Playing the devil's advocate....


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Posted by hank jr on April 25, 2003 at 16:22:09:

In Reply to: Airing down and Air compressors posted by dvScotty on April 25, 2003 at 12:56:33:

While this may be contradictory to the beliefs of most desert travelers here, I don't recommend one air tires down solely for convience and comfort factor. Airing down should be done only to traverse deep sand or certain rocky areas which would be impassable for your rig without a larger tire footprint.

When you air down tires you make your sidewalls much more vulnerable to blow outs. Last time on the racetrack road, three of the five vehicles I saw (all pickups or SUVs might I add) had a flat tire on the road itself. You see, contrary to popular belief, it is not the size of rocks that wreak havoc with sidewalls, but rather their sharpness and the strength of the given sidewall and where the rock happens to puncture. A small pointy rock which you won't even notice at 15 mph could do a better job ruining a sidewall than a huge rock you crawl over on the Echo Canyon trail.

Especially with stock tires, which don't have the beefed up BFG 3-ply sidewalls, why risk a higher chance of having a flat for added minimal comfort? Personally, I'd rather bounce around a little more than spend time changing a tire on a desert backroad, and then have to fork over 160 bucks for a new one.


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