that if you have a misbehaving van when traveling it is worth experimenting.
I underline the fact that running your tyres at 50 psi applies to light truck tyres only.
For what it's worth...
Don Ricardo
On the recent trip to and from Mildura for the V V Nationals I had an epiphany regarding tyre pressure that I thought was worth sharing.
Some years ago a caravan serviceman recommended that I should run light truck tyres on our 1949 14 ft Don and I have followed that recommendation since. I have run the tyres on 35 psi and have always had some side to side sway on the van over about 85 kmh (90 kmh on a good day) - to the point where traveling faster felt unsafe.
When I had the brakes serviced a few months ago the serviceman (a different one), told me that the pressure in the tyres was too low and that I should run them on 50 psi. I was a little hesitant but the tyres are good for a maximum of 65 psi, so I thought 'why not?'
The epiphany was that the caravan behaved entirely differently - going to Mildura I could happily sit on 100 kmh without any sway at all. In fact at times I forgot the van was there. That's never happened before - previously the van has always wagged its tail just to remind me who was in charge (it was)!
Looking back through the posts on the forum I note that both Loveshack and Daggsey found that 50 psi in light truck tyres gave their vans good stability on their around Australia trips. Daggsey commented that running 50 psi was good for traveling an extra 10 kmh, and in my case I would say an extra 15 kmh.
Searching through the posts it appears that tyre type and tyre pressure is an extremely individual thing. Some get better running out of light truck tyres, others out of radials. Some by lowering the tyre pressure, others by increasing it.
What all this shows is that if you have a misbehaving van when traveling it is worth experimenting.
I underline the fact that running your tyres at 50 psi applies to light truck tyres only.
For what it's worth...
Don Ricardo