What a difference it made! He made a believer out of me as my Jeep crawled up that hill without spinning a tire. It made for a more comfortable ride (squishing the sidewalls absorbs some of the bumps kind of like an extra shock absorber), and gave me a lot more confidence as the trail got tougher and rockier. I ran the rest of that day with no traction issues and promptly figured out how to address a new problem: how do you air down that far without kneeling next to each tire with a key stuck into the valve stem?
There are many solutions. You can buy 4 deflators that screw onto the valve stems. They are adjustable to a pre-set pressure and stop when the tire reaches that pressure. Another option is a gauge with a valve tool built in. You screw the gauge onto the valve stem then unscrew the valve itself. The tool captures the tiny, needle-like valve and holds it while air rushes past much faster than simply depressing the valve with your key. You’re still kneeling, but for seconds rather than minutes, and the valve cannot fly off and disappear on a high pressure airflow stream. The tool gets passed around between several Jeeps in the time it takes to manually air down one.
My favorite low buck solution is a clip-on air chuck (about $10). The clip holds it in place so you can stand up, and since it’s unconnected from the air hose, it simply bleeds off the air pressure in the tire. After checking the decreasing pressure a few times, I have learned it takes about 45 seconds to get close to my target pressure number. I keep this tool in the glove box where it stays clean and handy, as I know I’ll be using it again when I air up later.
Speaking of airing up, it is absolutely critical that you re-inflate the tires back to normal pressure before driving at highway speeds! The reason is safety. The lower pressure does not force the rubber bead of the tire into the rim as much, and the bead can peel as road forces (like cornering) push the weight of the vehicle against the outer edge of the rim. Peeling a bead causes “catastrophic loss of pressure”, and will likely cause a crash. We are less concerned about peeling a bead at trail speeds since we are traveling so slowly, but peeling a bead is still inconvenient and there are solutions to help prevent this.