Driving Cross-Country

Changing pressure is OK as long as it’s done first thing in the morning, before any driving.

Seriously, do you guys change your tire pressure everyday based on the lowest expected temperature for that day? Ideally set the pressure when the tires are at 68°F and leave it, that is the standard temperature that engineers use when making these recommendations. I use an IR thermometer on my tires before filling them and I adjust the pressure based on 1 psi rise for every 10°F rise in temperature, and I use a calibrated digital tire gauge that reads in increments of 0.1 psi.

I just completed a cross country (4300 mile trip) and I used my own advice. No tire trouble, in fact I have made a lot of cross country trips, several per year over the last 50 years of driving and have never had a tire issue while on one of these trips. i have had a tire issues from an occasion nail or other foreign object while doing local driving, but I check the tires very carefully before going on a trip. I may forget to check the oil, but I always check the tires.

While on this trip, I only saw one car on the side of the road with the hood up, but I saw about a half dozen changing tires along the side of the road.

A couple years ago, I made a 7000 mile trip on tires that had 92k miles on them and were down to 4/32" tread. The tires were premium tires and only 4 years old so based on the rate of tread wear, I did not see any problems, and they made the trip just fine, and another few thousand miles more when I got back. They still had plenty of life in them when I replaced them, but I saw a really good deal on new tires that I could not pass up.