So much for Maxxis tires

myredracer wrote:

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.

IMO you make some very subtle and important points. IMO the three major causes of tire failures are:

1. Excessive speed
2. Under inflation
3. Tire damage due to overloading or road hazards.

This last one is IMO probably the most important and again IMO comes from two not so obvious sources. If one has a flat with most stock sized tires this will cause the other tire on that side to be "SERIOUSLY OVERLOADED" with it being damaged with it's max load carrying capacity seriously compromised. Thus with the normal lack of real excess tire load capacity on stock OEM tires that means unless you replace that apparantly "good" tire you will be running around on a tire most likely "overloaded" all the time and this can result in the catastrophic "blow out" or tread separation scenario at some point down the road. Thus one of my rules is if I have a flat on the trailer "BOTH TIRES" on that side are replaced and will only use that potentially overloaded and compromised tire that did not go flat on the side of the trailer I had a flat on as an emergency spare. Another serious issue IMO is what I called road hazards and outside of the normal "curbing type" issues the poor conditions of a lot of our interstates is "TIRE HADES" due to the "INTERSTATE POTHOLES" mainly in the right side of the right lane. Anyone that has traveled I-95 thru SC and NC know what I'm talking about. Hitting these at interstate speeds over say a couple of hundred miles can IMO basically DESTROY what ever tire load capacity that tire had before you started beating those tires to death. I'm paranoid about this and when I encouter this issue I try and avoid these "Interstate Pothole" like the plague. To do this I'm with in the right lane or straddling the left and right lane only moving over to my normal right lane travel when someone is overtaking me. I have also been known to straddle the right side edge/shoulder in heavier traffic as long as the shoulder is good and clear of debris. All this requires a trememdous amount of extra attention and can really be tiresome and makes a 300 mile day feel like I have driven 1,000 miles.

In fact I have actually replace both tires on the passenger side of my trailer "TWICE" because of either a single or multiple "SERIOUS" "INTERSTATE POTHOLE" encounters in the last 30+ years I have lived on the East Coast. None of these tires went flat or were visibly damaged, but I could not further trust them and the $200 or so IMO was well worth the cost to potentially avoid a real tire failure and the resulting damage to the trailer for any tread separation.

Larry