RallyCross rollover risk?

You don't run the risk of debeading on the street.  I would run max pressure for rallyx if not more, especially for something with soft sidewalls like an all season or winter tire.

You shouldn't be going fast enough at your first event to debead.  Set the tires to 40 psi and don't worry about it.  Recheck pressures and re torque lug nuts on the lunch break.

Try not to go full throttle at full lock while understeering into a berm. You might debead but you will definitely slow your time.

The thing is you want pressures as low as you can get away with. So I wouldn't just blindly set pressures incredibly high, do at least a bit of experimentation to figure out what works.

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I always ran 40# with my snow tires.  It's your first event, run 40# and have fun!  You can experiment later if you'd like.

P3PPY said:

My tire shop loves to have every tire at maximum pressure just because. They have reasons so I run with it. No damage so far, seems like no reason not to for rallyX, right?

Having worked in a tire shop I know the manufacturer’s recommended pressure has some logic to it. Overinflation is not a safe condition.

I also know that doing “what is needed” to SELL tires is a big motivator. So if the overinflated tires wear out sooner that is a potential sale.

Every time a shop does anything to my car, or anyone’s car that I know, I will set the tires to the recommended pressure on the door sticker – as long as the size is the stated one.

P.S. thanks for starting this thread I needed the info.

dps214 said:

The thing is you want pressures as low as you can get away with. So I wouldn't just blindly set pressures incredibly high, do at least a bit of experimentation to figure out what works.

Thank you. This is something I was getting at and is the subject of another question I have in mind for after this weekend.

Thanks guys the info is appreciated. For this event I’ll set them at 40 and concentrate on other things – like driving.

A lot of it is driver technique.  Some people can debead rally tires at 40psi.

With the Jeep I usually left the tires at street pressure.  I think I raised the pressure a few pounds a couple of events, but it cost a bunch of grip, and I wasn't really worried about a de-bead anyway.  Street pressure for the tires on that thing (unloaded) is around 38 front, 32 rear.  The sidewalls are rather tall, so that pressure is pushing on a large area, which combined with energy absorbed in sidwall flex means it's hard to get enough force transferred down to the bead to un-seat it. 

A lot of debeads are not instant.  For sure, some of them are!  But what happens in a lot of cases is dirt gets in between the tire and rim, air pressure drops, and after a few runs the tire, she go pop.