LT 235 75 R15 All Terrain currently on the camper, we like to boondock sometimes, using forest service or BLM dirt roads to access sites; no gnarly roads though--thanks!

Good luck.

Thanks for the specifics.  I'll take a look at those

Am I correct to think the cold PSI is what I should go by to add air or not, once in the morning before driving?

Do you max out your tire PSI when pulling the camper loaded with water, etc?

Thanks

Would someone please explain the advantage of using LT all-terrain tires on a trailer as opposed to an ST specifically made for trailers?

One could be the ability to run less-than-max inflation but still carry design weight.  LT sidewalls can handle more flex.  

Could ease the pounding on the trailer a bit.

 

One thing both shops refused to do was to put a high pressure valve stem on the Pod wheels. LT tires can go to 80psi, however Rpod wheels are not rated for that high pressure. Your usual rubber valve stem is only rated at 65psi and that is what they installed when I had the tires mounted and balanced. I would be cautious about putting anything above 65psi in LT tires on Rpod rims.

Flexible sidewalls worry me for a trailer because, as I understand it, they can amplify trailer sway, not to mention increase rolling resistance from tread squirm.  Certainly the flexibility, as Jim Poston points out, can soften the ride, but that seems to be a two edge sword that can be easily solved by selecting the appropriate weight range.  We went from nice squishy load range C to D on our 172 and the improvement in stability and mileage was markedly better.  Nevertheless, those AT tires sure look cool.

Ditto on the Westlakes not holding tire pressure. They would routinely lose 5psi over a month or so. 

New type of axle!!!

A Curt Suspension, little over kill but might solve problems and issues, or cause more?

Product development is like making sausage.  If you examined it in detail it would make you feel really queasy.  Everyone makes mistakes, passes the buck, and tries to claim credit for what others did. ... then they hire lawyers to clean up the legal messes they got themselves into.  ...And there are plenty of lawyers who make the messes even worse.  A world run by engineers, manufacturing process people, sales people, accountants and lawyers, would be pretty ugly place.  Come to think of it.............

Engineers are not infallible and are not gawds any more than are lawyers, bean counters, sales people or the folks who clean the factory floor.  Everyone should, but sadly doesn't, try to add value through his or her work.  But no one, in the grand scheme of things, is really any better or worse than anyone else.  Value is an utterly subjective concept that can be interpreted anyway you like.  We all like to believe we add it in our work, but none of us is truly objective about the worth of what we do. 

https://philosophia.uncg.edu/phi361-matteson/module-1-why-does-business-need-ethics/case-the-ford-pinto/

Were they designed by bean counters or lawyers looking for roll over cases to defend?  

Not sure where I was going with that but there it is.

My Pinto lasted better than a classmates Chevy Vega. That thing was covered in rust spots the first winter and the aluminum engine block needed to be bored out and iron sleeves put in to stop it form burning oil.

The Pinto replaced a 63 Corvair that I drove when I first got licensed. It was not turbo and it did have the swing axle. It wasn't until after it started dancing when I pulled back in my lane after passing a car that I read Unsafe At Any Speed. Then I understood why it had done that. I also found out that it was not very good on ice from freezing rain after making a couple of 360 degree turns and ending up in a snowbank. Other than that, the 2 speed automatic was really bad. I'm glad it had the automatic though as I got hurt and could drive with my left foot since it didn't have a driveshaft tunnel.

Ah, yes the Chevy Vega, one of the worst cars ever made by GM.  Didn't they experiment with some kind silica coating on the walls of the cylinders that wore off when the pistons got distorted due to excessive heat from an inadequate cooling system?

The Pinto died in another accident on our honeymoon in 1975. We slid into an intersection on slick roads during a hurricane going up through PA. A tree was hanging down over the stop sign. By the time I saw the stop sign and hit the brakes, I could not stop and as we slid in, a flatbed semi shaved the front end of the Pinto off from the radiator on forward and bent the front from the windshield on forward. We did not get hurt, but we did count our blessings of not having arrived at that intersection a second earlier. If we had, I would not be typing this.

And let's not forget another sweet car, the AMC Gremlin.  After selling my '69 Corvette (had to so I could continue to pay my way through college debt free) I purchased a brand new 1974 Gremlin off the lot (3.8L V-6) for $ 2902 out the door, and that included taxes and license plate transfer.  Even got recognition at a church I went to near the campus of M.S.U. in East Lansing, MI for bringing the most people in one car - 10 of us!  Would most likely get a ticket for doing that today as the 3 in the back had their legs hanging out the rear window.

