Towing a 26BH - tire pressures and my E4

[bbohio]

Hello all,

I picked up a 26BH this year and have a few questions tire pressures and my hitch. My TV 18" tires have a max pressure of 44# and my trailer tires have a max pressure of 50#.

Should I have my tire pressures at or near max when towing? Currently, TV is around 36#/tire and the trailer is about 44#/tire

I have approx 300 miles on the trailer and have not torqued my lug nuts yet. How often does everyone check and torque theirs?

My E4 is LOUD! I am talking nails on a chalkboard loud. I have the sway jackets on the L brackets installed and helped a little. Dealer says not to grease anything but the support team from Equal-izer says I can grease the top/bottom of the sockets (they actually have Equal-zer brand grease). Any feedback on your experience would be greatly appreciated.

[Camper_bob]

I have P rated tires on my truck, so I run them at max sidewall pressure. It does not increase the load rating, but towing is a bit more stable. I run my trailer tires at the pressure indicated on the trailer's yellow sticker, which also happens to be the max sidewall pressure. As for lubricating hitch points, you don't want to lube friction sway control points (at least not with standard lube like grease), but IMO, you should still lube the ball and any other non-friction rotation points. I believe Equalizer makes something you can put on your other friction points (I use Vaseline, but YMMV, and many disagree with that usage) to quiet them down without decreasing friction sway control efficacy.

[SmokerBill]

The sticker on my 26BH says 50# pressure in the trailer tires. If you run them lower, you risk having the tires overheat, shortening their life. I've always kept mine at 50 psi, and got over 30K miles from the first set of Marathons- actually wore a couple down to the steel belts in places, so I got my money's worth! (but I definitely should have changed them out sooner)

I think I torqued mine after the first 100 miles, then after they hit 500. Then I'd just retorque a couple of times after I rotated them at every 5000 miles or so.

[Nighthawk 96]

There are a lot of threads on tire pressure. I run my TT tires at max specified, in my case #50. Goodyear Marathon site says you can increase your TT tire pressure by 10# if you are going to tow above the 65 mph rating for ST tires. I try not to exceed 65. I run my P rated truck tires at #40, which seems to work well for my setup. I have not checked the torque on my wheels. Guess that would be a good thing to do before next trip.

[KiltDog]

Just got back form my first trip with our new 26BH. At my PDI the tech told me always tow with rear tv tires at max and that's what I did. I've got a compressor at home so filling up the tires before each trip is no biggie. After the first 100 miles I retorqued the lugs. I'd say more than half needed to be tightened. I'll probably do it again when we get back from our next trip this weekend. My WDH hasn't made any noticeable noise so no experience with that. I guess greasing the ball joints would be ok, but personally I wouldn't put anything on the bar. It just seems like you want that friction there to help prevent sway.

[bbohio]

KiltDog,

Do you have the aluminum rim option on your 26BH? If so, how the heck do you get the lug nut covers off? I've tried just about everything. They don't seem to twist off or pull off.

[KiltDog]

Originally Posted by bbohio

KiltDog,

Do you have the aluminum rim option on your 26BH? If so, how the heck do you get the lug nut covers off? I've tried just about everything. They don't seem to twist off or pull off.

I have the steel wheels. No lug nut covers so the nuts are always exposed. On previous trailers I have seen them pop off with a flat head screwdriver.