Tire Pressure

[George Rohrbach]

I have a 2006 Yukon. Factory info says tire pressures should be 32lbs. New tires say MAX 80. What should tire pressure be for normal driving? How about when towing a car trailer?

Thanks

[Rusty_OToole]

Pressure should be according to the load the tire is carrying. 32PSI is good for all normal use. There may be something in the owner's manual about increasing pressure when carrying heavy loads or towing. In any case you should not exceed 80PSI per the manufacturer's warning.

[Mark Shaw]

My 2013 Yukon Denali takes 35# on 20" wheels.

[Larry Schramm]

Your truck was probably built with the P series of tires.  That is why the lower tire pressure on the door label.  The reason is the lower pressure gives you a better ride, = less roughness.  If your Yukon has a tire pressure monitoring system with the P series of tires the operating range for the tires to work with the tire pressure monitoring system would be between 30 PSI and 50 PSI.  If you pressurize the tires below 30 psi or above 50 psi, the tire light will come on.

 

If you went out and got a set of the  LT truck tires like I did,  they say 80 PSI maximum pressure.  I run my truck tires at about 45-48 PSI.  Any time the tire pressure goes above 50, the light comes on. I have not been able to reset the TPM to the higher pressures.

 

On an additional note, by running the Light Truck LT tires at the high 40's PSI, I have gotten at least 1mile per gallon better fuel economy and towing a trailer better stability with less squirming.  I will always be running the LT tires on my truck from now on.  Best buy for ride and safety for what I use my Silverado for.

[NTX5467]

If the sidewall of the tire indicates that 80psi is the max inflation pressure for the tires, they are probably Load Range E (10-ply rating) and "LT"-type tires.

 

Many LT tires do have deeper tread than the OEM tires did, by observation.  In the case of one brand, that extra tread depth (highway/All Season tread design) and the rubber compound equated to "fuel thirsty" tires.  On a G2500 box van, the OEM tires and the 6.0L V-8 would usually average 13.8mpg in the mostly highway use it saw.  But with the "other" replacement tires, the average mpg dropped to 11.5mpg.  Additional inflation pressure did not help.  They didn't last as long as the OEM tires, either!  I nursed the OEM tires to  81K miles.  The replacements were worn well before another 60K miles.  All were radials, too.

 

Even if the tire pressure warning indicator illuminates, you can usually still check the air pressure.  That's it'll illuminate at higher-than-programmed pressures is not generally known, just that it illuminates at the suspected lower pressures only.  The "high pressure warning" came on in an Impala SS (fwd) I'd rented, one July weekend day.  I hadn't noticed anything unusual about how the car was driving, so I pulled off the freeway to do a tire pressure check in the Driver Info Ctr.  That's when I discovered the noted pressure was close to the tires' max inflation pressure of 45psi.  The calibration was obviously for the normal Impala tires, not the "SS" model's tires. 

 

If the vehicle could have LT tires as a factory option, the re=-program can probably work smoothly.  If not, then telling the computer the vehicle is a HD2500 might cause some other calibration issues.  In any event, make sure the correct tire size/diameter is programmed so that the speedometer/odometer indicate correctly.

 

NTX5467

[Spinneyhill]

I have wondered about this too. On the last tire change on my Mazda 6, the tech. put them to 35 or 36 p.s.i. The sticker on the car says 32. He said they work better at 35 and 32 was really for Japanese conditions of concrete and asphalt surfaces with different standard crossfall to ours. I now believe him - they certainly wear more evenly and handle better with less flopping from side to side when corning. Our VW Cross Polo runs them at 35 (comfort) to 39 (handling), but they are wide, low profile tires. The ride is a little rough but it sticks to the road.

 

So my interpretation is that for handling and wear, run them 3 or 4 p.s.i. harder. For comfort, 32 p.s.i.

[Bloo]

Tires fail from heat. Heat comes from flexing. When in doubt about pressure, always use more, ESPECIALLY on the back when towing a load. Hot weather makes this even more critical.

 

For normal driving you probably want a little less in the back than the front.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

Except for the tires on my truck, I always put the tire pressure to what the maximum value rated on the sidewall of the tire.  I will lose a little bit of "ride quality" by being a little more harsh, but the trade off is better wear and better fuel economy.  Also when you fill to the max pressure on the side wall you will also give the tire the maximum load capacity as noted on the side of the tire also.

[George Rohrbach]

Thanks for all the answers!

[plymouthcranbrook]

I generally run everything about 2-3 PSI above recommended. More if needed.