Under Pressure - Level yourself out

Tires can be expensive, and so can your lawn. I've been meticulously maintaining tire pressure on my vehicles for quite a while now, after I set the tire pressure written on the door jamb to 44PSI.. little did I know, I needed a full load in my vehicle to run that kind of pressure. After the center of each tire was getting balder and balder at 44PSI, requiring new tires in less than a year, I decided to dig deeper. Reading the manual, the first tip was to fill/remove air from the tires when they are COLD. Hotter the tires the hotter the air and air expands when hot, that made perfect sense. The manual also included a chart for different size wheel/tires and the recommended DAILY driven pressure, where you don't have a full load in the vehicle. Reducing the pressure to 38PSI was the right amount for my wheel size and vehicle. The tires have lasted 2+ years at this point, and still have plenty of life, now that they wear evenly. We drive about 15k miles a year, so much much better.

Another quick story, and you're probably wondering why I opened talking about Lawns, well.. here we go. I have a John Deere riding mower, it's May 8th 2023 now, so I've needed to mow about 4 times this year, 1x a week. The first 3 mows I was getting a nice buzzcut in a few areas. Sure, the yard is a bit uneven from the mole tunnels collapsing, and a small creek running through the low parts, but it was just mowing at a weird angle. Checked the deck height on both sides, and it was sitting even, so I went to the next check.. Tire Pressure. My front tires were running at 2PSI, and rear at 3PSI, max pressure for front should be 14psi, and 10psi for the rear. I was way under pressure! Which then caused my deck to mow unevenly going over bumps and mounds. now I get a nice even cut and no bottoming out.

Which brings me to this lovely Makita product, that I've given as Bday and Christmas Gifts for the last few years to friends and family. No need to fill that big compressor, or get an extension cord to your lawn mower.. just slap a battery on, set the pressure you want, and hold the trigger until it shuts off. It's as easy as that. I even added a velcro band to hold the button for longer fills. It made checking vehicle tires even easier too, since my air hose can't reach all of them.. remember set your tire pressure when the tires are cold! I like to check every couple weeks. If you aren't in the Makita batteryverse, there are other brands with a similar or even more features, like the Dewalt 20V Tire Inflator, which even has a high volume hose for air mattresses and other inflatables.