This past weekend I conducted seminars at an RV show in Charlotte, North Carolina. I returned home expecting a little “calm” after the frenetic pace of the show. Instead, I ended up in a “dunk tank!” Read on. I will explain.
It usually takes a few days for me to “come down” from the emotional high I get from teaching the seminars. But this time, I came down a whole lot faster—after reading the comments (many not so complimentary) about my post Monday about dual tire pressure where I did not, apparently, adequately answer a reader’s question about whether it was okay for the pressure on dual tires on the same axle to differ by one or two psi. Leave it to the commenting gang to bring me back to reality! A picture of me sitting on a dunk tank came to mind!
My research
For more than 25 years I have worked with Michelin, Goodyear, The Tire and Rim Association, and the RV Safety & Education Foundation (RVSEF), researching proper tire inflation and other aspects of tire safety. The consensus was always that tires on the same axle must have the same recommended psi. I have found nothing, however, published by tire manufacturers or The Tire and Rim Association that backs up that general belief.
In my answer Monday, I began with how to determine recommended psi, and concluded that they should be inflated the same. What I now believe I failed to stress is that with a quality digital tester, which our RV Travel tire expert Roger Marble recommends, you should be able to match tires to the same pressure if you check them cold.
Help, Mr. Wizard!
To learn more I contacted Trey Selman, the Executive Director of RVSEF, to get his thoughts. He stated: “The closer they are, the better, and EQUAL IS BEST.”
Roger Marble has posted several articles on dual tire pressure and other applications and believes that 1-2 psi is acceptable. Roger is the “Wizard” when it comes to tires, so I will defer the rest of the conversation to his post.
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook” as well as the Managing Editor of the RV Repair Club.
Read more from Dave here.
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Thank you for circling back to complete your answer. Yesterday’s column was thorough and today completed the topic. Nicely done and much appreciated.
Thanks for the update. I read your column every day and it is always informative. I commented yesterday that you had not answered the question, not to” beat you up ” but just to point out that what I thought was a very good question had not been answered. We have been RVing for almost 50 years but never had dually on anything until we bought a class C this past summer. This answer helps me understand more about duallys. Sometimes it is the little things. Like, not all dual head chucks are at the same angle. Some of mine would not inflate my outer tires. The chuck hit the rim before engaging the valve. Fortunately, I had others with a little more angle to the head that work fine. Thanks again and keep up the great work.
I thing the best advice for Daves response is to keep it simple in layman’s terms, short. Look it over and think if the audience would understand the response and is the question answered.
Thanks for all you do to inform us. I read those previous comments and haters will hate; there’s usually nothing you can do to please them because they’ll just attack on another issue. I recognized some of the names of commenters and they usually have negative things to say on most issues, not just your column. Keep up the good work.
I look forward to and read Dave’s column every day as I am a do it yourself kind of guy. I wouldn’t label yesterday’s commenters as “haters”. Dave sometimes gives a great explanation but misses directly answering the question, yesterday was an example. I’m sure Dave is a big boy and can handle the (low) heat. Dave, keep up the good work and thanks for “circling back” and answering the question.
Don’t let the Monday morning quartbacks get you down. Keep on trucking
Sorry to hear you got so “beat up” Dave. I know that there are many of us who appreciate what you do and have done for us RVer’s. I always appreciate your knowledge, honesty, and transparency, Keep up the good work.
Clear and concise IMHO.