I am going to be replacing the tires on my 04 1500 4X4 this week. The stock tires are P265/70/17 and the replacements will be LT285/70/17 load range 'D'. Do I still need to follow the air pressure recommended on the door, or will the change from 'P' to 'LT' make a differance? I know that the 'LT' has a higher maximum pressure, but I am not sure about the everyday use pressure.

 

The tire shop should recommend a new pressure and it will most likely be different from the door. What tires are you choosing and do they fit the stock suspension?

 

Always fill tires to the pressure marked on the tire, you'll get a rougher ride because it is just about always 5 lbs. or so more than the door, but you get better tire wear and fuel mileage on the harder tires.

 

Do not fill your tires to the max inflation on the sidewall. That is the pressure needed for the tire to carry it's max load.

Run that air pressure, and you'll wear out the middle of the tire in no time flat, also it'll handle poorly and be downright scary in slippery stuff.

 

I never had a problem. I always run the sidewall pressure, and thats what my mechanic recomends. The door pressure will wear tires just as bad, and can be just as dangerous on slippery roads, it all depends on the driver. If you drive hard, you'll wear hard and get into scary situations. That number is on that tire for a REASON, underinflation is just as bad as overinflation.

 

The door pressure is for the tires the truck rolled out of the factory with. Forget about the door sticker.

The tires you are getting probably have a max pressure around 60-65psi. That will be way too high for optimum ride quality and tire wear.

You don't want under inflated tires OR over inflated tires either.

If your tire shop is any good, they will have some idea what a good psi for the tire and your vehicle is.

Most likely, you are looking at around 40psi.

 

The max psi pressure on the tire is what the tire can handle, not for the specific vehicle and weight.

The door sticker is for the stock tires, like said above.

Once you change the tires to something else, start with the stock door pressure and watch the wear.

Over inflate will cause the center to wear out too soon, under inflate will cause the sides to wear out too soon, you want the whole dang tread evenly on the ground, pressure wise.

That happened in my dak. The tread looked great, but the tires wouldn't stop on wet ground good. They just skidded and activated the abs. It also had a problem taking off from a stop, even slowly from a dead stop when wet. Forget snow.

I have the stock 20's and I'm running 26lbs as we write in a 4X4 QC.

 

I was between the Bridgestone Revo and Michelin LTX AT2 tires for my 1500 4X4. I decided to install the Michelins since the Revos do not come in LT285/70/17. The P265/70/17 Goodyears that I had originally didn't last 40K miles. The Michelin LTX AS on my fathres 2500 have lasted about 60K miles.