Thank you all for the many responses, I’m amazed that so many have contributed.


The roads we have up here should perhaps be called dirt roads and not gravel roads, I don’t know if there is a difference between the two terms? But as Jean Visser writes the roads in northern Ghana are dusty red roads with plenty potholes, and also quite a bit of corrugation. I have never experienced a puncture here due to sharp stones…..but then again that might be because the grater rarely passes by. The one puncture I’ve had for the last year was due to a nail.

“If you are getting the mileage you want and not many punctures, who are we to say that you're doing anything wrong?” The tires have lasted 25.000 km now and need to be changed soon, I’m not sure if that’s sufficient, but it seems okay considering that they do so many Km’s on dirtroad. More important is that they are not worn unevenly on the sides or on the middle, so I guess that’s a sign that the pressure I’m running is ok.

“How heavily laden are you running?” – I usually don’t travel with significant load, besides the passengers. – Oh and the tires are tubeless!


Lastly I wasn’t clear enough in my first post - The argument between the Ghanaians and myself about high or low pressure was mainly about stability/safety on the road, and the fact that they believe high pressure will make the tires explode because of the heat (the last one I already ruled out).

As it looks for now, I think I’ll keep the pressure as the manual states, maybe experiment a bit with lowering it for comfort on the corrugation.
Once again thank you all for the many inputs, and thank you for a great forum.

Cheers
Thor

25 000km is not a lot! On decent off-road tyres you should be getting 2 to 3 times that at least...

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Dawie du Plessis
www.pictureafrica.org
www.photographersa.co.za

So much of this is subjective! Speed, load, tyre construction, aspect ratio, road surface all play a part.

Ask the tyre manufacturer. they should know

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Fraser

I agree, we just finished going up and down Africa with one set of BFG Muds, 68 000 km's and a lot of abuse!

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Jean Visser

http://ons4.reproroom.com