Why Should You Deflate Your 4WD Tyres?

Lowering your 4WD tyres to the appropriate pressure plays a critical role in off-road adventuring. Whether you're heading down to the beach, traversing rocky terrain, or exploring corrugated tracks, it's important to understand the benefits of deflating your tyres and the impact it has on your vehicle and the tracks.

Luckily for us four-wheel drivers, a good quality tyre deflator such as the Dune 4WD Big Red makes it extremely easy to deflate our tyres to the correct pressure for the track. The Big Red is one of the fastest deflators on the market, allowing you to remove the tyre's valve core and deflate a large 4WD tyre in a matter of seconds.

So, how does deflating your tyres help when heading off-road?

Traction, traction and more traction…

First and foremost, dropping your tyre pressures before heading off-road dramatically improves your vehicle's traction by lengthening the amount of tread that connects your vehicle to the track. This improves your vehicle's off-road capabilities, allowing you to navigate more advanced terrain with ease. While this is true for all-terrain types, it's most evident while driving through sand, where failing to deflate your tyres can mean the difference between getting bogged and cruising along trouble-free.

Be kind to your engine

Deflating your tyres is also easier on your vehicle's engine. Tyres with higher pressure dig into boggy tracks and require more effort to turn, whereas deflated tyres have a larger footprint which allows them to sit on the surface of the track. Driving with high tyre pressures also requires more speed to keep up momentum and avoid getting stuck, resulting in poor fuel economy and more strain on your engine. So if you've noticed your vehicle running hot while off-road, try dropping your tyre pressures further.

Preserve our tracks

Aside from additional off-road performance, lowering your tyre pressures also ensures your vehicle has the smallest impact possible on the tracks you're driving on. We've all driven on tracks that are bouncy and rutted out, commonly found in more populated areas. This happens when people drive tracks with high tyre pressures, causing their tyres to dig into the track and regularly lose traction. Deflating your tyres before heading onto the tracks ensures less wheel spin to chop up the tracks, and lets you drive at a slower and more controlled speed.

An easy way to get a comfortable ride

There's a reason most experienced four-wheel drivers deflate their tyres before heading onto seemingly tame tracks, and that's comfort. Think of this as an additional layer of suspension, with the softer tyres absorbing some of the impacts from bumpy tracks. This is most noticeable on corrugated tracks - attempting to drive a corrugated track with full tyres is likely to result in a very bumpy ride, but when you lower your tyre pressures, the tyres mould into the corrugations of the track and iron out a lot of the bumps!

Summary

Wherever your adventure takes you next, remember to drop your tyre pressures to a suitable level for the terrain - your vehicle and the tracks will thank you for it!

Before heading out make sure you check out our Ultimate 4WD Tyre Pressure Guide to ensure you have the perfect pressure set for any terrain.