How fast do you tow?

[Ken / Claudia]

When on the open road I travel at around 65 unless the max speed is 55. I slow it down to around 60.
Speaking of speed and crashes, I sat through too many hours of stats and details about that subject.
One thing most may not even know is that increase in speed does not just increase the risk of death/injury a little. It increases a lot.
This fact was just used again last week in training. For every 5 mph increase the risk goes up 2.5 times when looking at highway speeds. Many reasons for this but, mostly do to braking distances and reaction time.
At one point after being on patrol for years driving many days at speeds over 100 at times throughout the shift of course weather and traffic permitting. The fleet Sgt. said he was only getting the larger of the police vehicles since those gave the officer a chance to survive in a crash at 55 and the smaller vehicles were rated at survival at 35 and below. I am talking about a crash with another vehicle. At our normal freeway patrol speeds in the 80 and higher he said we did not have much of a chance to survive. That talk was back in the 1990s.

[flybouy]

I don't get the disconnect between common sense and towing speed. A simple experiment, walk into an object a table, door frame, tree limb, wall whatever. Now RUN and hit same said object. Get it? For some reason people think that they are entitled to risk others safety/lives for their own sense of urgency, entertainment or ego. I'll step down from my soapbox and return you to the normally scheduled program.

[Tireman9]

My reply on forums like this one is from the viewpoint of trying to give the best answer from the point of extending the life of your tires.
Personally, as a retired professional race car driver, I don't buy the "Speed Kills" mantra. If that was true I would have died in the 70's when I started racing.
IMO it is inattention and the false belief that "I am the best driver around" that most people seem to believe. If you are listening to the radio you are not paying attention. Worse, if you drive and are having an extended conversation or listening to an audiobook or the news, you are not paying full attention to the task at hand. Do you keep both hands on the steering or just a couple fingers from one hand? There are more but you should get the question.
Having only driven cross country 4 times I have a little experience but do not understand those who claim you have to drive the posted speed or "get run over". I set my cruse at 62 to 63 and do not recall anyone passing and honking their frustration. But then I keep to the right lane and keep an eye on the vehicles behind me so the occasions when I pass a slower vehicle I do not pull out in front of someone who feels they own the highway.


As a Tire Design Engineer, I know that tires have a finite life of cycles and tread wear is not the only limiting factor. The higher the load or lower the inflation or faster the speed or hotter the temperature or longer you park the tires in full sunlight, the sooner you will "consume" the finite life in any tire, no matter the brand. There are just too many variables to predict the moment when a tire will "give up the ghost". Also, tires do not always fail the instant you have done "fatal" damage to them. Sometimes it might take many miles or days or weeks to come apart and surprise you while you are drinking a coffee with one hand and steering with your knees.

[flybouy]

Tireman9 it's not the speed that kills it's the sudden stop. When a body falls from a building it reaches terminal velocity and can survive if the velocity is sufficiently reduced. As a "professional" driver you must know that increasing the speed increases the probability of death. I do believe many, many professional race car drivers have died in crashes at speed. The risk in racing is reduced with the controlled environment. The public roadways are not controlled. No one checks your licence before entering, no one checks the safety of your vehicle, or the road conditions. The only race that I'm aware of where campers and boats are being towed are demolition derbies. That ought to tell the proponents of towing at high speed something. JMHO

[travelin texans]

I think everyone on here agrees towing too fast is not a good idea, the biggest argument is "what is too fast?". That's going to get the the same answers as "which is the best tire?", which BTW has been beaten beyond death on several threads at the same time & nothing resolved, "Which truck is best?", yep, never will be agreed on, "how fast do YOU tow?", my answer, at what I feel is a safe speed for me & 55 is too slow, will it be the same for you, obviously 13 pages later, nope, "will we all ever agree?", nope, "could this go on for 13 more pages?", yep!�� The tire threads have been going & going & going like the pink bunny & still no one knows what to buy, LT or ST!!! Where's the guy with the popcorn!!

[wiredgeorge]

I do believe the Travelin Texan made a feeble attempt to get in the last word in this NEVER ENDING thread. OK... bottom line; I don't care what speed YOU drag your RV across our great land. It doesn't matter, now does it? If you drive like a little ol' lady or a go fast teen, I just try and keep an eye out for you and all the folks who feel it is necessary to DODGE into the assured clear distance (my humble estimate of course) in front of me. When they do, I just let them get far enough in front that I don't don't make a junk pile out of their little fast cage with my hulking ol' F250 crew cab! God bless ya'll... Travelin Texas was right about one thing, ain't two folks going to agree on this subject... Oh yeah and PLEASE let me have the last word as my great missus never does. hehehe

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Oh yeah and PLEASE let me have the last word as my great missus never does. hehehe

Should I lock it up?

