Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
Ford actually went so far as to recommend lower than safe operating pressure on the Explorer with the Firestone tires to pass rollover testing and give a "car like ride". Lots of people were killed by this bonehead move. Firestone took a bunch of "heat" for flaws in the tires but the biggest flaw was running low pressure (only 26 psi was the Ford recommendation) which builds tons of heat in rolling resistance and breaks the tire down. Most of the failures happened in the hottest, southern most states.
I wouldn't just take the manufacturers recommendation without some critical thinking on your own behalf.
In the truck/hauling world you must go over the recommendation to allow for Max load rating. Running LT tires at non-LT tire pressures actually gives you a lower load rating than the standard tire if run at the rating on the door sticker.
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I'm going to disagree about the inflation pressure on the Ford Explorers. I've written up my comments on the subject:
Barry's Tire Tech
Bottomline: The placard pressure for the Ford Explorer was adequate to carry the loads specified. There were a number of specific problems with the Firestone tires, that did not exist other brands of tires.
Further, since that incident EVERY vehicle manufacturer has re-examined its tire pressure specifications and as a general rule, the pressure is MORE than the GAWR requires. In other words, even if there was a problem, they fixed it.