I read on the hamb, and have been told by a couple of people, that the recommended tire pressure for a "T" is 10-15 psi due to its light weight. Is this the general consensus?
If your tire wears in the center let some air out. Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
lower tire pressure will get you a flat foot print with fat tires. not sure on the bounce part, as mine has not hit the road yet.. terrible80 beat me to it.
I think this would depend somewhat on the tire size that you are running. I have 18.5w x 32tall tires on a much heavier car and typically run 10 psi - 12 psi.
My thoughts are if you want a softer ride use a correct spring rated for your vehicles Curb rate. Run your tires at suggested inflated p.s.i. Not 20+ lbs under it.
10 is too low. Ive always Run 24 in front and 18-20 in back on a fendered model A with lots of freeway miles and no weird tread wear at all. I’d start there and see. These cars are too light for full pressure.
That's what I thought. Not looking for a softer ride, just trying to find out what is right. I was already running 35 psi and was told by some other T owners that was to much pressure...
Just have to experiment a little. Wheel width and tire width make each case a little different. With such a light car, running lower air pressure shouldn't damage the tire. When was first out of high school I was driving a 52 Ford Customline with a flathead V8 and working the lube rack at the local Chevy dealer. Of course, I was broke all the time, but I wanted my car to be cool like the kids with money. The mechanic working next to me had a 390 AMX that was pretty hard on rear tires, not the fault of the car. He put new rears on it and I grabbed his take offs. He must have been running a bit too much pressure too, cuz the outside of the tread was about 5/16 and the center was 3/16 or 1/8. Good enough for me on account of the price. They were 14 inch and I think 50 series, anyway the tread was about 10 inches wide. I found a pair of steel 14 inch x 6 wheels from a Mustang for 10 bucks each and I was all set. No problem getting the beads to seat on these, haha. Of course, when I aired them up they got round like donuts on those narrow wheels. I wound up letting the pressure down to 12 pounds to get a flat contact patch. I drove that heavy car with those tires at that pressure for 2 years until I sold it and had no visible additional wear, no weird handling and they looked really cool (to an 18 year old kid). Had the stock 15 inch skinnies on the front. One side benefit was the traction on snow and ice, nobody could believe how well those tires stuck to the surface. A buddy of mine lived with his folks at the top of a fairly steep hill with a long winding driveway. One evening after it had snowed all day I went by his place after work and drove right up that hill in a foot of new snow with my front bumper pushing 2 or 3 inches of snow ahead of it. After a while his mom and dad came in stomping snow off their boots and marveling that I had driven right up their driveway without spinning. They had a 68 or so Chevy 4 x 4 (on bias tires of course) with no posi and couldn't make it up the hill. After 3 tries they walked up. My buddy and I took my car down the hill, loaded up the groceries they left behind and drove right back up to the house. Haha, nothing to it, no posi in mine either.
I started out with about 15-ish Lbs. in the front tires of the T in my avatar. FWIW, with the aluminum Olds V8 the car only weighs about 1400#. I had some random shake and bounce and tried various front end alignment settings. Finally bumped the tire pressure up a bit, maybe low 20's but I can't remember for sure, and the problem has gone away. My thinking is that the pressure being "too low" was setting up some harmonics that were out of the control of the springs and shocks. Lynn
Wow I been running 35 recommended on my Tudor! I will try 25 and see how that goes. 600 x 16’s Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
If 35 is what it says on the side of the tire, that is maximum pressure for maximum load carrying capability. If it was mine I'd try taking it down 3 or 4 pounds at a time and see how it acts. That's the advice I give, haha, what I actually do is let the pressure come down by itself for years at a time until I see there is a low tire or it tries to put me in the ditch, haha. Then I usually check them all.
Max tire pressure on a, say, 7.50 16 Firestone is for a full size car. I’ve been told Ford had a tire pressure chart for certain cars, like less air for lighter cars. Sure, getting the right springs and all that is a good idea, but also sometimes very difficult to keep changing them til you get it right. Doesn’t make sense to use the max when your car is obviously lighter. Especially when many of us run less air with no weird tread wear. I can say less air works and I’ll put 20 years of daily and long distance driving hot rods behind it. ( I do put a few more lbs in for long trips.)
All according to what you call T-bucket! This fella seems to have too much air in ALL his wheels!! 6sally6 PS LUV this picture.........just waiting for a reason to share it!!!!
Depends on the tires as well. If your running the giant Mickey Thompson sportsman's (mine are 31"(?) x18.5" x 15"), they like a lower pressure.I put 30lbs. in mine when I first got them and the damn car was jumping off the ground going down the road. Thought the tires were coming out of round due to too little pressure, so I bumped it up to 35 lbs. Needless to say, it DIDN'T get better. Dropped them down in 5 lb Increments till I got to 15psi, chickened out there. It rode MUCH better, but I still noticed when I spun them the contact patch narrowed down to 12" or so. So now their at 10 psi. Still rides just fine. Sent from my SM-G955F using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Depends on you car - many different things to consider - weight, suspension set up, type and size of tires. But if your looking to get a softer ride buy a Cadillac.
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