[sourdough]

Might as well. Nothing new is being learned/taught AND the entire conversation will begin again the next time someone asks a tire/towing question enabling everyone to restate what has been stated endlessly.

[notanlines]

After the "I don't buy the "Speed Kills" mantra" you can beam me up Scotty. There's no sign of life here.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Might as well. Nothing new is being learned/taught AND the entire conversation will begin again the next time someone asks a tire/towing question enabling everyone to restate what has been stated endlessly.

Are you kidding? We haven't even begun! Obviously you can only pull your 10 ton triple axle trailer at 80+mph if you have a Ford F150 Egoboost, burning Shell high test, with Royal Purple oil in the crankcase. And don't forget, the truck must have Nitto tires (with nitrogen) the trailer must have Salium LT's. A Coke in the cup holder, and Budweiser in the fridge. Of course it's going that fast to get to the BEST spot dry camping, that's why they have a 10 megawatt generator, a set of solar panels the size of Texas that produces 1.12 Gigawatts (couldn't find the local Mr. Fusion store) powering a battery bank the size of a WWII submarine's. Did I miss anything?
Maybe they need to drive that fast to keep the ice from melting in the holding tanks that they are cleaning.
That out to do it Chuck.

[66joej]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Are you kidding? We haven't even begun! Obviously you can only pull your 10 ton triple axle trailer at 80+mph if you have a Ford F150 Egoboost, burning Shell high test, with Royal Purple oil in the crankcase. And don't forget, the truck must have Nitto tires (with nitrogen) the trailer must have Salium LT's. A Coke in the cup holder, and Budweiser in the fridge. Of course it's going that fast to get to the BEST spot dry camping, that's why they have a 10 megawatt generator, a set of solar panels the size of Texas that produces 1.12 Gigawatts (couldn't find the local Mr. Fusion store) powering a battery bank the size of a WWII submarine's. Did I miss anything?
Maybe they need to drive that fast to keep the ice from melting in the holding tanks that they are cleaning.
That out to do it Chuck.

My vote for today's funniest post.

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

Should I lock it up?

Rock and roll is here to stay, it will never die...

Too dang late; suspect I will have to give it a shot in another year or so... well I tried!

[wiredgeorge]

Lock... hmmm neat thought. Might get the last word in...

ONLY REPUBLICANS ARE PURDY! ONLY GUN LOVERS ARE PURDY! ONLY DEMOCRATS ARE PURDY! Sorry, can't think of any more controversial and really political stuff. oh yeah! TAKE ALL THE GUNS AWAY! EVERYBODY HAS TO BUY A GUN ACCORDING TO WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE THESE DAYS! If that don't get a thread locked, nothing will!

(I wish I could stop posting to this dumb thread... it is getting to be a fixation...)

[chuckster57]

Guess I may have have started the ball rolling. I can’t lock it til we talk about how fast and how high those can go too.

[JRTJH]

Seems this thread has pretty much gone "into the trash"....

Might as well leave it open for a while and let anyone who wants to get their 2 cents in do it in this thread rather than "trash up the rest of the forum".....

Can't tell "camping season" is ending, can ya ????

[77cruiser]

Yup ask a simple ? get a whole lot of silly answers.

[Number 4]

Yep, time to wrap this thread up in an old re-tread carcass from the side of the road and send it on it's way.

[77cruiser]

Originally Posted by Number 4

Yep, time to wrap this thread up in an old re-tread carcass from the side of the road and send it on it's way.

Where did you find that pic of my rig?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Are you kidding? We haven't even begun! Obviously you can only pull your 10 ton triple axle trailer at 80+mph if you have a Ford F150 Egoboost, burning Shell high test, with Royal Purple oil in the crankcase. And don't forget, the truck must have Nitto tires (with nitrogen) the trailer must have Salium LT's. A Coke in the cup holder, and Budweiser in the fridge. Of course it's going that fast to get to the BEST spot dry camping, that's why they have a 10 megawatt generator, a set of solar panels the size of Texas that produces 1.12 Gigawatts (couldn't find the local Mr. Fusion store) powering a battery bank the size of a WWII submarine's. Did I miss anything?
Maybe they need to drive that fast to keep the ice from melting in the holding tanks that they are cleaning.
That out to do it Chuck.

OK, OK!! Now that's funny, I don't care who you are!

Now that the thread has been revitalized there might be more of these "insightful", "observational" and "educational" posts. Hopefully they will be as "interesting" as this so I can spit my beverage out of my mouth while I laugh till I slobber.

[notanlines]

Trust some guy from Sacramento to post a picture of his rig and flash those west coast mirrors.