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Hard or Soft - Advice needed

rob rule

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2011
Messages
160
Hi All
I am about to venture on a trail where there is a lot of volcanic rock. this stuff is like broken glass coke bottles - its hard, brittle and sharp. Also a known tyre eater.
question is " tyre pressure hard or soft?"
some guys swear by the very hard pressure (3+bar) which prevents the tyre flexing and supposedly saves the sidewalls ....or...
the soft (1.5bar) theory that aligns with the soft balloon that is harder to pierce than a firmly inflated one...

obviously, time will tell - but foresight is forearmed.

rgds
 
my vote would be 22 psi if there 285/75/16's, but if the rock is that bad you may be better off with a set of skinnies with the highest ply rating you can get hold of
 
It’s a subject that f much debate, but soft seems to be the recommendation
 
I always air mine down from the 40psi road pressure to 25 psi when of the road
 
Hi Rob.

The pressures I use as a starting point are:

Road 39 psi / 2.7 Bar
Rocks 24 psi / 1.6 Bar
Soft Sand 11 psi / 0.8 Bar.

Seems to go with the concenus. If heavily laden I have the rear tyres a few psi higher than the front. Have a great trip.
 
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I would use narrow deflated mud tyres so the chunky tread was all that came into contact with anything . You can cut treads all day without puncture .
 
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I've done more than a few kms on dirt roads. All the punctures I've had have occurred when the tyres have been "aired down " to cope with gravel. I have started to run harder pressures over gravel and not had a puncture since. Yes its less comfortable and you have to drive more slowly, but on gravel my vote is harder pressures not softer. Different for soft sand and corrugations of course.... and all of this is very tyre make/type dependent
 
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25psi, 50,0000+ miles of piste & no punctures for me. (only punctures I've had were from a screw in a campsite).

If the rocks are sharp jut take a bit more care for the sidewalls
 

Andrew St Pierre White on the other hand prefers the to be inflated, although this conversation Ronny persuades him of the case for deflating

 
ok, some feedback -I chose the "soft" option
200km at 1.5 bar in 4wd, fairly heavily laden at slow speeds (<20km/h)
No bites out of the sidewalls but tread face has been gouged.
All the rest of the team chose the "hard" option +3.0 bar. A fair number of side wall "bites" plus tread face damage.
What was noticeable was the effect the hard tyres had on the track - they slipped and exaggerated the corrugations. - and of course were horrible in the soft patches.
Cannot call this a scientific study as we had an odd mixture of vehicles with a variety of tyres and driver skills, but, AFAIAC the "soft" option won!
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOSlZs_nTqu2lVRnfjB33I8YNecuEDSAzrxguom
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RbnJHfpwDLnTFN1L2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oYnceV7OZYoOQnio2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Re38PovezdgmOwYB3
cheers
 
:think:
ok, some feedback -I chose the "soft" option
200km at 1.5 bar in 4wd, fairly heavily laden at slow speeds (<20km/h)
No bites out of the sidewalls but tread face has been gouged.
All the rest of the team chose the "hard" option +3.0 bar. A fair number of side wall "bites" plus tread face damage.
What was noticeable was the effect the hard tyres had on the track - they slipped and exaggerated the corrugations. - and of course were horrible in the soft patches.
Cannot call this a scientific study as we had an odd mixture of vehicles with a variety of tyres and driver skills, but, AFAIAC the "soft" option won!
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOSlZs_nTqu2lVRnfjB33I8YNecuEDSAzrxguom
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RbnJHfpwDLnTFN1L2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oYnceV7OZYoOQnio2
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Re38PovezdgmOwYB3
cheers
Thanks for the info Rob. Very interesting observation on the effects of tyre pressure on the track :think:.
 
and then a week later some camouflaged metal spike rips the sidewall face to rim trashing the tire....
 
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