So my question is, when should a person be airing down their tires. I mostly drive fire roads, and light offroading. I see peeps on youtube, airing down their tires, on what looks like fire roads. My tires are 235/75/15 Goodyear Wranglers, jeep is stock. I have yet to feel the need to air down, but I don't know any better.

 

You'll get a smoother ride by airing down for a fire road. For crawling it gives a larger contact patch for better traction.

 

It's not the larger contact patch that you get but the conforming of the tire that helps it grip better.

 

And the larger contact patch. Helps a lot in snow. Helps to stay on top

 

I haven't ran any tires under 35" on my wheeling rig for over 10 years so I'm not sure about tires under 35", but I air down to 12-14lbs driving on logging roads, 8-10 lbs for trails, and 4-8lbs for snow.
I have went to 2lbs once to get out of some bad snow, but I don't recommended it without the means to reseat your tires bead.

 

That's what they call it here in Hawaii (Kauai). We drive mostly on the sand and in most cases airing down is essential. The flatter the tire, the wider the footprint, the more surface area there is to support and balance the weight of the vehicle. Passive tread is the best for getting around. More aggressive tread tends to bite into the sand and dig down. You could get stuck and or make it difficult to drive and over heat the engine. The sand can change by season and time of day affecting the ability to get around. Dryer sand is more difficult than wet or damp, hotter sand more difficult that cooler sand.


Depending on the vehicle and the sand conditions we often have to air down as low as 15lbs to safely get around. The early days the most reliable vehicles were the CJ-7's and 5's. Now most any pickup truck is used. Yotas are very popular as are Chevy and Dodges. Not many Jeeps on the sand though. 4Runners get around very well even with normal width street tires. Starting out with a wider tire to begin with is always best. Most vehicles driven on the beach do not use straight street tires. Some do. Sorry . Title should have been "Flatten Your Tires".

 

If you feel like you need more traction, air down.

 

Pretty much sums it up

 

on a stock tire I would not recomend going below 15psi on the fire roads you dont have alot of side wall to flex. ive had to air down to 4psi to pull a full size subruban out in the snow on my 35s think thats the lowest ive gone on these tires.
bottom line if you havent felt the need to air down then you pry dont need to.

 

I always wish I could air down, biggest problem is inflating them when I'm done! OBA would be a nice luxury

 

at the dunes we run ~10psi on any tire. plenty of sidewall to go that low.

 

I run 12-18 psi in soft sand on the beach (no dune climbing, otherwise it would be lower). The lower pressure for the summer sand and driving slow. The higher pressure is for running 40+ mph down the beach.
Old and bald tires work best in the sand.