So much for Maxxis tires

LarryJM wrote:
It does surprise me that you find towing at less than 65 more tiring than over.

What I was trying to say was not that it's tiring to tow under 65 mph, but it's tiring to have to keep monitoring the speedo and/or GPS to stay at 65 mph and under. When in hilly/mountainous areas, speed is constantly going up and down and it takes constant checking not to exceed 65 mph, plus I'd rather keep my eyes on the road ahead especially in the tight turns and narrow roads. 'Course not an issue in Ca. because max legal towing is 55 mph...

We have Marathons which can be inflated another 10 psi to be able to go 75 mph. Can I therefore just keep them at 75 psi on long road trips? Don't know. We're well under the tire's load rating so if running at 65 psi, am I okay with the occasional spurt up to 75? It's confusing. Is there something different about Marathons that allows higher speed?

With all the reports of blowouts whether statistically significant or not, I don't want a blowout just like everyone else. Besides staying at max. 65 mph, I check the tire pressure (on TV too) before heading off on each leg of a trip, I stay off shoulders at all times, I slow down for potholes, speed bumps and rough roads, etc. Our Marathons are 2 seasons old with 8 - 9K miles (including delivery from Indiana). Still *look* like new. :W Hoping to get lots more service from all 4 of them.

One thing I know that is really hard on any tire is settlement of concrete slabs on interstates from the sudden sharp whap, whap every few feet. I've had 3 passenger car tires have the cords severely damaged on the I-5 in northern Cal. One was only months old and got replaced under warranty and the other two happened on the same trip. IIRC, I was going over the speed limit tho. :R If I encounter anything like that with our TT, I'm going to slow waaay down or get onto another road. I have yet to read on an RV forum about ST blowouts that were or might have been caused by similar sections of concrete interstates or highways and I wonder how many have suffered tire damage from this and never knew and blame it on other causes?

Another thing I've wondered about is that I like towing in mountainous and hilly areas with lots of twists and turns at high speed around the corners (no more than 5-6 mph above the "slow to" speed). Have a really good TV and TT setup that allows this. In stretches with frequent turns at speed, is it hard on the tires and does it cause detrimental heat buildup from maybe tread squirm or sidewall flexing?

At the end of the day, I don't think it matters if you have Maxxis, Chinamaster or any other brand of ST tire, you need to know how to properly take care of them because they are a different animal. Nobody seems to make an effort to educate TT buyers on ST tire care - a dealer, the RV manufacturer, a tire manufacturer/dealer or maybe even your insurance company. Maybe the number of blowouts and failures could be substantially reduced if this were to happen. For ex., discovered recently that friends of ours hadn't checked their ST psi in 1 1/2 yrs and one was down to 50 psi (LRD) - an accident waiting to happen and they didn't know to check or the importance.