Lowest Sasquatch Tire Pressure for Highway Driving?

[Tilzbow]

Okay, so here’s the deal. I’ll be hunting elk in a few days for 7-10 days. I’m towing the Bronco, with the stock Goodyears, close to the hunt area with my motorhome and staying in an RV park. Each day I’ll be driving 10 - 30 highway miles (60 MPH or so) then it’ll be dirt roads the rest of the day comprised of 70% washboard county dirt roads (probably be able to drive 40 - 50 MPH comfortably), 20% moderate 2 tracks that require 4WD in places and 10% designated Jeep trails that require low 4WD, lockers, etc.

I’m not going to take the time to air down each morning once we get on dirt roads since time will be critical every morning but I’d like to drop the pressure from the recommended 39 PSI and leave it there for the duration, I’m just not sure how low I can go and get away with given the daily asphalt and dirt road driving. I’m thinking 30 PSI will be fine but not sure about going lower. If we get into areas that are really dicy during the day I’ve got no issue with dropping down into the teens and airing back up since I’ve got a portable ARB compressor with me but I don’t expect anything extreme. I expect most of the terrain to be very similar to what I experienced at the Las Vegas Off Rodeo since that’s pretty representative of where I usually go in Nevada.

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[Scott R Nelson]

I've done a few highway miles at 20 psi. You're looking for heat build-up from the lower pressure, which would translate to an increase in tire pressure. There was no detectable difference going five miles. I wouldn't be too concerned driving 20-30 miles at 50 mph and below, especially if it wasn't all at once.

Dropping from 39 to 20 is a BIG improvement in ride in the tough stuff.

 

[Tilzbow]

I dropped the tires to 28 PSI. That was in the morning when temps were in the low 30’s. By late afternoon, after the temps climbed to the low 70’s, pressure increased to mid-30’s. This worked well on the roads I was driving. We drove around 400 miles, mostly on washboard roads, and the ride was real smooth. Traction was sufficient for the Jeep trails we traversed a few of the days. The last afternoon I aired back up to 39 before we went out for the evening and I was surprised how much rougher the ride was on the washboard road.

 

[WheelMe]

In the past I've driven 50 mph at 15 psi on 33" tires with no issues, for the duration of about 20 minutes. With the Territories, I'm confident that it could do the same, and likely better/longer due to its larger size (it'd take longer for tire pressure to build up), backed up by the Bronco's (and most modern cars') real-time tire pressure monitoring system/display in the dash.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I run mine at 36 psi normally rather than the recommended 39 psi, I still get 20 mpg highway at 70 mph. I think 28 psi is a safe bet for the highway that will improve traction without creating too much sidewall heat. Try using an infrared temp gun on the sidewalls and keep dropping until the temps go up. I think 25 is as low as I‘d go for highway use.

I used to run a 35x12.5R17 on my FSB, I ran those at 25 psi for everything offroad except rock crawling where I dropped them to 18 psi. Dropping down under 15 psi resulted in rim hits.

I had to run my Tacoma from the beach into town (beach compressor was locked and I didn’t bring my inflator) at 11 psi, it was difficult to turn and you could feel the extra resistance. Fortunately I only had to go a few miles at 30 mph to get to a gas station with air.

 

[bodean]

Moab Off-Roadeo was roughly 15-20 miles of highway to the trailhead, they ran them at 25psi

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