Am I Crazy to Drive Across the Desert in July?

[CanyonMan]

Originally Posted by Gene

The maximum pressure is set by the manufacturer and they take into account the normal heating up of the tire during use. The maximum pressure is not the best pressure for most people. Do your research for your vehicles. Tires pressure increases from 5-12 lbs. I am guessing from memory. It depends on which side faces the sun, ambient temperatures and speed.

With summer temperatures increasing, travel in southern Arizona may not be the best idea in the future. Is there info on how hot various brands can get before they fail? With Phoenix temps seeming to be approaching 115-120˚, what is the limit for tires, A/C and people?

Living in the Phoenix area I feel eminently qualified to answer your questions. The limit for AC is around 100*. One would be able to cool a trailer enough to at least not die. The nights would be much more comfortable. Take note of the fact that through much of the I-10 route shade trees are virtually nonexistent I have yet to find the limit on tires. As noted in an earlier post the engineers have already factored the heat into the tire design and I see no reason to doubt them. I regularly travel, in the summer, through AZ, NV, NM, CA, well all of the western states, and have yet to experience a tire issue that was caused by heat. BTW I always run max inflation because I, like most people, usually travel near my max weight. It is good to remember that when one runs less than max psi they decrease the payload of the tires. People seem to be able to adapt to the temps in the summer here much the same way people in much colder climes do.We do less outdoors unless necessary, we travel to cooler locales and we drink lot of fluids and stay out of the sun. It's not as bad in the summer as you think, for prepared people.
Having said all that I still recommend a more northern route for the OP's journey. I never want to travel in conditions that I don't want to camp in. Also, while the heat is not in and of it's self bad, it will most likely find the weak link of your rig. The desert southwest is not a place to break down in the summer.

Good luck to the OP and have a safe journey.
Canyon

[Gene]

Originally Posted by CanyonMan

BTW I always run max inflation because I, like most people, usually travel near my max weight. It is good to remember that when one runs less than max psi they decrease the payload of the tires. People seem to be able to adapt to the temps in the summer here much the same way people in much colder climes do.
Canyon

The maximum psi for a specific tire is not necessarily the same as the pressure required to carry a specific weight. Adjust psi to the actual weight of the trailer and contents. A medium sized trailer used to come with Load Range C (50 psi) tires and if you use LR E (80 psi), you certainly do not need to fill to 80 psi. It is true less pressure means less weight, but unless you have a tank and are using LR E tires, you probably need less pressure. There are now subcategories of load ranges, so there are C1 and C2 for example. I am going by the older ranges.

I know people in Phoenix adapt just like people in the Colorado mountains get used to the cold. We went to a baseball game at what was then called the BOB years ago in September. It was 108˚ outside, 80˚ inside. People were wearing sweaters because it was so "cold". Phoenix in the summer is strange—few people on the streets. We saw one of my wife's cousins who lives there a few months ago at a funeral and most of what she talked about was the heat. If you live somewhere where all you talk about is how awful the heat is, why not move? As for cold, I remember wearing a light jacket when the temp went up to -10˚. It felt so warm after -30˚ in the morning. I don't live there now and the temps are a lot warmer, but now I feel cold now because age does that.