A story about "airing up" for offroading...
Posted by Last Chance Rand on August 14, 2002 at 13:21:31:
In Reply to: Re: airing down, when to do it and where. posted by Pugsly on August 13, 2002 at 21:54:18:
During our Rover club's recent Big Bear Rendezvous we were accompanied by a TV crew in a 2003 Range Rover provided by Land Rover. Although capable as can be right out of the box, it did have those big ugly 19" rims with skinny little sidewalls.
Near the top of the Gold Mountain trail, but after all of the hard stuff, the narrow sidewall on one tire got pinched on the rim and blew out. After changing the flat, we continued only five minutes before a second tire gave out in the same way.
After our good friends from Expedition Exchange expertly plugged one of the blown tires (yes, a "plug" for my friends...) we resorted to OVER INFLATING the tires to prevent them from squishing the sidewalls against the rims! Given the Range Rover's effective electronic traction control, traction was not a problem and the tires held for the remainder of the day.
EXCEPT for the tire with the plugs -- higher air pressure was pushing out the plugs, so we had to keep low pressure in that one tire to retain the plugs.
Note, with periodic inspections, the plugs held for their drive all the way back to West LA!
The moral of this story: Get good offroad rims and tires. Period.