I've been holding off buying a beach pass to fish on the barrier island near me. I hate to put my truck in such a heavy salt water environment, but want to fish the summer and you can't park anywhere near the ocean in tourist season. So here is my question: To ride the beach you have to lower tire pressure to 15-20 psi. I just put on new Michelins this past summer, load range E. Will it kill the sidewall of the tires riding with the pressure so low? Buying other tires is not an option.

15 - 20 psi will probably not cause a problem. I have driven thousands of beach miles in my lifetime "aired down", and have not had a sidewall failure due to that. If you air down too low, you typically run more a risk of breaking the bead.

You may do well to first try 20 in the front and 15 in the rear due to the weight of the engine.

I spend alot of time here on the beach and have never aired down to any lower than 25psi.

Thanks, that helps. I know it sounds crazy but people around here get in line on New Years eve to buy numbered beach passes and the lower the number on your pass shows your a die-hard fisherman. $195 for the year, no matter how croweded the beach is you can still get in and ride down the island to fish.

I never hated one of my truck's bad enough to feed it to the salt water.

I lived on Nantucket Island for 5 yrs and put an average of 15 miles a day oversand. I kept my tires, same load range, at 12 front 15 back. I never got stuck, never had sidewall malfunction, and never broke the bead. Now and again I drove like a banshee too. Bad bad me.

The lower tire pressure does help in sugar sand driving. 14 psi would be optimal

I never hated one of my truck's bad enough to feed it to the salt water.

Thats what has mainly keeped me from getting the pass so far. I won't get in the water ever with the truck, but once your on the beach everything gets misted with the salt air. After having the truck 3 years I still consider it a "new" truck.