When faced with a stream crossing when the water is rather fast flowing would it be better to drop the tire pressure right down in
order to make the vehicle less boyant or should the pressure be left allone? or maybe made higher?

What woul be the safest technique?




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I don't think it makes much difference. It's not so much the pressure of the air, but thedensity that effects buoyancy and in the range of 8-35 lbsI don't think you will see much difference.

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That may be a bit to simple. As you increase the pressure, the tire will become less boyant.

 

Lowering tire pressure will lower your truck. you should not go beyond the 24" depthstated by your manual. If the water is moving that fast you should not be in it to start with.don't under estimate the power of moving water.

 

We dropped the pressure to 20 psi and forded thru 20" of water at the Hummer Driving Academy. The bigger footprint of the tire actually helps.

 

Put some Helium in your tires and you can float

I don't think it would make much difference but it would depend on the stream and if the bottom ismuddy, gravelly, sandy or bed rock. Id say the same air pressure as you would be running in sand or rocks out of a stream.

Wet tires can get sliced on sharp rocks when wet.

You don't want to get stuck in the middle for sure.

 

As Dan said, lower the air pressure as you would offroad. Lower air pressure will help it absorb rocks and/or sharp objects, give you a wider footprint and help you navigate the stream. I think it helped here in this pic.

 

Bouyancy? In a 5,000 pound truck? You'd have to have 3 meter tall tyres to have enough bouyancy to make any difference at all. When off roading it's usually a good thing to air down to spread the weight across more of the tread width. But it does nothing for bouyancy, it's all about weight distribution...

 

RealJeep/alrock et al are correct. I would run the same tire pressure I had been running ( about 18 psi ) while offraoding. You want the bigger footprint.