What tire pressure have you all been running on the Dunlap American Elite for the front tire of your Tri Glide?

 

I have an American Elite Rear tire, reversed, on the front of my TG, running the PSI at 41. There may be other pressures that are better, but it is pretty sweet where it is, so have not tried any others yet.

 

Harley says 36 psi for the stock D402. I don't know why it would be different for the American Elite. Might call or check with Dunlop. I know on two wheelers Harley says more pressure -40 psi. Now running a rear tire reversed on the front I really don't know what is correct or if it should be treated as a front tire or a rear tire. Kevin likes 41 psi (and that is what Avon recommends on their tires) so I's say between 36 & 41 psi.

 

Tires are designed for the forces that will be applied to them. Reversing a tire has the forces acting opposite to the tires design. Could that cause a problem? Not something I'm going to try. If the tires fails it could be a major failure resulting in a bad situation. If there are injuries or worse you could be at fault when accident investigation shows the tire mounted incorrectly. Your ride your choice.

 

That is why a tire designed for the rear is run in reverse when mounted on the front - to have the forces working with the tire. Lots of trike riders do this since rear tires have more tread depth and will give better mileage.

 

It is a common misunderstanding regarding running a rear tire reversed up front...not just for the belt overlap, but also for the tread pattern in the tires. Dwayne and I shot a video last week, that should be out in the next week or so on our youtube channel addressing both of these things.

I have run rear tires reversed on 3 different Tri Glides, for just shy of 100,000 miles with not only no issues, they function better than the front two wheeler tire that Harley puts on the front a a Trike that does not lean like a 2 wheeler.

 

The manual calls for 36/ psi, use that. But, look into the Avon Cobra Trike front tire.

 

I would for sure if I could get the av71 but I think all they make now or the AV 91 and that's the one that I've heard and read all the problems that others were having with it so I wanted to try the American Elite. The Avon cobra av71 that I had is still on my wife trike and has over 22,000 miles on it and still look good. So the av71 would have been my first choice if available

 

Here's a video we just made a week or so ago-

 

I understand the advantages that you speak of in the video but the two Harley dealers I deal with won't mount a rear tire in reverse Direction and the local Indy here in town went out of business last year probably in part due to covid-19. I'm still getting over 22k on the av71 with 4/32 seconds left on it from the wear bar and would get another one if they were still in production.
I just had the Harley dealer that I have been dealing with for the last two or three years put on an American Elite front tire on my bike and we'll see what kind of mileage I get from that . My wife's Tri Glide is still running the AV 71 I just mentioned.