Quote Originally Posted by Cuppa View Post
The weight of a laden ute does affect the footprint, & recommended pressures are, I suspect mainly for wagons & possibly less weight. Even for road/dirt road driving I am yet to pick perfect pressures. Since leaving home I have gradually reduced pressures from what I started out with. I know the 'rule of thumb' for pressures in LT tyres is a 6 psi increase from cold to hot, but have been unable to achieve this in the temperatures we've been driving in. Mainly I get a pressure increase of around 10 psi regardless of the cold pressure, we have been driving slow though. Rarely above 80kph & often less on bitumen, & 40 to 60 on dirt. 40 psi rear & 30psi front seems ok on dirt. (cold) 4 or 5 psi higher for long sretches of bitumen. Bridgestone D697's 16" 265's.

Have to be a bit careful not to create too much sidewall bulge on the sharp quartz gravel used in these parts, already have one cut sidewall - not punctured & still holding. Was lucky. Copper in Boulia reckoned not to deflate at all.

For dunes the concensus of 18 psi or less all round - I would tend to translate as 18 front & maybe 22 to 24 rear (as per Old Wal's post) for our touring ute depending upon how full our tanks
are. But 'reading the sand' & adjusting to achieve a 'rolling stop' seems like excellent advice. I certainly failed to achieve a rolling stop & as ET suggested it felt hard on the transmission. I'll try the front diff lock another time too.

Off to Innaminka & then the Coongie Lakes - I gather there are dunes to cross there, albeit not 'Simpson sized" so will get a chance to experiment further.
There is sand between you and Innamincka via walkers crossing but not much in dunes , funny what you say about tyre pressures of road and what the cop said , I was loaded up that much that I scraped the rear tyres on the guard if a hit a moderate bump but if on dirt would air down to about 22psi .
This would increase to about 26 as the tyre heated up , no sidewall damage at all and did some rocky tracks , only puncture I got was from crap on the ground at the Arkaroola camp site .
Opinions vary with tyre pressures on dirt and rocky tracks but I've found 22-26 to suit mine and gives me a softer ride .