Terrible wet weather traction: tires or truck?

[Eddo Rogue]

Wow I didn't think this would be such a hot topic, I appreciate so many responses so fast....seem to be a common and shared experience.

For all of you breaking my balls about the 50psi. You are correct, and it seemed high to me as well. but these are LT tires, so the sidewalls call for higher psi ratings. I have the same tires on my F150 (different size) and they call for 80 psi, which I run at 55psi loaded or not. They work fine, just occasional bumpsteer. The truck and tires ride much better loaded down.

Anyways back to the ranger, The tires dont look overinflated or anything...But I will drop them down to 30-35psi and try it out.

Also yea they are a little loud, but I don't care about things like noise or tread life. Being the last thing to touch ground holding up my 4000lbs of metal machinery, traction is my priority.

 

[racsan]

The only time I know of (and I may be wrong) is for trailer tires, I was told once that trailer tires should always be at the max inflation listed even if there was minimal load involved.

 

[Curious Hound]

Wow I didn't think this would be such a hot topic, I appreciate so many responses so fast....seem to be a common and shared experience.

For all of you breaking my balls about the 50psi. You are correct, and it seemed high to me as well. but these are LT tires, so the sidewalls call for higher psi ratings. I have the same tires on my F150 (different size) and they call for 80 psi, which I run at 55psi loaded or not. They work fine, just occasional bumpsteer. The truck and tires ride much better loaded down.

Anyways back to the ranger, The tires dont look overinflated or anything...But I will drop them down to 30-35psi and try it out.

Also yea they are a little loud, but I don't care about things like noise or tread life. Being the last thing to touch ground holding up my 4000lbs of metal machinery, traction is my priority.

Door sticker trumps sidewall numbers. The tire sidewall tells you the max pressure to run if using the tires at their max load rating. Your door sticker tells you the pressure to use according to your vehicle and the load it will put in those tires. And that would be for max gvw. If you’re running the truck lightly loaded or empty, you can easily go a bit below the max listed in the door sticker.

 

[sgtsandman]

The only time I know of (and I may be wrong) is for trailer tires, I was told once that trailer tires should always be at the max inflation listed even if there was minimal load involved.

That hasn’t been my experience but I may be wrong. I inflate the tires to support the standard load of the trailer and adjust higher when needed. The tires never get more than warm to the touch and have never failed.

Also, the trailer doesn’t bounce like it used to with the lower pressures. Of course the bouncing was with the original, skinny 4.80-12 tires. A lot of that went away when I switched to the 20.5X8 tires on 10” rims and was completely eliminated when I adjusted the psi to the load they were supporting.

 

[cbxer55]

Door sticker trumps sidewall numbers. The tire sidewall tells you the max pressure to run if using the tires at their max load rating. Your door sticker tells you the pressure to use according to your vehicle and the load it will put in those tires. And that would be for max gvw. If you’re running the truck lightly loaded or empty, you can easily go a bit below the max listed in the door sticker.

Unless you're running non standard tires, as I do. 50 year old staggered Cragar rims, 7 inch wide front, 8.5 rear. 215/70-14 front, 245/60-14 rear. All you can do then, is watch how the tread is wearing, and adjust pressure accordingly. I jsut put them on Wednesday, so it will be a while before I can make a judgement on that.

My Lightning will soon have 17 inch rims, instead of 18. With the front being 4.5 wide, the rear 12 inch. Front tires are Mickey Thompson 28 x 6 x 17 with a 1775 load rating at 50 psi. Rears will be M & H Racemaster 390/40-17.

 

[sgtsandman]

Door sticker trumps sidewall numbers. The tire sidewall tells you the max pressure to run if using the tires at their max load rating. Your door sticker tells you the pressure to use according to your vehicle and the load it will put in those tires. And that would be for max gvw. If you’re running the truck lightly loaded or empty, you can easily go a bit below the max listed in the door sticker.

I just thought of something that somewhat negates the door sticker statement.

With the 2019+ Rangers, there are two door stickers that I’m aware of. One for the “standard” tires (30 psi) and one for the LT tires (38 psi). It may be a limited exception but it is one that can make a difference.

While it may be an opinion thing, it might be better to figure out the target load and adjust as needed with a tire that isn’t standard Ranger equipment.

