Question about inflating auto tires

[Louis Brandt]

Hello,

When inflating your car tires, what output (regulator) pressure do you use? When I use my nail guns, I know what pressure ranges are recommended, but what's the recommend output pressure for inflating an automobile tire?

Thanks,
Louis

[Jim O'Dell]

I run mine full bore... the air chuck will only allow X amount of CFM through. Jim.

[Joe Chritz]

Doesn't matter at all. Just make sure the final pressure is right at manufacture specs.

Tire pressure is a very easy thing to keep up and it makes a tremendous difference in emergency driving situations.

Joe

[Louis Brandt]

Thanks. I just set the output pressure to 60psi, and that inflated the tires very fast.

Thanks,
Louis

[Myk Rian]

$20 at HoPo.
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/f5/f5a30856-3b13-4559-9c5a-1fa03c8e93e2_400.jpg

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Hello,

When inflating your car tires, what output (regulator) pressure do you use? Louis


Some cheap inflation rig I got from a car parts place. It's got a trigger and a dial gauge built in

For pressure recommendations I just listen to the president.

[Joe Pelonio]

You just need more pressure than you will need for the tires, and the bigger the output the faster it will inflate. I normally use the pancake
style compressor I keep in the garage for nailing and light spraygun use.

[Scott T Smith]

Many professional garages regulate their air pressure at 90 psi...

[Bryan Morgan]

I just leave mine cranked. Works very fast on my cars with performance tires but takes awhile on my truck with its big clod hoppers.

I don't always trust the manufacturers recommendations. I was taught another way to figure it out. Wet your garage floor and drive your car in. Look at the tread pattern in the water. You can tell if its over or under inflated. Kind of hard to explain it writing. :confused:

[Joe Chritz]

Bryan I would be curious who taught you that method.

It is completely contrary to all professional training I have received as well as what I was informed by both very high level experts on crash reconstruction as well as an engineer who designed and built tires for a very large tire company.

The water pattern will tell you if you have full tread contact at static conditions but the tires are not engineered for static conditions. They are engineered for a wide range of driving conditions, many much more challenging than driving into a garage. Think about a hard maneuver to avoid an obstacle.

My professional opinion is to keep them filled where they are recommended to be.

Joe

[David Cefai]

I doubt that observing the tread pattern is enough for modern tyres. Sidewall flexibility will be affected by the pressure. Get that wrong and you can get distortion when cornering.
Better to observe the landscape than become part of it :D

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Many professional garages regulate their air pressure at 90 psi...

Well that what one could expect from a pack of teachers lawyers preachers and doctors.

Now as to real bonafide Tradesmen: The won't need to limit themselves that ways because they understand how to use powerful tools.

Never take your car to a professional. Last thing you need is for some elementaryschool teacher to futz with your front and then assure you are go to go out on the highway at 65 MPG. Instead always use real tradesmen.

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

All I can add is,
do NOT use propane.
Farmers in the rural area where I grew up use propane tanks as an air supply,
And one of the implement dealers was repairing a trailer. As he was welding the frame near the tire, yes you can guess the rest.
It blew up, knocked him across the shop and tore a hole in the wall.
I was across the street when it blew and all I could see was dust and smoke. I guess the farmer had grabed a full propane tank to fill his tires not an old propane tank that was being used for air.
Somehow the guy lived. But everyone in the shop needed attention.

[David Epperson]

All I can add is,
do NOT use propane.

Ever wonder what's in that Fix-A-Flat can?

[Dan Hintz]

Ever wonder what's in that Fix-A-Flat can?
Via Wired magazine:

Amorphous polyolefin - In the can, this shapeless mass of polymeric olefins (low-density plastics like poly-propylene and poly-ethylene) remains dissolved in the heavy aromatic naphtha. But once Fix-a-Flat is sprayed into the tire, the plastics coat the inner surface and plug the leak. Then the sticky aromatic resins keep them in place. The TFE dries the resins and poly-olefins, and you drive to the nearest service station to get your tire repaired.

Update: Make reader Rostov writes in - "You should also mention that naphtha, a relative of gasoline, is highly flammable. Mixed with the air in the tire, it can explode. Many tire repair facilities refuse to work on tires that have been patched with fix-a-flat. Don't ever take a tire with fix-a-flat to be repaired without informing the workers, as it can be dangerous."

:D

[Scott T Smith]

Well that what one could expect from a pack of teachers lawyers preachers and doctors.

Now as to real bonafide Tradesmen: The won't need to limit themselves that ways because they understand how to use powerful tools.

Never take your car to a professional. Last thing you need is for some elementaryschool teacher to futz with your front and then assure you are go to go out on the highway at 65 MPG. Instead always use real tradesmen.


Hmm.... Cliff normally we're on the same wavelength, but you lost me with this one...

Let me rephrase my response....

Most automotive air tools are designed for 90 psi, and garages regulate their air accordingly.