For us 4WDers, nothing compares to the excitement of chucking on a brand spanking new set of 4×4 tyres under our pride and joy! Keeping your flash new set of rubber in good nick is one of the easiest things you can do in terms of overall vehicle maintenance, even if you’re not experience on the tools! 

So here are a few tips and tricks to keep your tyres in tip top condition and get even more km’s out of them than your last set, saving you hundreds of $$ in the long run!

Running the correct tyre pressure is the single most important thing you can do to prolong the life of your tyres. Too much pressure will cause the inner lugs to wear faster than the outside and too little will cause the outside edges to wear unevenly which will affect the vehicles performance a great deal- not to mention the fact that unevenly worn tyres are noisier than a freight train roaring through a quiet country town in the middle of the night! 

If you’re stuck trying to figure out what PSI you should run, don’t stress. Most vehicles specify what tyre pressures you should run on inside of the driver’s door or in the user manual, however if you’ve changed the size of your tyre or rim, the formula you should stick to is to double the size of your rim/ wheel, then add 2 which will give you your on road tyre pressure in PSI. For example, if you are running a set of 17” rims, it’d be 17+17+2= 36PSI. This is only a rough guide to go by and you will need to take into account extra weight you might be carrying on your rig.
For example, if I had a dual cab ute with a set of 265/75r16’s (or 31’s), and a 2” lift with no extra gear, I’d be running about 34-35PSI. If I chucked on a bulbar, winch, spotties, canopy, rear drawers, a deep cycle battery and a fridge, I’d probably be inclined to run closer to 38PSI.
The more weight you add to your car, the more the tyre will bely out, so adding a few extra PSI will help accommodate the uneven tread wear as previously mentioned.

If you are hitting the tracks or going on a beach run, airing down to the appropriate PSI has a dramatic effect on how your vehicle will perform offroad! What you are looking to achieve by doing this is allow your 4×4 tyres to belly out and increase the overall length of the tread touching the road surface and any given time. This will not only offer more traction to avoid getting stuck, but also allow your tyres to bend and mould around rocks, sticks and other sharp objects.

A great example of this is to imagine a balloon fully inflated. Take that balloon and press in into a nail and chances are the balloon is going to burst almost instantly.
Now imagine if you took that same balloon with only half the amount of the pressure and did the same thing. You’d almost be able to press the balloon the entire length of the nail before it pops. This is because with less pressure, the rubber has far more stretch and is able to mould around the nail. The exact same principal applies to 4wd tyres.

If you find yourself stuck with no traction out bush, don’t sit there and spin your 4wd tyres- especially if you’re not getting any forward movement. Instead, back off and pick a different line or a different track entirely. There’s no shame in taking the chicken track every now and then and in the long run it’ll save you big bucks compared to the blokes that sit there smoking up tires on a rock-step with no hope of ever making it up the track.

For beach driving, my general go-to with my 4wd tyres is around the 16psi mark. If the sand is nice and compact, you can definitely run up to 20PSI, but it will all depend on how soft the sand is and how well you know the beach. A kwiky tyre deflator is your best friend for dropping pressures too!

When driving on the beach, try not to bust out too many hard turns on the sand. Hard turning on the beach can cause your 4wd tyre’s side wall to fold underneath itself and roll off the bead and also heats up the sidewall and causes unnecessary wear and tear.

For tackling low range hill climbs with shaly rocks or rock steps, I normally air down my 4wd tyres to anywhere between 18-22psi. Now if the tracks I am tackling are fairly short, followed by a decent drive on dirt, I’d be running closer to 22PSI. The reason for this is you want to avoid driving extended periods of time on lower pressures.

As your tyre rotates and comes into contact the road surface, the sidewall belly’s out and extends again as it reaches the top. This causes friction in the sidewall of the 4wd tyres, which weakens the overall structure of the tyre and can lead to more sidewall punctures.

A lot of people will drive a few km’s down the road to get to the nearest servo on low psi, but by doing this, they are slowly decreasing the strength of the 4×4 tyre. That is why carrying a portable 12v air compressor with you is absolutely essential. It’s a quick and easy solution that has so many different uses and it will end up saving you big time in the long run. Something like a Thumper Max dual piston air compressor will pump your tyres up almost as fast as the servo pump and at 300 litres a minuet and for the price of a few cartons of beer, you just can’t go wrong!

Rotating your tyres at every service is another simple thing you can do to increase the overall life expectancy of your 4wd tyres. Every 5-10,000km’s, swap your front right wheel with the back left and vice versa on the opposite side. This will insure you are getting the most out of your tyres because in most cases, the rear tyres will wear quicker than the front. In saying that, the front tyres can wear unevenly on either side of the tread pattern- in which case, you’ll need to look into getting a wheel alignment and a camber adjustment.

And finally, I know how tempting it is to rip a fat skid as you leave your local pub on a Friday night, but please for your own sake- don’t do it! You’ll ruin your new set of tires quicker than your first love dumped you and you’ll only make yourself look like an absolute tool when you end up flipping your pride and joy into a ditch!