Tyre pressures for towing, urgent help please!
We are about to venture out on our first touring trip today and have checked our tyre pressures. They should be 33psi front and rear normally and 35 psi front and 41 psi rear fully laden. We have just checked them and they are all 41psi. The car is only 3 months old and was checked by the dealer about 6 weeks ago so we would be surprised if the pressures are wrong We are imagining that the hot weather has increased the regular pressures from 33 to 41. This is our first time towing and we are a bit nervous. We realise now it would have been better to check them early in the morning before it got hot. But we didn't. What do you recommend, we are supposed to be leaving now.
Comments
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Dealers always over inflate and the same thing happened with our then new car and we hadn't noticed till months afterwards and when we had a tyre repair as well, I think they just pick a number. The hot weather won't have increased the pressure that much (10C increase is about 1psi increase) and anyway it would have gone down again. It is better to check when they haven't been driven rather than early morning. If you think about it people run the same pressure all year, from near zero in winter to over 20 in the summer. I've lived in really hot places where the temperature was in the high 30s all summer and people ran the same pressure.
Just check the max tyre pressure on the tyre and you should be fine (not an expert). Or remove some air on the front if you're really worried.
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years ago I tried up-ing the tyre pressures on my then tow car to the higher pressures, but in my opinion it made no noticeable difference. It also meant though they had to be dropped before I could use the car solo .... I once set off with the higher pressures into the local town (NSL country lanes) & the car was all over the place. I now tow with the 'normal' lower pressures & have had no problems.
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I've always considered very regular checking of tyre pressures along with oil, water and brake fluid levels to be a safe way of motoring, (perhaps I'm old school, taught by my vehicle mechanic father). It's a regular Saturday morning job taking less than five minutes unless the tyres need a bit more air in them which isn't often.
When towing I inflate the tyres to the fully loaded figure as specified for the car but usually drop them down again when we reach our destination especially if staying for a week or more. Driving along poorly maintained roads is a real bone shaker with hard tyres. They then get pumped up again before we leave the site.
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I look at tyres pressures like this .... the caravan should only be adding 75/100kg to the back of the car, OK it's on the very back rather than between axles, I wouldn't need to add more pressure if I gave a lift to a big bloke sat in the back
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That is true when considering the effect of the caravan nose weight, but don't you heavily load your tow car with all the stuff you need for your trip and cannot leave or put in the caravan, because the caravan's payload limit is so stupidly small?
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I must admit that I have a "stupidly high" payload, yet still raise my car tyre pressures to the maximum. The tow hitch load of 75kg most run with is measured as a static load. Go over a bump and that can become a far higher load.
Colin
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