Cold tyre pressures for a loaded camping trip
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Before a loaded camping journey, find the vehicle maker's pressure for your tyres and your load, then check the tyres cold. This page is about how to take and read the check. It gives no pressure figure for your car, because the right number is on your vehicle.
Find the right reference
Michelin UK says the recommended pressure is not on the tyre sidewall. It points to the sticker on the driver's door pillar or the back of the fuel filler flap, and to the vehicle user guide, usually kept in the glove compartment. Use those, not a figure copied from another model.
If the label or handbook lists different settings, such as for different loads or tyre sizes, find the entry that matches your fitted tyres and what you will carry. Michelin's page does not cover loaded settings, so the handbook is your guide there. The vehicle prep checklist and the payload worked example help you work out what the load is.
Check cold
Michelin says to check tyres when cold, which it describes as a car that has not been used in the last two hours, or has travelled less than two miles at low speed. If you have to check warm, its page says to add 0.3 bar (4.35 psi) to the manufacturer's figure and recheck when cold. It also says never to deflate a warm tyre, because pressure rises with temperature.
Plan a cold check at home or at a suitable place before departure. If you take a reading after driving, record that fact rather than calling it cold.
Check often enough, and the spare too
Michelin says tyres lose air naturally, usually around 0.1 bar (1.45 psi) a month, and recommends checking monthly and before a long journey. It also says to check pressures when refitting tyres that have been stored off the car. The spare loses air too; Michelin says that because it is not used daily, a check once or twice a year is enough. Add it to your pre-trip list alongside the spare wheel plan.
Treat a surprising reading as a question
Michelin says petrol station gauges are not always calibrated, and suggests an occasional professional check or a calibrated gauge from a specialist store. If two gauges disagree, find out why before changing pressures again.
Michelin lists causes of faster loss, including a puncture, a defective valve, a missing valve cap or a rim that was not cleaned when the tyre was fitted. Topping up before every trip does not explain a leak, so keep dates and observations for a tyre professional.
Keep a short trip card
Write down the tyre size, where the reference came from, the load it applies to, front and rear cold pressures in one set of units, and the date of the last check. Include the spare. Recheck after changing wheels, tyres or what you carry.
This page does not cover deflating tyres for off-road use, or any rule for adding pressure to cover a heavier load. The reference is the figure your vehicle maker gives.
Before departure
- [ ] Reference found on the door pillar, fuel flap or in the handbook.
- [ ] Entry matching the fitted tyres and the load identified.
- [ ] Tyres checked cold, with any warm reading noted as warm.
- [ ] Spare checked.
- [ ] Gauge disagreement or loss raised with a tyre professional.
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