One of the best things you can do to improve traction when offroading is air down your tires. This is especially true for 2WD overlanders and offroaders, but you won’t meet an experienced 4×4 driver in the world who doesn’t air down their tires.
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Let’s take a look at some of the other benefits of airing down tires when offroading and overlanding.
Pro Tip: The Viair 88p Air Compressor (less than $100) is what we keep in our truck to air tires back up when we hit the pavement.
Airing down tires helps traction, puncture resistance, and ride comfort
Besides improving traction by making a longer, more massive footprint on the ground, letting air out of your tires can help protect them from punctures and slashes.
Think of a balloon that is over-inflated. It will pop easily with just a little bit of pressure from even a dull pointy object. But a old, deflated balloon that doesn’t have much air in it will conform to whatever is poking at it and have a higher resistance to popping. Your tires aired down will conform to rocks and sharp edges, and the hope is they will be less likely to cut or puncture all while improving traction.
An often overlooked benefit to airing down tires is ride comfort on those bumpy washboard trails. You can help save your suspension, critical vehicle components, and your bones.
What PSI to air down to when offroading?
That’s a question highly dependent on your wheel and tire setup and your own personal comfort zone. I run 255/80/17 on 17×8 wheels. I typically air down to 18-20 PSI whenever I hit the dirt using this little tire deflator from Amazon. My normal tire pressure is around 34-36, airing back up with my trusty Viair 88p Air Compressor typically takes about 3-4 minutes per tire.
If you go too low, you can pop a bead and have a serious problem out in the middle of nowhere. Make sure you don’t go down too low.
Speaking of airing back up, this does a great job for us…
There are plenty of options for air compressors to air back up, but at just under $100 we recommend the above product. We’ve used it for the past 6 years and it’s never let us down. We reviewed this over at our sister site. View that article here: VIAIR 88P Air Compressor Review.
As you can see, for us 2WD overlanders and offroaders it’s extremely beneficial to air down tires when hitting the trails. Also be sure to pick up a set of traction boards — I recommend the Maxsa Metal Gripped Traction Boards for a great value at around $164.
Safe travels and take it easy on the trails! We want to preserve our offroad trails and not tear them up.