Over the last week our Colorado 14ers received some fresh powder. I was wondering what the proper air pressure is for snow wheeling. Do I lower the pressure (sand) or put full pressure in like Hwy driving. Any help I would appreciate.

 

I would probably lower it to 12psi.

 

There really are two approaches to snow. Depends on whether you are dealing with deep powder, hard packed snow, or either kind say 10-12" or less. The old theory was tall skinny tires to dig down through the snow to traction, like on many snow plow pick up. No need to lowertire PSI.

The other is similar to sand, if the snow is a fine powder, and it is so deep you cannot dig down to traction, then you are better offto aim for some floatation and can air down, how much might depend on whether there is any hard pack under the deep powder. 13-18psi or something like that. Unlike sand, when you go for floatation on snow, you do a buch of sliding all around for a squirrely ride?

Either case, turn off the StabiliTrack, you want your tires to be able to spin and clean the treads.








Doh...forgot, in the west, a lot of guys use chains or straps too. In the east, we use the throttle.

 

You'll also want to consider the effect that happens similar on Ski's and ice skates. If you apply heavy pressure on a small area, it will melt the snow and refreeze very quickly. You often wont see really aggressive mud tires in the snow for the same reason. The lugs apply heavy pressure on a small area creating a thin layer of ice. This can stick to the tire and build until you have a solid layer of ice on the tire.
Similar to picking the right ski for the right conditions, in wet/humid snow, what you really want is sipped tires which is little cuts in the big lugs. This will channel that instance of melted snow away from the flat part of the tire and keep it from icing up.

For powder, a big squishy balloon that will help you float up on top with some good heavy treads for forward momentum would be your weapon of choice.

If you have stock tires (which are sipped) and are going to hit some fresh snow on a 2-track on a mild temperature day, keep them aired up and hope that you can get through the snow to the rocks as doc mentioned above...
If you are going to use stock tires and get back into some powder fields though....air them way down and keep moving. stopping in one place for too long will ice you in and looking for a tree to winch to.