LT air pressures

[hardheaded]

Had a question about LT tires on my sons 15 chevy truck. Can these things be aired down some ? I mean they ride rough.
He has the recommended 45 lbs. in them ,but **** these thing ride like they are square.
I though maybe take them down to 40 or 35 pounds and see how they ride ,but i am worried about the safety on them with less air.

 

[BrianF]

In my old 2011 Ram 1500, I ran 38 to 40 unloaded. I ran the same when I moved up to 10 ply Imbuy aired them up to 65 or so when hauling heavy.

I always ran 38 to 40 in everything. Cars, Trailblazer etc. I prefer a taught ride over the wallowing feel.

 

[I<3oil]

I take mine down to 52-55psi when unloaded

 

[02SE]

Which model of 2015 Chevy truck does he have?
Did it come with LT tires from the factory, and what size are they?
There are various load range LT tires. What load range are the tires?
Is the truck ever loaded up to it's maximum rated payload?
Will he adjust the tire pressures to handle the potential varying load it might see?

 

[CapriRacer]

Had a question about LT tires on my sons 15 chevy truck. Can these things be aired down some ? I mean they ride rough.
He has the recommended 45 lbs. in them ,but **** these thing ride like they are square.
I though maybe take them down to 40 or 35 pounds and see how they ride ,but i am worried about the safety on them with less air.

I'm going to guess the truck is a 2015 Chevy Silverado 1500 with LT265/70R17's..

If that's the case, then you should be very careful using a lower inflation pressure. 45 psi is fairly low for an LT tire - and. Yes! That's for a fully loaded vehicle. The way to tell if lowering the pressure is possible is to do a pressure buildup test. I outline it here:

Barry's Tire Tech: Pressure Buildup Test

Be very careful that you run the test for an hour on the Interstate. That's the worst case for an empty vehicle.

 

[spasm3]

Had a question about LT tires on my sons 15 chevy truck. Can these things be aired down some ? I mean they ride rough.
He has the recommended 45 lbs. in them ,but **** these thing ride like they are square.
I though maybe take them down to 40 or 35 pounds and see how they ride ,but i am worried about the safety on them with less air.

I would not run less than 50psi. LT tires are just going to ride stiffer and rougher.

 

[Rand]

If its a silverado 1500
Put pmetric tires back on it = better ride.
LT tires require more air for the same load vs P metric.

Recommended 45psi by who?
look at the door sticker for stock tire size and psi.

 

[IndyIan]

Had a question about LT tires on my sons 15 chevy truck. Can these things be aired down some ? I mean they ride rough.
He has the recommended 45 lbs. in them ,but **** these thing ride like they are square.
I though maybe take them down to 40 or 35 pounds and see how they ride ,but i am worried about the safety on them with less air.

My Dad has done this for years, but you have to remember to pump them up for any significant load, and you don't have much margin for a slow leak. The thicker sidewalls and tread plys will overheat on the interstate with amount of flexing a P-metric tire would do if they got down to 30 psi.

 

[hardheaded]

You know i don't know where he came up the PSI setting. I guess someone at the dealership told him that.
My 99 Suburban came with LT tires and the sticker on the door said 65 lbs. I should was glad to get rid of those tires. Why would anyone pout LT tires on a 1/2 ton truck ? Maybe if it was down on the farm all the time i could see it.

 

[LWood]

I always do a chalk test on tires,cheap way to get a good ballpark air pressure for a vehicle.
Larry

 

[Kira]

Lots of good considerations in this thread.
Running a 'specialty tire' seems to require flaccid bottomed drivers to actually get up, bend in the middle and adjust tire pressures to the conditions of the day.
What a concept! (sarc.)

 

[sw99]

I run LT tires on the Land Cruiser. 38 psi is perfect for the LC 250. Different vehicles may have different results though. Funny story - Buddy had a 2012 Escape that he had LT tires on. He ran them with the psi on the sidewall, so 80 psi... He wondered why the tires were chipping and wearing in a strange way. He also complained that his shocks were bad .

 

[02SE]

You know i don't know where he came up the PSI setting. I guess someone at the dealership told him that.
My 99 Suburban came with LT tires and the sticker on the door said 65 lbs. I should was glad to get rid of those tires. Why would anyone pout LT tires on a 1/2 ton truck ? Maybe if it was down on the farm all the time i could see it.

So no answers to the questions asked about your sons application, although we can guess that the 1/2 ton mentioned is your sons truck.

Anyway, I have load range E, 10 ply rated tires on a 4Runner. Why? Strictly for extra durability on 4wd trails. Every time I've ventured onto a 4wd trail with lighter construction P-rated tires, I've had tire punctures. So far load range E LT tires have held up to the abuse of the 4wd trails.

If it were driven strictly on paved roads, the light construction P-rated tires it came with would be fine.

 

[hardheaded]

1/2 4x4 Z71 truck. What is the chalk test ?
If it were my truck these tires would be gone, but they are brand new when he bought the truck. They don't have 500 miles on them yet.
Just looking for a better ride from them.

 

[Rand]

1/2 4x4 Z71 truck. What is the chalk test ?
If it were my truck these tires would be gone, but they are brand new when he bought the truck. They don't have 500 miles on them yet.
Just looking for a better ride from them.

what tires are they you still havent said.. it makes a difference.

 

[Rob_Roy]

My Suburban has 245/76/16 Load Range E tires as factory equipment. The manual recommends 35 psi front and 50 psi rear for “comfort” with only passengers and light cargo. It recommends 50 psi front and 80 psi rear for max load.

It rides dramatically better with the lower tire pressure.

 

[Bighorn2500]

40psi on a 1/2ton pickup

 

[CapriRacer]

Just so everyone understands, according to Tire Guides, a publication that lists the tire size and inflation pressure for vehicles sold in the US, SOME 2015 Chevy Silverado's came from the factory with LT265/70R17's with a specified pressure of 45 psi. This is consistent with everything the OP has posted.

That information will be on a yellow sticker on the driver's doorframe.

 

[Rand]

Just so everyone understands, according to Tire Guides, a publication that lists the tire size and inflation pressure for vehicles sold in the US, SOME 2015 Chevy Silverado's came from the factory with LT265/70R17's with a specified pressure of 45 psi. This is consistent with everything the OP has posted.

That information will be on a yellow sticker on the driver's doorframe.

Is that C D or E?

 

[sw99]

1/2 4x4 Z71 truck. What is the chalk test ?
If it were my truck these tires would be gone, but they are brand new when he bought the truck. They don't have 500 miles on them yet.
Just looking for a better ride from them.

Chalk test - Run a thick chalk line across the entire tread. If you have too much psi in the tires, it will only wear the center and leave the chalk on the edges. You are wanting the line to wear off evenly across the tires available tread.