Air, plugs, and a spare

The figure on the driver door is the highway number for that vehicle's load. The tire maker publishes a load and pressure table, and that table outranks a number someone painted on a sticker for a different truck. Airing down on dirt spreads the tread, lets the carcass wrap small rocks, and takes the anger out of washboard.

Plenty of drivers on mixed dirt start a conversation somewhere in the high teens to the mid-twenties PSI, then change it for load, tire size, speed, and how sharp the rock is. That range is a conversation, not a target for your Jeep. Too little air on a heavy vehicle can unseat a bead or overheat a tire once you are back on pavement. Carry a gauge you trust more than the one built into a bargain compressor. Re-air before highway speed. Every time.

It has to fill the tires you actually own, in the heat you actually drive in, from the pressure you aired down to back to the highway number, for every tire, without a long rest between them. A tiny inflator can be honest on a stock all-terrain. It is a poor surprise on a heavier tire.

Know the duty cycle. Carry the battery or the cord that runs it. Carry spare valve cores and the small tool that removes one. A missing core looks exactly like a ruined tire, and it is a thirty-second fix if the tool is in the glovebox.

A plug kit is for a small hole in the tread: a screw, a nail, a sharp stone. It is a way to reach a tire shop. It is not a repair for a sidewall cut, a split shoulder, a large gash, or a tire that was driven flat until the sidewall is ringed and hot.

If the damage is off the tread, the spare is the tool. Have a shop replace a plugged tire rather than trusting it for another season of highway. Practice the reamer and the plug once at home, on a scrap if you can, so the first time is not on a cambered shoulder with trucks going past.

Test-fit it. Confirm the jack will lift the Jeep on dirt if you put a board under the base, and that the wheel studs match. A temporary doughnut is a poor desert plan. Chock a wheel before you lift the truck.

If you carry a second full-size spare, know where that weight sits and that it is tied down. A high-lift jack is a powerful tool that injures careless people. If you carry one, learn it from a competent person before you need your face away from the handle. This page will not teach that technique in a paragraph, on purpose.