Maintaining the ideal air pressure is the most important step in keeping tires in peak operating condition.

Checking your tires’ pressure regularly is like exercising – you know you should do it, but it’s easy to put it off.

Tire professionals say there’s a huge payoff for sticking with this routine. It will head off irregular wear that can reduce tire mileage, preserve the casing for retreading and enhance fuel economy.

The safety aspect of proper inflation is more important than ever. Not only does it help avoid catastrophic tire failure, it’s also a sensitive item with the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program. Under CSA, a tire violation carries among the highest severity weightings, adversely affecting your own or your leasing carrier’s score to a great degree. Tires are among the easiest pieces of your equipment for inspectors to check, too, says Guy Walenga, director of commercial products engineering and technology at Bridgestone/Firestone.

What is the proper pressure?

Ideal pressure varies with the weight you’re hauling. If you’re accustomed to hauling 80,000 pounds most of the time and you run few empty miles, choose pressure for the heaviest loads.

Many operators follow a standard of 100 psi in all tires. That may be adequate for steers, but it will make the drive and trailer tires overinflated by as much as 15 psi with a normal configuration of two tractor axles and two trailer axles, says Walt Weller, sales vice president at CMA, maker of Double Coin tires. Overinflation is “the lesser of two evils compared to underinflation,” he says.