General Tire Information
Remember that the only connection between you and mother earth is your tires. Treat them well. The important issues are type of tires and the air in the tire. Keep in mind that the tire doesn't support the vehicle load. The pressurized air inside the tire supports the load. The tire is just the container this might sound obvious, but it is critical to understand.

If you are driving a SUV or an armored SUV the tires should start with the letters LT which mean Light Truck. Often Light Truck (LT) tires will be replaced with Passenger tires of the same size.

The tire pictured has the designation P215/65R15 with a load range of 95 and speed rating of H. You cannot arbitrarily use this tire for a tire whose designation was LT 215/65R/15. Why? The explanation can and does get complicated if you are interested go to the site listed below it will give you detailed information. Anyone who is responsible for the safety and security of the passengers in their vehicle should understand tire loads. You can put yourself and everyone else in the vehicle in a tough spot by not paying attention to vehicle loading. You will find the tire load written on the side of the tire, and it is the air in the tire determines the amount of weight you can carry in the car. The combination of speed heavy load low tire pressures is a recipe for blowouts and flats.

Check your tire pressures when the tires are cold - understand that for every 10 degree increase (F) in temperature the tire pressure goes up 1 PSI. Combine that with a heavy loaded vehicle and it is a disaster looking for a place to happen.

LOAD RANGE
The amount of weight the tire can accept depends on the amount air in the tire. The tire will have a load rating stamp on the tire. There is a table at the end of this segment that will give you the amount of weight that correlates to the number. As an example in the above picture the load range is 95 if you go to the table 95 corresponds to 1521 pounds or 690 Kilos. That means with maximum air pressure that number is also found on the tire the table shows this tire can accept 1521 pounds on it.

For a reason that I have never been able to comprehend the Load range on LT tires has a different designation.

Look at the drawing on the right and you will notice the load range designation is a letter instead of a number. Why? I don't know if you go on the Goodyear site mentioned above it has an explanation. But as a quick reference look at the image to the left. The tired pictured has a load range of D which mean it is a load range of 110 which means it can take 2337 pounds on it.

What do you take away from all this? Check your tires and insure that they are the correct designation if it is armored it should have a LT tire on it. Make sure the tire can take the weight that's on it, if it cannot take the weight you are asking for a blowout.

TIRE PRESSURE HINTS
Most manufacturers recommend checking tire pressures weekly or monthly but I would suggest checking them daily

If you are not sure what to put in for tire pressure the vehicle manufacturer's recommendation is always a good starting point. It will be somewhere in the car, or on the sticker in the driver's door jamb, but more and more it's located on the back of the gas filler door. If that fails, the information should be in the owner's manual. Sometimes, there will be a range specified, or two different recommendations, depending on load. Anywhere between these numbers should be safe.

SPEED RATINGS