So much for Maxxis tires

myredracer wrote:
Followed a delivery guy from Indiana last week pulling a TT through N. Cal. on a stretch of road that was rather rough in spots and had lots of tight turns. We'd slow down on the rough sections, he didn't. He'd pull away on straight stretches and was doing well above 65 mph. We'd catch him where there was a lot of twists and turns (he had no WDH). I would hazard a guess that many TTs have their tires abused by delivery drivers and out to the west coast, that can be over 2,000 miles. It bothers me that the RV industry sells you a TT with ST tires that are essentially used and may have incurred damage when you take ownership.

Excellent observation and I agree.

I don't understand the 65 mph rating and limitation. Why would the tire industry and regulators do this? 65 mph is so easy to exceed on a freeway and MANY highways in the US. I find myself constantly watching the speedometer and GPS in an effort to drive at max. 65 mph and it is not easy and on a long leg of a trip gets tiring and stressful. Why didn't they come up with a 70 or 75 mph rated ST tire???


I really don't know, but it could have been something set during the NSML of 55 during the 1974 to 1995 time frame along with some studies that might have suggested that towing at speeds in excess of 65mph was significantly less safe, but those are total guesses on my part. However, a few states still limit towing speed considerably less than non towing combos like Ca as an example. It does surprise me that you find towing at less than 65 more tiring than over. My personal experiences having towed from before the NSML till present that 55 to 60/62 is the most comfortable speed. I find towing at speeds much in excess of 62 to 63 much more tiring and requires a lot more attentiveness. If you have a properly capable vehicle you should be able to use the cruise control and at least on the Interstates by staying in the far right "slow" lane fiddling with you speed is a non issue. This 62 to 63 issue was recently reconfirmed when I upgraded my tires and wheels to Al with the Kumho 857s for a period of 20mos and some 6,500mi where I towed 65 to 67. That abruptly came to an end when I had my first tread separation/blow out since the mid 1990's with one of my Kumho tires. Right now since Jan of this year I have a mixture of two Kumhos on one side and two GY Marathons on the other and am back to my previous 58 to 62 max towing speed. Also, in my case my best towing mpg is right at 59mph where I'm turning 2K rpms which is the sweet spot for the 7.3L Ford diesel.

In 3 or 4 years when I plan to replace my current Kumhos, my plans are to give them one more shot and replace the now unavailable 195R14 LRDs with the 205R14 LRDs which will just barely fit my current axle spacing. This will have increased the max load capacity from the original 1760 per tire to my current 2094 (Kumho 195R14s) to 2271 (Kumho 205R14s). In fact for me with having close to 1750lbs load on each tire the 2271 was probably what should have been there as the OEM capacity, but was not. Because of my current tire mix I'm carrying two spares, one GY Marathon and one Kumho so if I have a flat I have a spare for whatever tire currently on the trailer with if needed. My current two spares, one Kumho and one Marathon have each been subjected to being overloaded since they were tires on the same side as when I had the tread separation/blowout in the case of the Kumho in Jan 15 and the Marathon from a simple flat back in Oct 2010. I will probably buy 6 of the 205R14 Kumhos at my next retire and have two as spares to use should one of the 205R14s need to be replaced.

Larry