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High or low pressure on gravel roads High or low pressure on gravel roads
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Equipping the Overland Vehicle Vehicle accessories - Making your home away from home comfortable, safe and reliable.
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  #1  
Old 10 Jun 2009
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One more for soft tyres on gravel. Definitely less punctures IMHO
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  #2  
Old 10 Jun 2009
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Originally Posted by brethouwer View Post
One more for soft tyres on gravel. Definitely less punctures IMHO
Also a more comfortable ride, the soft tyres will absorb a lot of the bumps.
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  #3  
Old 11 Jun 2009
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With the tyre pressures you are talking about, it seems like your vehicle is very heavily loaded!

I drive a 80 series LC and use 2.5 all round for tar, or 2.2 for gravel. I drop it to 1.8 for rocky gravel and 1.2 for sand with 25% more in the rear if I'm loaded.

However, if you are not getting punctures, and your tyres are lasting sufficiently long, then there seems to be no need for change.
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  #4  
Old 11 Jun 2009
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different approaches
I know there is a group of people which find soft tires on gravel / stoney pistes the way to go to prevent punctures. The tires are supposed to form better around the sharp stones.

I personally do not believe in this theory. I only reduce pressure in soft sand and heavily corrugated pistes (for confort). On stoney pistes I allways keep pressure high because the tire side walls do not like sharp stones and with decreased pressure, the side walls become volnerable. I have driven many km through the worst hamadat (stoney) deserts and rocky and rough gravel pistes and have never ever had a puncture due to stones! Only due to Acacia needles. On our way from Netherlands to Cape town we had zero punctures. On our way back, we had a few on our worn tires but again only due to needles.

My 2 cents...

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  #5  
Old 11 Jun 2009
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Originally Posted by noel di pietro View Post
I have driven many km through the worst hamadat (stoney) deserts and rocky and rough gravel pistes and have never ever had a puncture due to stones!
I don't really know how to reconcile this experience with my own, which is directly contrary. Probably the difference involves the fact that I'm using lesser tires on a 2 wheel drive van, cruising forest roads and Alaskan highways under construction. In any case, I've had a lot of flats due to sharp stones over the years. Sometimes these are clearly attributable to excessive speed (of course: with hundreds of miles to go it's difficult to poke along at a speed that works well for my tires), but lowering tire pressure on such roads really helps prevent flats.

So does this apply equally to the far more rugged tires you'd use on an overlanding 4x4? I don't know.

Is the concern about lower pressures limited to sidewall penetrations? I don't know about this, either, having never had a stone puncture a sidewall...although I am old enough to remember the way bias ply tires used to self-destruct if you scraped a curb even at very minimal speeds. But it strikes me that on a graded, graveled road (the original question), the danger of puncturing a sidewall is probably pretty minimal. In true offroad driving, sidewalls are far more vulnerable.

Continuing to mull and hash, cognitively speaking.

Mark
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  #6  
Old 11 Jun 2009
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You need to add into the equation the tyre's aspect ratio when reducing pressures.

Dropping a few psi on a 100% aspect ratio tyre does not greatly expose the side walls to puncture, drop it 15psi and the sidewalls are at real risk. Likewise with a low aspect tyre, reduced pressures expose the rim to damage from large stones/rocks if you hit them at speed or at an angle that can dislodge the bead.

I dont think there is a magic formula that can be applied to all tyres and vehicle combinations, my own belief is that following the manufacturers advice is usually the best in terms of longevity for the tyres/vehicle, usually they have tested the vehicle under fairly similar circumstances or follow field experience.
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  #7  
Old 12 Jun 2009
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Tyre Pressures
I drove for 5 yrs on the gravel and rock tracks of the Omani central deserts.
We always drove on normal road pressures or a little higher in the back if loaded.

Softening the tyre will increasr heat within and ,with the percenpion that you can drive reasonably fast on gravel,leads to blowouts which were common driving reduced pressures.

A couple of other tips;never exceed 80km/hr on gravel;reduce speed with gears in oncomming traffic and oncoming is large(trucks)pull off the road to aviod driving blind in his dust.Driving in dust on gravel roads is one of the biggest hazzards you will face and you cannot rely on others for good safety.
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