A scary car I remember being a passenger in during that same time was a friends Honda Civic.  Going down the expressway you could easily see the undercarriage of semi's as they whizzed by, the car sat that low.

Another car we have had was a Geo Metro. It was interesting with the 3 cylinder engine. It also was fun to drive, but it would not have been a good one for long trips, even though it did get really good gas mileage.

Later, around 1978, I got one of those Honda CVCC orange station wagons. ....another piece of junk.  The transmission wore out at about 40K miles.  My mechanic friend who tried to fix it said the casing was so worn out that it wouldn't even hold the internal parts in place.  I got a junkyard transmission and sold the car.

I've also had very bad luck with GMC products.  Oil consumption, parts breaking off, premature failures of basic systems, and consistently uncomfortable seats for my body shape.   

As for the Honda CVCC wagon, the transmission never gave me problems (manual). The clutch cable, OTOH was something else. I had to replace it (think super heavy duty bicycle brake cable). There were other problems such as a float in the carburetor that sank. The Honda dealer wanted to replace the carburetor. I found a mechanic who rebuilt it for a price I could afford. Later, the head gasket needed to be replaced and CV joints also. Still, I drove it for about 75,000 miles and then my brother drove it for many more. It was really a good little car.

Dodge Omni was my next one. We bought it from my Father in Law. and the Army shipped it to Germany for us. We drove it for about 5-1/2 years there and sold it to another Soldier when we came back. Then we had a Chevy Lumina APV. I liked the composite body that didn't dent when car doors hit it and didn't rust. I think I was on the third brake booster when we sold it. The driver's seat elevating mechanism also broke. That got shipped to Hawaii and was left there.

Then we got a Ford (out of) Focus. It must have been a Monday or Friday vehicle. We sold it when we had it into the shop for the seventh time for the airbag system. It would show the light that the passenger airbag was disabled when my wife was in the passenger seat. They replaced just about everything in that system but the airbag. It also needed a new transmission during the time we owned it.

Then was the 2009 Escape. It was okay but it convinced me that I don't like sun/moon roofs. It was otherwise okay, but we sold it and bought a 2016 Escape with the 2l Ecoboost engine when we got the RPod. I thought we were  going to be getting a Casita, but turned out I got scammed. All's well that ends well. I am sure we are happier with the RPod than we would have been with the much smaller Casita.

The accident with the icy road in Wyoming is why we now have the Frontier. I liked the Escape's Ecoboost, but the tiny gas tank meant a stop about every 100 miles to fill up with premium. The Frontier doesn't do so well at high altitude, but it does not need premium gas.

Even that sweet '69 Corvette that I had to sell to 'upgrade' to the Gremlin had its issues.  The one that really was a bugger was the location of the starter motor, this Vette had a 350 hi performance 350 HP.  If you turned the motor off while on a hot summer day, you would literally have to wait 20 minutes or more to start it again.  Unfortunately the starter was located about 1 - 1.5" away from the exhaust manifold and with that amount of heat, the starter would be too hot to turn over until cooling off.  Fortunately my smarter and older brother came up with a solution, being a tool and die master he made and installed a heat deflector between the manifold and starter - it made a world of difference!  He should have gotten a patent on it and a lot of Vette owners would have been much happier. 

Also with all that weight in the front IF you were attempting to back out of a 1" snow covered driveway with the slightest of incline, you would find yourself stuck, the rear tires would spin but the car would not move in the least.  I would throw a couple of sandbags in the back behind the seat to help but now there would be absolutely no room to carry anything, except in the passenger seat. 

One thing that was really sweet was the light monitoring system that was on the console, by utilizing fiber optics you could, from the seat, observe all your lights, park, headlights, hi-beam as well as tail lights and even the license plate light, pretty cool.

I bought one of the first Chevy Vegas off the line, but we got the "GT" model that had the extra-large radiator. The cylinder walls were some kind of silica-embedded aluminum to avoid having pressed-in liners. Turns out that a large part of the original problem was that the "stock" radiator was about the size of a Sears catalogue, and that one of the primary failure issues was the engine running too hot and compromising the silica cylinder walls. We drove that Vega for 6 years without trouble and sold it with 90+ thousand miles.

IIRC, GM fixed the original issue with the Corvair suspension in later models, but by the time they did that, the damage to its reputation was irreparable. There may have been a similar situation with the Pinto, but I don't remember.