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What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy?
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CNSRANCH
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 4:58 am    Post subject: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

Manx-style.....running about 12 psi on the front and 20 on the rear. Should I increase that when towing the buggy?
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 5:12 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

I would. More pressure means less rolling resistance. Also less heat build up in tires if you are towing long distances.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:14 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

When tow-barring a buggy, I go 25 F and 30 R. Then drop the pressure once there.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 10:30 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

Thanks guys.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:22 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

X2 what Joe says. Buy some of those tire pressure deflators the offroad guys use to bring pressures down once you've arrived at your playpen.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:57 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

It never occurred to me to change tire pressures for towing, I leave them the same so that the tires wear evenly all across the tread. If anything should you not lower the tire pressure as the buggy is lighter with no one in it? If you raise the pressure the tires will wear in the center of the tread faster - not?
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:11 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

Considering I have over 50,000 miles in three years on my first set of tires, and they still have about 2/3 tread left, I personally am not worried about the wear flat towing it about 1500 miles a year would cause.

At that point, it is like trying to pick the fly poop out of the manure.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:57 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

I would think that the reduction in rolling resistance by increasing pressure a few pounds would be pretty tiny too.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:57 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

oprn wrote:
I would think that the reduction in rolling resistance by increasing pressure a few pounds would be pretty tiny too.


If you have a trailer drop the pressures to 12psi and take it for a drag, then pump them up to 30 and see the difference.

Overall world fuel consumption could be cut drastically if people would just learn to keep their tires at the proper pressures. It's the single biggest contributor to poor fuel economy, a few psi makes a huge difference. I'll bet you 75% of the cars I've worked on have low tires if not more.

brad
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:06 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

We aren't talking about a trailer with underinflated tires. Wink My buggy drives terribly with overinflated tires. I don't see how anything changes just because I am not in the seat? I never considered the car would need more air pressure if I wasn't in it. So, no, I don't change anything when I put the tow bar on it, but I have found it tows better (and drives better too) when the fuel tank is full.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:23 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

If it's on a tow bar it's a trailer Laughing Laughing Laughing

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:59 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

I agree that most vehicles including trailers have improperly inflated tires. In this part of the world the tire shops put the tires to the max pressure stated on the sidewall of the tire regardless of what the car manufacturer calls for. Tires always go bald in the center here as a result.

They sell more tires that way but if you ask them why they do it they say it's because it's "safer"!
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:34 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

CNSRANCH wrote:
Manx-style.....running about 12 psi on the front and 20 on the rear. Should I increase that when towing the buggy?


I don't see any appreciable difference in tire wear from towing/driving buggy at same tire pressures. But increase the tire pressures if you feel the urge.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:58 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

My buggy gets 12 psi front and 15 rear. Rides better at those pressures.
Figure it would be the same when I tow it ( even lighter with no passengers ).
I check them before every trip.

Change them if it makes you happy.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:28 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

A few months back there was a thread on here that I learned a lot from. There seems to be 2 practical ways to determine the best tire pressure for a given tire and it's load. 1) a light coat of paint or chalk on the tread and drive it to see where the color wears off first. 2) take a heat gun with you and run it across the tread as you drive to see what part of the tread has the highest temperature.

I used the second method and was surprised to see how over inflated my tires were. This was confirmed with tread depth measurement across the tire. I ended up with 12 psi on the front and 23 psi on the back from the tire shop recommended 25 front and 32 rear.

A tire works at it's maximum efficiency when it is loaded equally across the tread, any less pressure or any more pressure reduces it's grip and life.

Ok - we are talking about trailering here and we are not hot rodding around needing maximum tire grip. I get that but why bother fixing what isn't' broken?

We have a sand rail with off road tires, implement 5 rib x 15" on the front and quad 10" x 14" turf savers on the rear. (6psi front, 4psi rear) We towed it on a 2000km round trip a few years back and I just put a set of spare rims with some end of life street tires off the family car on it for the trip and with 2 people and an electric impact it takes 10 minutes to change them over when you get there.

We also have a Manx copy that came with a tow bar and I have towed it for short trips up to 3 hours at a time but generally it gets driven most places we go. I just leave the tires as is. If I was to do any serious towing, as in, behind a motorhome I would get a spare set of steel rims and some used 155 or 165mm wide tires, pump them up to get the lower rolling resistance talked about here and save the "pumpkins" for when I got there.


Last edited by oprn on Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:42 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:38 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

wythac wrote:
Buy some of those tire pressure deflators the offroad guys use to bring pressures down once you've arrived at your playpen.

Interesting, I was not aware of a special tool for this. I have found that a ballpoint pen, twig or even my thumb nail to work well. Do you have a picture to share?
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:26 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

oprn wrote:
wythac wrote:
Buy some of those tire pressure deflators the offroad guys use to bring pressures down once you've arrived at your playpen.

Interesting, I was not aware of a special tool for this. I have found that a ballpoint pen, twig or even my thumb nail to work well. Do you have a picture to share?

Many tire gauges have a nub on them for letting air out of the tire.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:48 am    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

I'm referring to pressure check valves that you attach to the valve stem that you can set to release air til you get to a pressure value that you can set on them. I carry two so I can "air down" quicker than moving one device to four corners. Much more comfortable than having to bend over and hold a pressure gauge to the valve. I carry a small 12v compressor for filling...that takes a bit longer!

I have a few different models, no pics though and dont recall the manufacturer. One really nice $et I bought from an ad here several years ago.

Two other observations:

When towed behind my vanagon, the car tracks better with lower tire pressure but costs 1 to 2 mpg more than when I pump them up.

For most of us, tire wear will never be an issue, because your tires are more likely to need replacement due to age before you wear them down...with a few notable exceptions who are regular posters and high milers!
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 3:07 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

wythac wrote:
I'm referring to pressure check valves that you attach to the valve stem that you can set to release air til you get to a pressure value that you can set on them. I carry two so I can "air down" quicker than moving one device to four corners. Much more comfortable than having to bend over and hold a pressure gauge to the valve.

I must confess that I have not seen anything like that. Yes I have tried to use the nub on the back of the pressure gauge but often they are poorly designed and awkward to use. Most times I just cock the tire gauge off a bit and let it leak to lower the tire pressure.

wythac wrote:
For most of us, tire wear will never be an issue, because your tires are more likely to need replacement due to age before you wear them down...with a few notable exceptions who are regular posters and high milers!

Ah yes the trailer and curb queens. Well, nothing wrong with that, everyone has a different approach to the hobby.
Our buggy came with 40 year old BFG TA's on it, the fronts at about 50% left and the rears about 15% left. We put about 10,000km on it this last season and the rears did not make the summer. They were bald by mid August! The buggy does not gather much dust, if the weather is good someone in the family is blasting about and enjoying it.

Those are actually a winter tire though with no doubt a softer rubber compound.
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:02 pm    Post subject: Re: What Tire Pressure are you Running When Towing your Buggy? Reply with quote

You just proved my point:

If you ran the same amount of miles every year that you did this year, you wouldn't use up your tires within the 7 year period recommended by most tire manufacturers to replace your tires due to age.

And:


https://www.walmart.com/ip/AutoEC-Tire-Deflator-Ki...mp;veh=sem

Google "tire deflators". About fifty different kinds pop up.

I don't see anybody on this forum with a "trailer queen" but I do see several doing thousands of miles in a single trip. Try harder to be respectful when you post please.
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