 

[00t444e]

50 PSI is way to high on a Ranger with tires that size. 25-28 PSI is what I run.

 

[4x4prepper]

I never had wet pavement problems with the Firestone ATX tires (yea, the recalled ones) on my 1997 Ranger 4x4 reg cab and the few other rangers I have owned, I had no troubles. Granted, almost all of them have been manual transmissions. I have been using first the green diamond and then Kwedge from Treadwright tires for decades and they offer superior grip on wet and icy roads. Even on my E-250 4x4 which was extremely nose heavy, I had no issues with traction.

So. I think it is first the tire, then maybe the age, followed a small bit by the truck. I do know certain brands of tires can become rock hard, so to speak, and it becomes more of a hard plastic then pliable rubber.

I have a set of Prodigy HT tires that came off an Explorer I bought and scrapped and they have had wonderful traction in everything except for mud on my B2.

Note all the siping and water channels front to back on the tread that go the circumference of the tire. There are channels going from the circumference channels to the outside of the tread and then you have siping in each of those shoulder blocks. I have only had occasion maybe twice driving on ice, this being GA, and they did alright. The tires have to be at least six years old and are still pliable and they are going to wear out from weather cracking before anything else.

IMHO, These would make good trailer tires.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I just thought of something that somewhat negates the door sticker statement.

With the 2019+ Rangers, there are two door stickers that I’m aware of. One for the “standard” tires (30 psi) and one for the LT tires (38 psi). It may be a limited exception but it is one that can make a difference.

While it may be an opinion thing, it might be better to figure out the target load and adjust as needed with a tire that isn’t standard Ranger equipment.

Same here. By logic door sticker is for the tire that came with the truck, which probably matches tire sticker. Different tire with different specs probably negates that, or at least affects it.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I never had wet pavement problems with the Firestone ATX tires (yea, the recalled ones) on my 1997 Ranger 4x4 reg cab and the few other rangers I have owned, I had no troubles. Granted, almost all of them have been manual transmissions. I have been using first the green diamond and then Kwedge from Treadwright tires for decades and they offer superior grip on wet and icy roads. Even on my E-250 4x4 which was extremely nose heavy, I had no issues with traction.

So. I think it is first the tire, then maybe the age, followed a small bit by the truck. I do know certain brands of tires can become rock hard, so to speak, and it becomes more of a hard plastic then pliable rubber.

I have a set of Prodigy HT tires that came off an Explorer I bought and scrapped and they have had wonderful traction in everything except for mud on my B2.

View attachment 91237

Note all the siping and water channels front to back on the tread that go the circumference of the tire. There are channels going from the circumference channels to the outside of the tread and then you have siping in each of those shoulder blocks. I have only had occasion maybe twice driving on ice, this being GA, and they did alright. The tires have to be at least six years old and are still pliable and they are going to wear out from weather cracking before anything else.

IMHO, These would make good trailer tires.

Thats kinda what Im thinking. Maybe the tires are too hard, not from age/damage...just being LT's...maybe the sidewalls are too stiff idk.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

50 PSI is way to high on a Ranger with tires that size. 25-28 PSI is what I run.

I got em down to 35 for on road. Better but still getting bumpsteer. Will know if/when it rains again.

 

[Curious Hound]

Same here. By logic door sticker is for the tire that came with the truck, which probably matches tire sticker. Different tire with different specs probably negates that, or at least affects it.

Sure. It can affect it. But you still don’t revert back to max psi on the sidewall.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Sure. It can affect it. But you still don’t revert back to max psi on the sidewall.

Well ideally it will indicate if the max psi is cold.

Enough with the ball breaking about the 55psi. I'm not a stickler for details...by which I mean I filled it up and eventually occasionally checked it psi was above 40 and below 60. I got it somewhere around 35 now. Sheesh.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Sometimes yall are some blockheads stuck on one detail that aint even that exact....forget I said anything lol was just trying to make conversation and maybe slide around less in the rain....

 

[sgtsandman]

Well ideally it will indicate if the max psi is cold.

Enough with the ball breaking about the 55psi. I'm not a stickler for details...by which I mean I filled it up and eventually occasionally checked it psi was above 40 and below 60. I got it somewhere around 35 now. Sheesh.

I think you are missing the point of remarks. They aren’t meant to bust your balls. At least that isn’t how I read them. They have been meant to try and help you with your problem. What you do with the attempted help provided is up to you. By now you should know, even with the tom foolery we do, we mean to help and have good intentions.