Good day all!  I am sure there will be some-one that can help.  I have an Isuzu Arctic fitted with 265/70R17 BFGOODRICH TRAIL TERRAIN tyres.  I am planning a trip To Namibia which will mostly be gravel roads but also include some sand (dune) driving.  I would appreciate if anyone can give me the suggested tyre pressures for normal (on tar road) driving, gravel road and also sand.  I will be lightly loaded and not be towing.

[James Browne]

James Browne on 16th Feb 2023 at 8:56 am

Goodday ,

Enjoy your trip , you’ll have a blast!

With regards to tyre pressures in our opinion (we drive the KO2 BFs ) on our safari vehicles and get +- 100 000km of a set , general driving 2.8 all round, sand 2.2 front and 2.4 rear .

[Marius van Antwerpen]

Marius van Antwerpen on 16th Feb 2023 at 1:46 pm

Baie dankie!  Thanks for the info James.  I will use accordingly.  And I really cannot wait to go and test it…

[Jimmy McKenzie]

Jimmy McKenzie on 16th Mar 2023 at 6:03 pm

<p style=”text-align: left;”>My experience in Namibia is to drop the rear tyre pressure to 2.0 and front to 1.8 on the rear on the normal gravel roads. For dune riding 0.9 all round. On tar the same tyre pressure as you normally would do. After dune riding remember to again increase increase the pressure as the terrain requires.</p>

[Dirk Laubscher]

Dirk Laubscher on 15th May 2023 at 11:48 am

Well it all entails what you are up to…

….this NOT being an answer to Marius Van Antwerpen, but rather an interesting take on experience.

We run an AmaTrok with a heavy Klipspringer RORO Camper in overland duty. Fully laden the camper weighs in at approximately 950 kilos. That being said we have written off Continentals and Pirelli Scorpion ATRs on some of our trips. Side walls ripped and in the case of the Pirelli ATRs, we put a rock right through the centre of a rear tyre. Okay there was some stupidity with a late evening entry into Mokala National Park (south gate), not paying attention to the changing terrain and readjusting tyre pressure.

Whichever way, it was just a simple one-way route for our heavy laden AmaTrok. BF Goodrich! Some of you might frown at this, but you can check the specifications on your BFs and find a total surprise at what these tyres can actually bear.

We’re on our 2nd set of BFs now, and that NOT due to ANY tyre mal-performance, but as per Andre De Villiers, we decided to change to a 17inch wheel setup for off road conditions.

Our camper and all kit loaded, what to say if we have bad wind included, wreaks havoc with our consumption. This has lead us to run those BFs at the rear up to 450 KP and to retain good front end grip we might go right down to 2.2.  We have done Namibia and Botswana with no more tyre incidents. A trip through Namibia in 2018 saw us doing some really bad routes off the beaten track and we can just say, thank goodness we had BFs beneath!

Going off-road though, with rocks on the one side, and sand on the other, tyre pressure becomes a bit tricky and a tad off a guess as opposed to Marius Van Antwerpen’s “light load”. With that ton on the back we have gone down to 3.5 and those BF”s balloon nicely without too much worry for sidewall damages, while at the front right down to 1.7.

Okay so that being said, if someone in this string has some experience with tyre pressures on those trustworthy BFs bearing similar heavy weights as we do, drop us a line. We can always do with some more experience!

Overland Regards,

Dirk Laubscher