If I'm driving on ice, is it best to drop my tire pressure as if on mud or sand? I know nothing can make ice driving easy, but it seems like if lower psi gives better traction in mud or sand, it will help in ice as well. Any ideas?

 

I would think it would help some but make your sidewalls unstable if your going at a higher speed. the purpose of deflating your tires is to get a wider footprint.

But alot of factors come into play.

Where do you live and how much ice driving do you do? What about studded tires if that's all you drive on.

 

Nope, with wet, snow, ice, it's the opposite of dry, sand, etc.

You need full pressure and narrower tires, you have to "dig" into it not "float" on it.
The wider the print the less pressure you put on surface.

 

Right on the money, you wany more weight per square inch of contact area.

 

Generally speaking, higher pressure is better on snow and ice as stated above. Higher pressure will dig down through snow better and bite into ice better.

There are certain circumstances when dealing with ice that airing down can be good but this is not for road driving. If you are stuck on ice that is pretty lumpy, airing down can help your tires deform to the lumps and get better traction. This is a very specific situation that we rarely encounter though. Usually in these situations, you should either be running studs or have chains with you anyways.

 

I do work on a small fleet of 1 tons thru SUV 4x4s in the inter mountain west. Four of the vehicles are run hard in the winter both on and off road. All have studded and siped tires. I know someone that double studs their winter tires. I think that is the extreme for guys that use a trucks as a mobile office or tool box with long commutes throughout the western states in winter.

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