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I am in Mexico. I bought a used 2015 chevy express. It was a taxi, they repainted it and sold it at the chevy dealer as a "seminuevo".
I am not sure of the exact model, it was made for Mexico and is supposed to be a model "D". I think it's equivalent to a 2500, because it's not extra long like a 3500.
I took out the seats and set off to drive from Cancun to Laredo and back with a load of my household stuff.
On the way, I had a tire pressure light come on, and that was when I started paying attention to the tires. The door said 80 psi for the rear. I didn't immediately fill the tires to that becsuse it seemed too high. The low one had about 50, and I ran it with 60 for an afternoon and eventually put 80 in it the next day.
On the way back, 2 hours from Cancun, I had a blow out of the left rear. That was the one that had been run on low for a while, so I chalked it up to weakening the tire fue to underinflation.
Changed tires, got home, took it to the dealer, ended up buying a new rim and 2 new tires. They rotated them so the old fronts are on the back, and the new pair is on the front.
Only two weeks later did I finally notice that the tires on it are not LT245/75R16/E as called for by the door sticker. The old tires, now on the rear, are 245/70R16. No leading letter, no trailing /E, and 70 vs 75. They also say "max load 2200 lbs and max psi 44. Well no wonder it blew up, I had 80 in it!
The new fronts are P245/70R16. The dealer put 60 psi in them all around. The rims have 8 lug nuts.
What to do? I need to make another two round-trip laredo runs to finish moving. My stuff is neither terribly heavy or light, moving boxes I can lift and medium weight furniture.
I doubt at this point I can get anything out of the dealer. My options are to buy all new tires somewhere else, demanding the LT tires, or try to get there and back with these. What pressure should I run if I don't change the tires?
I am not what you'd call a good owner I guess, I was assuming too much of the dealer.
Seminuevo is sort of the equivalent of "certified used". All the new car dealers call their used car side operation that.The dealer checks them out and does some work, and there's a 3 month guarantee (which ain't worth much).
I paid about what you'd expect to pay for a 2015 with 80k miles in decent condition. I had an independent mechanic evaluate it, and they found some issues and the dealer fixed them as part of the deal (one brake was dragging, the serpentine was loose). It runs great, gets fuel mileage like new. (But we didn't notice about the tires).
it seems that at some point they or the prior owner replaced the tires with downspec ones, and the dealer just put on 2 more of the same. It's probably fine for driving empty, the question is how much safe loading and what air pressure, or do I need to buy new tires to not be crazy unsafe.
Last edited by jerrygoodwin; October 6th, 2021 at 12:13 AM.
Seminuevo is sort of the equivalent of "certified used". All the new car dealers call their used car side operation that.The dealer checks them out and does some work, and there's a 3 month guarantee (which ain't worth much).
I paid about what you'd expect to pay for a 2015 with 80k miles in decent condition. I had an independent mechanic evaluate it, and they found some issues and the dealer fixed them as part of the deal (one brake was dragging, the serpentine was loose). It runs great, gets fuel mileage like new. (But we didn't notice about the tires).
it seems that at some point they or the prior owner replaced the tires with downspec ones, and the dealer just put on 2 more of the same. It's probably fine for driving empty, the question is how much safe loading and what air pressure, or do I need to buy new tires to not be crazy unsafe.
This advice is what I got off a website: 50 to 80 PSI (American) Hell I've seen semi-truck tires running at 90 PSI.
Your van really should have the LT (light truck) Load Range E (approx. 3,000 lbs). I don't even run the passenger tires on my Express 1500. However, if you're carrying a light load you'll be fine. For reference here's some basic load rating and tire info I pulled together from 2013 Express specs. The passenger tire equipped Express 1500 can carry 2400 lbs, so your van, being 400-500 lbs heavier, should be good for 1900 lbs on the passenger tires. Remember that curb weight doesn't include weight of the driver or passengers so they have to be included in the cargo weight.
Drop the pressure back to 44 cold, unless the tires say otherwise.
The dealer cheaped out, the tires they installed are less expensive than the correct ones. You got them, you may as well use them up. I've had non LT tires on some of my older Chevy vans (ones with 15" rims) and run heavy loads and not had a problem.
I am in Mexico. I bought a used 2015 chevy express. It was a taxi, they repainted it and sold it at the chevy dealer as a "seminuevo".
I am not sure of the exact model, it was made for Mexico and is supposed to be a model "D". I think it's equivalent to a 2500, because it's not extra long like a 3500.
I took out the seats and set off to drive from Cancun to Laredo and back with a load of my household stuff.
On the way, I had a tire pressure light come on, and that was when I started paying attention to the tires. The door said 80 psi for the rear. I didn't immediately fill the tires to that becsuse it seemed too high. The low one had about 50, and I ran it with 60 for an afternoon and eventually put 80 in it the next day.
On the way back, 2 hours from Cancun, I had a blow out of the left rear. That was the one that had been run on low for a while, so I chalked it up to weakening the tire fue to underinflation.
Changed tires, got home, took it to the dealer, ended up buying a new rim and 2 new tires. They rotated them so the old fronts are on the back, and the new pair is on the front.
Only two weeks later did I finally notice that the tires on it are not LT245/75R16/E as called for by the door sticker. The old tires, now on the rear, are 245/70R16. No leading letter, no trailing /E, and 70 vs 75. They also say "max load 2200 lbs and max psi 44. Well no wonder it blew up, I had 80 in it!
The new fronts are P245/70R16. The dealer put 60 psi in them all around. The rims have 8 lug nuts.
What to do? I need to make another two round-trip laredo runs to finish moving. My stuff is neither terribly heavy or light, moving boxes I can lift and medium weight furniture.
I doubt at this point I can get anything out of the dealer. My options are to buy all new tires somewhere else, demanding the LT tires, or try to get there and back with these. What pressure should I run if I don't change the tires?
I am not what you'd call a good owner I guess, I was assuming too much of the dealer.
P (passenger car) tires should be about 35 psi cold. Lt(light truck) tire use 60,I use 55 cold to get a softer ride. Don't haul too much and you can roll in on p tire.. get Lt when you cross the border
October 5th, 2021, 10:46 PM
Tire confusion
