Headed to the Moab area and will be hitting some trails (nothing super hard, but a couple technical ones). Using the OEM "off road" tires, which I know aren't great. Question is if anybody has experience airing down with them. How low can you go?

 

I've had no problems airing down the OEM street tires other than the steering feeling much heavier than I anticipated. So I can't imagine you'll have any problems with the OEM off-road tires.

I do kinda wonder if the highly adjustable nature of the electronics sees the low tire pressure and makes a change to one or more inputs like throttle response or power steering performance.

The aforementioned affect I noted on the steering is much more pronounced on the D110 than say my Wrangler that I aired down last night at about 1:00 am.

EDIT - revisiting this post after the TFL failures points out that I off-road in sand/mud and not on rocks. I guess I would think twice about airing down too much on the OEM tires if rocks are involved now.

 

I ran the stock off-road Wrangler Adventure tires at 27 psi off road. With the 20" wheels and low profile tires I wasn't comfortable airing down more, but it seemed to be fine. I plan on using the Lucky8 kit to upgrade to the 18" TuffAnt wheels and some BFG K02s so that I can be more comfortable off-road, including lower psi in the tires

 

I have the 19". Unless you plan on driving over sand dunes, you won't need to air down much, especially in Moab where that slickrock sticks to rubber like glue. I went off-roading with the Wrangler Adentures for a few months (have since "upgraded" to the Duratracs, which are great tires by the way) and never felt the need to air down below 30 / 32 psi anywhere other than on really soft sand.

 

what’s the noise level comparison from the A/T Adventure and the Duratracs?

 

P400 with 19" Goodyear Wrangler Adventure tires. I aired down to 18 psi front / 20 psi rear when visiting trails around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, and Sedona. I air down for comfort more than performance. I did not have any issues going that low with 2 people + stuff in the rig. I bought a Viair 300p pump which worked great for airing back up quickly, though it did get very hot in the desert heat.

 

There is definitely a new, low level rumble introduced by the more aggressive tread, you hear it especially upon braking though. On the highway it's really not that loud or annoying at all, and considering the Adventures are whisper quiet, really comparable to an all-seasons tire in my experience, it's a minor drawback of the Duratracs. They seem to handle just as well on wet and dry pavement. No snow so far - very unlikely to hit any around here, even in winter. I expect them to get noisier over time like most aggressive ATs and hybrids, so rotating them regularly (I do it at every oil change, 7500 miles, and include the spare in the rotation) is especially important to keep them quiet.

 

Exactly! I ran my OEM BFG KMs on my Wrangler at 14 everytime I left pavement for exactly that reason. Once I got more experience and starting doing the big trails in SE Utah, I was running 37” bias plies and let them down to 7-9 pounds and that is exquisitely comfortable — floating on a cloud. Plus, the grip is stunning.

I will experiment with my OEM 20” setup when it comes, doing so in a controlled environment where if I roll a bead off I won’t be in the middle of nowhere, but I suspect that like many others, I’ll wind up with the rear brakes and the 18s before too long.

 

Thanks for the info on here. I just trimmed down all the calipers so I could take off the stock 21” wheels and put 18” wheels on my D5. I also installed the Johnson 1” lift rods to provide adequate clearance. I’m running 44/40 psi front/rear for around town and it seems to ride very nice. Much softer but still feels solid handling around corners.

I’m taking it off-road in two weeks and am getting ready to try airing down for the trails. I still need to get a system to air back up and was considering the Viair 300P or the Viair 90p if I cold get away with a smaller size. Would love to hear what others are using for airing back up?

I think that with my new wheel/tire combo I should be fine going down to 25 all around, but will probably start at 30 and see how it feels/drives and go down further if it seems like it would help.

ive never had issues with traction in Colorado, more of a comfort issue for me, but the traction is a big plus.

I’ll try and follow up with a report of how it did

BTW - I’ll give someone a smoking deal on the ok’d wheels/tires if they can find a new home for them! Sucks to have them sitting in the garage!

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when you say “trimmed down” do you mean you did the lucky8 swap or something custom?