Proper RV Tire Pressure: Finding the Right PSI
Dave SolbergDescription
Just because your RV’s tires say they can handle a certain PSI doesn’t mean the listed PSI is the ideal one for your vehicle. Proper tire inflation requires weighing your vehicle with the load you’ll be carrying, and filling to match that number. In this free video lesson, RV maintenance expert Dave Solberg teaches you how to find the correct RV tire pressure for your motorhome, coach, fifth wheel, or whatever else you drive.
We see RV owners make this mistake all the time, and for understandable reasons. Drivers are constantly told that the number on their tire’s sidewall is what you need to look for, but what they’re not often told is that that number is the maximum RV tire pressure at the maximum weight capacity. Unless you’ll be hauling max weight, you don’t need max pressure!
What happens when you fill your tires too much?
Overinflating your tires can lead, of course, to the unexpected and dreaded pop while working your way down the highway. But it can also cause lower fuel efficiency as well as poor braking and handling abilities due to incomplete tread contact with the road. To prevent all of these things, Dave recommends taking your RV to your nearest CAT scale to get an exact measurement, incorporating all weight that you’ll be carrying on your next trip. Just put your RV on the scale and see your precise readout!
Once you have that number, you can refer to your tire manufacturer’s conversion chart to find the ideal RV tire pressure for your model, no matter if you use a single or dual system. It’s that easy! Be sure to do your homework and spend about $10 to get the weight and inflation right, and you’ll enjoy a smoother ride with better fuel efficiency, reduced risk of accidents, and a longer tire lifespan. Ride safe out there!
Tire maintenance is an important part of your overall maintenance routine to keep your rig rolling down the road. Now we've all heard stories about tires on trailers that have blown out, the cheap Chinese tires, all that kinda stuff, even motor homes, and it was kind of an epidemic for a while. But proper tire inflation to start with is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your tires. Now there's a lotta discussion on what is proper inflation, and most people think it's the number written right here on the side, which this one says maximum weight of 4,000 pounds, and tire inflation of 95 psi. Well, that's maximum pressure at maximum weight. That's not proper tire inflation. It's not also the data plate that's on the inside of the wall. Again, that's gonna mimic what's in here. The only way you can find proper inflation is to weigh this vehicle and find out the amount of weight on the tire and go to the tire chart. So you wanna go to a CAT scale, which is at Flying Js or Pilot, or if you got to catscale.com, you'll see one that's in your area, and for $10, I can take and put this unit on, front wheels on the front scale, back wheels on the second platform, and it will give me those inflations, and it will tell, or weights, excuse me, on that, and it'll tell me exactly what's on here. If I don't have 4,095 pounds on this like it says maximum, then 95 is not the number I need. What I'm gonna need to do is go to the tire inflation chart, if you go to rvsafety.com, you'll be able to download your tire, this specific tire here happens to be a Bridgestone, so I'd go to the Bridgestone tire chart, get the size, this is a dual application, so I'm gonna go on the dual side of it, find that weight, and for what this unit here is, it's gonna be about 91 psi from the weights that we've done. And what happens is if I have too much, if I put 95 in here, that's gonna make this a little bit rounded, so I'm gonna start to get some wear pattern in the center. I'm not gonna have as good a braking capacity because I don't have full tread. By having proper tire inflation, I'm gonna have the most tread of this wheel on the road. So get your RV weighed, find out what the proper inflation is by going to the chart, and you'll be surprised, it's gonna be a little different than what's on the side of this tire.
Tire Pressure chart reflect the load limit "per tire", so is it correct to assume if a trailer weighs 8000 and has double axles then the correct tire pressure on the chart needs to correspond to what each tire needs to handle at minimum, ie 2000 per tire in this example? I'm running Goodyear Endurance ST225/75R15 so ~45 PSI at minimum per chart? How much PSI above the target is a good safety margin before being excessive?
You are getting ready to start a trip so you load RV with personal items and tools, etc., full tank of gas, 3/4 filled fresh water tank and about 5 gallons of water in the black tank for good measure. You weight the RV "Class A" and set the tire air pressure according to the Manufacture's tire chart. You pull in for 1st night and use water supplied by park and you begin to utilize the black and gray water tank. Only being one night you do not drain the tanks. So now you have more weight. If you do this for 2 or 3 nights this increases the overall weight. Not to mention the fluctuation in the fuel. The weight of the RV is not a constant. How do you compensate for the air pressure as the weight goes up and down depending on travel habit? All stops don't have scales. Thank you.
Can't find inflation chart for Kenda Karrier Load Star tires. Got a link? Thanks
I assume this would apply to my trucks rear tires as well when pulling a Travel Trailer
Help no chart available for my tires. I have Hanook tires on mine and called them they said they do not have any charts out there for me.vI should run them what is on the tires and on the plate which is 80lbs. That is what they said.
Is this the method the same for a travel trailer? I would think it would be, but I just want to make sure. Thanks