Discovery Tire Pressure

[PaulC]

A little bit of tire pressure info for Disco drivers. I put the question to my boss at LRU (Land Rover University in Maryland).

Hi Scott,

I have a tire pressure question regarding Discovery one & two. Discovery One door jam plate recommends 32 fronts & 38 rears is this still the recommended numbers from Land Rover?
Same for Discovery Two recommended 28 fronts and 46 rears?? (seems a bit odd).

Hi Paul,

As for the tire pressures, what ever is on the door jamb is the recommended tire psi for that vehicle based on a number of different variables, one of which is tire manufacturer. Most Series 1 Discovery's were equipped with Michelins while most Series II's were equipped with Goodyear's, this may have something to do with it. However, we run 30 psi front and rear on all of our vehicles in the off road fleet since we rarely run at max capacity, and have never had a problem.

[bclandrover]

Paul,

That sounds about right! I would run 32psi front and 36psi rear for the highway/city in Disco one or two. The only reason for the higher rear is at full load capacity.

I also have a feeling that the lower front tire pressure is to give more steering feel with power steering. Anything higher like 36 to 40psi in the front and the steering is all over the place.

Later,
Don

[DaveB]

Thanks guys.

I was still scratching my head on this. I'm going to try 35 all round for awhile. I can see needing more if its loaded with heavy gear, but the difference between 28 and 46 sure is a lot.

It occurred to me that you could even have some gearbox windup with that kind of difference as the fronts would be effectively power profile than the backs.

Dave

[red90]

Discos require more rear pressure because they are heavier in the rear. The full time 4WD needs the rear tire to have the same or larger rolling radius than the front. Without it the high speed handling goes south. Trust me, I have personally tested this.

[PaulC]

My experience with my Disco is that 30lbs front & rear yields a nice neutral handling Disco on paved & loose surface…yes it tends to under steer a little quicker on loose surface, but I found I could rotate the rear with more steering input to compensate, this is with stock tire size BFG AT’s. With my 245/75 MTR’s is started with 32lbs front & rear and found it to under steer quickly on pavement and harder to rotate the vehicle once into over steer and again pretty much the same on loose surface. So I tried various higher rear pressures to see if I could get the rear to slide a little quicker & yes I achieved less traction, but to me it didn’t seem as predictable as 30/30 front /rear. I’ve gone back to 30lbs with the MTR’s & again found the handling much more to my liking very close to neutral. This is with no load & my day trip trail stuff in the rear. I have recently upgraded the springs & shocks (OME) still forming my opinions on the stiffer handling characteristics…I will probably stick with the 30/30 pressure for now.
Now all this may be a little over kill I mean crap, we are driving Discovery’s not rally cars. :roll: But having said that, I got to hang out with an LRU driving instructor who is also a rally school instructor. He drives 5spd Disco…and well crap maybe we are driving rally cars Brake — Lift —Turn or was it Lift — Brake - Turn. :shock: