Can Trailer Tires be Deflated to Help with Traveling On Beach

Updated 04/17/2018 | Published 04/15/2018

Question:

I am planning to pull my camper on the beach, I usually lower the air pressure on my 4 wheel drive truck tires to about 26 psi. if I replace my trailer tires with radials, will it hurt to deflate some? do not travel very far

asked by: Cawallin

Expert Reply:

The issue with deflating trailer tires to a pressure that is lower than its recommended maximum psi is that it will essentially lower the tire's load capacity to an unknown rating. Because a trailer tire is designed to support a particular weight at its maximum psi, lowering the air pressure will reduce this capacity and may result in you overloading them with the weight of your camper.

You will just need to be extremely cautious when doing this so that you do not overload them. If you do decide to do this, make sure you inflate them back up to their recommended max psi before hitting the road again. This will be the case with both bias or radial trailer tires.

Other generall practices that might help with pulling your camper across the sand is to try and keep a steady speed. This will help in skimming accross the sand and keeping the weight of your camper from sinking down into it. Ideally, the wheel tracks of your truck and camper will also match up so that your trailer tires are traveling along tracks that have already been compacted by those of your truck. This might not be possible, but it will certainly help.

I have attached a couple great articles on trailer tires that you can also take a look at.

expert reply by: Chris R