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This subject has all kind of opinions, with bad information from the tire company's promoting low pressure to reduce the life of a tire to running a higher pressure to keep from blow outs or loosing control in a skid. The law enforcement people in our area run 50#'s in their Ford Crown Vic's. Question: recently a familey had a blow out on a suburban, killing four of the eight people in the vehicle. I will be making the same trip, same type vehicle, similar load soon with my familey. We will be makeing the trip to Destin, loaded with eight people and luggage. I have a 2001 suburban and presently I am running Nexxen Roadian HT SUV tires that show a max pressure rating of 44 lbs. on the side wall. On the mfg. plate on the drivers side door, the max. psi cold pressure is 35. Also we will be going in July with extremley high temperatures. I would appreciate some solid advice on this in the way of recommeded tire pressure.

Thanks  

so you don't think you are being ignored.. i am posting this to tell you that one of the forum members drops in a few times a week... posts excellent answers on tire problems....  

On every vehicle sold in the US, there is a vehicle tire placard that lists the original tire size and the proper pressure for that size.  The vehicle tire placard can usually be found on a doorpost, or in the glove, but sometimes it is on the fuel filler door or in the trunk.

If memory serves me right, Chevy trucks have the placard on the drivers poor post.

So you need to check the vehicle tire placard against the size printed on the sidewall of the tire.

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I thoroughly disagree with using the sidewall pressure for anything.  How that is determined is not consistent throughout the tire industry.  

Thanks waynep7122 and capriracer appreciate the info, will be looking for more posts.  

The auto manufacturer considers the ride, handleing and tire wear in their recommended tire inflation specifications. Where the tire manufacturer just place the max pressure on the tire for their own liability. After the Explorer fiasco, Ford quietly increased tire pressure on many models, the Explorer went from 26psi to 35psi with several increases or several years. The auto industry has perpetually moved to larger diameter wheels with less tire sidewall over the past 20 years for safety and performance purposes.  

people get to carried away with tire pressures,put the tire pressure to what the car manufacture recommends,and don't ever go over the pressure that is on the tire.people come in my shop all the time and say there tires look low and they have 60 psi in there tires because they"looked" low.What ever the car manufacture recommends and you wont have any problems,if you don't like the ride buy a better tire you get what you pay for!!