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Afternoon Gentlemen...
I just finished putting new tires & tubes on Fiona. I purchased ASTRO Military 9.00 X 16 tires and had them mounted by a truck tire center. Took the truck out for a short drive to get fuel and when I returned I noticed that the truck is running on only about 3 to 4 inches of tire. The tire states 125 psi cold and not sure how much the truck tire center put in them when they were mounted because my air gauge only goes to 50 psi... My questions are... Isn't that too much air for the load? Shouldn't she be running on more of the tire surface?
Thanks, Dennis

try 40 psi. NV

running on only about 3 to 4 inches of tire

So you mean that the area the tire is contacting the pavement is small?

This sounds like a heavy duty tire. The tire pressure on the side should list a max pressure - that's if you are carrying a heavy load. I have noticed that places that mount tires run the pressure up to seat the tire bead on the rim and then don't always lower it back down or just down to the max listed. Plus they err on the side of their safety and don't want you driving off and hauling 3 tons of gravel and blowing a tire cause they put it at 32 psi.

Normally you adjust your pressure for what diving you are doing and hauling. For the regular tires on my pickup I run around 36psi. But when towing a heavy trailer I go up to around 60psi (as listed on the side of the tire.)

Interesting story (Geezer alert! ) - I also drive an M38A1 Jeep. I keep the tire pressures on the little military tires a little below 30 as the Jeep is so light and don't want to bounce down the road like a bowling ball. A couple of weeks ago it was really hot outside and the black asphalt roads around where we live were soaking up a lot of solar heat and were very hot. I took the Jeep for a ride and the tires felt really squirrely. In the turns the Jeep had the feel like it was just about to slide, you know that almost loose feeling when the rear of a sports car is about to break loose. I took it easy to the next gas station with air, (Not all have air anymore - A pet peeve.), checked the pressure and it was a little low at 24 psi. But that is within the military range for the Jeep. I ran the pressure up to 35 for the trip and the Jeep was much more happy.

Thanks for the input and the great story... I feel somewhat like an idiot after reading Nam Vet's reply because I then remembered that the tire pressure is plastered on the side of the truck just above the rear tire in many cases... Duh!!
Enjoy your week, I think my problem is fixed...
Dennis