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Old 08-24-2007, 08:25 PM   #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by romap
So, with all this about what is a safe speed, is there a cut and dry chart to look at that states what the safe speed vs weight is for the common Goodyear Marathons (which seem to have blowout issues if improperly inflated/loaded)?
Goodyear's RV tire brochure is at:

http://www.goodyear.com/rv/pdf/rvbrochure.pdf

The Marathon load/pressure chart is on page 9 and the information about operating the Marathons between 65MPH and 75MPH is in the yellowish box titled - IMPORTANT OPERATING INFORMATION.
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Old 08-24-2007, 08:51 PM   #42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljmiii
Goodyear's RV tire brochure is at:

http://www.goodyear.com/rv/pdf/rvbrochure.pdf

The Marathon load/pressure chart is on page 9 and the information about operating the Marathons between 65MPH and 75MPH is in the yellowish box titled - IMPORTANT OPERATING INFORMATION.
End of discussion!!

Thanks.
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Old 08-25-2007, 05:55 AM   #43
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Quote:
Originally Posted by romap
So, with all this about what is a safe speed, is there a cut and dry chart to look at that states what the safe speed vs weight is for the common Goodyear Marathons (which seem to have blowout issues if improperly inflated/loaded)?

I tend to keep it between 60 and 65, but must sometimes go faster for short spurts. Inquiring minds need to know.

I feel comfortable towing at 70 if the conditions exist, but I am concerned about the tires.
All I know is that since I've kept it at 65 and lower (like you, a few short spurts), I've had ZERO tire issues. Tire pressure remains at around 64lbs, cold. Prior to that I had one sidewall bubble and two blow outs. I'm a believer.
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Old 08-25-2007, 03:53 PM   #44
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Old 08-27-2007, 07:19 PM   #45
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Having never towed anything before, when coming home, the fastest I felt safe at was 55 - 60. Maybe when there is a little more experience, I might go a little faster - but I definately did not drive the way I normally do (hey, that might be a good thing!)
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Old 08-27-2007, 07:53 PM   #46
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it's a Hemi dude! Word has it that the Mercedes V8 SUV with a 19' Bambi made 143mph before the camper started to lift off... now that's aerodyanmics! And I thought 105 was excessive...
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Old 08-27-2007, 07:57 PM   #47
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What's The Point?

Hey we're towing our Airstream's<>right? Let's give all the wannabe's time to gawk" ......... Just returned from the hill country of western PA. 60-65 was plenty quick enough. After all it's supposed to be fun not stressful..and half the fun of Stream'n is the journey.
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Old 08-30-2007, 07:09 PM   #48
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I have found that right around 60 mph, with a plus or minus of 5 mph works out best for me (19 ft Bambi and Ford Ranger 4x4).

Of course, I do have the advantage of my Ford Ranger having a "built-in automatic overspeed detection and notification system". On my Ranger, 65 mph is about exactly straight-up on the speedometer, and as the needle gradually creeps to the 65 mph vertical (as it will sometimes do on long straightaways) anyway, the instant the speedometer needle hits a true vertical my "built-in automatic overspeed detection and notification system" goes off and I hear a voice in my ear (coming from the passenger seat) saying "going a little fast aren't we?"...

You see, on my Ranger the way the instrument panel is configured the passenger can see the whole speedometer and readings.... Next time I buy a truck I am going to check and make sure the instruments are recessed enough so they cannot be read from the co-pilots seat.

Not that I want to go much (if any) over 65, but co-pilots don't always need all the information... :-)

regards, Dave
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Old 08-30-2007, 10:11 PM   #49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wagnerda
On my Ranger, 65 mph is about exactly straight-up on the speedometer, and as the needle gradually creeps to the 65 mph vertical (as it will sometimes do on long straightaways) anyway, the instant the speedometer needle hits a true vertical my "built-in automatic overspeed detection and notification system" goes off and I hear a voice in my ear (coming from the passenger seat) saying "going a little fast aren't we?"...

You see, on my Ranger the way the instrument panel is configured the passenger can see the whole speedometer and readings.... Next time I buy a truck I am going to check and make sure the instruments are recessed enough so they cannot be read from the co-pilots seat.

Not that I want to go much (if any) over 65, but co-pilots don't always need all the information... :-)

regards, Dave
Hey! I've got one of those, too!

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Old 09-01-2007, 08:29 PM   #50
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"Is it a good idea to drive 75 MPH on the interstate while towing? no. Is it acceptable? I think it depends on the conditions. I think it is safer to go with the flow when the interstate isn't crowded than it is to become a road hazard. When the interstate is crowded, I think slower is better.

It is neither good nor acceptable. It is no adequate defense to a jury of your peers as no insurance or highway engineering study will support it. "Going with the flow" is the lazy way out. Learn to see those packs of idiots coming in the rearview and back out of the throttle to avoid being the centerpoint of jam. It's only a question of finesse. Be the shepherd, not the sheep. The driver, and the driver ALONE is responsible for his vehicles actions, not the herd.

Consider this, 5 MPH on a 400 mile trip will save you more than half an hour of drive time. That last half hour is the most fatiguing. You avoid that last half hour of driving fatigued and you arrive much less irritable and you spend half an hour less behind the wheel driving in an irritable mood. So is it better to take roughly 6-1/4 hours to travel 400 miles at 65 MPH or add 5 MPH and get there in roughly 5-3/4 hours at 70 MPH.


Again, a poor understanding (however common) of vehicle dynamics and driver fatigue. One will not find studies to support the above contention, the opposite in fact. The driver moving at 65 is far more relaxed over the course of a day of handling a rig than at 70 mph and above. The time savings is so ridiculously small (as in above quote) as to further heighten the advantages of the lower speed.

Braking distance, reaction time, and evasive manuevers are far more easily acccomplished at a reasonable speed. 70 mph in the least-roadworthy vehicles out there (all RV's) is foolhardy at best. As an old driver once said to me: "Up to 70 you drive the truck, after 70 it drives you". As a former truck driver I can assure you that it is a far more roadworthy vehicle than any RV save a big dollar NEWELL or the like. Our limits are lower.

I think we all want our rigs to perform at their best; we sweat the details of tires, rigging and TV concerns and -- hopefully -- we practice some emergency manuevers at highway speeds (fast lane change to avoid big debris, say) to gauge what might happen IF . . . but I hope we don't throw it out the window, all of it clean out the window, over a few minutes of time.

Best if we trip plan with stops in mind, keep them short, and maintain a nice steady pace if we have to cover a lot of ground in one day. That is the mantra of the trucking industry, of the successfull owner/operator: Keep the left door shut and the truck between the lines. What seems simple often isn't.
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Old 09-01-2007, 09:51 PM   #51
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What's the hurry??

Hi all!

My hubby drives very carefully and very cautiously. He is the best driver I have ever known. We live in California and the tow speed limit here is 55 and that's where he keeps it. Being a retired Police officer who has seen it all, he makes more sense than most. First off, obey the law and don't sweat the guy behind you. Why risk an accident by speeding? Really, what's the big hurry? Why put more stress on your Airstream and tow vehicle??!! Our Ford F-350 weighs 7,500 lbs. and the Safari 28W weighs 7,300 lbs. Stopping distance increases with speed. We want to get there in one piece. Why speed to save a few minutes? So far so good. I wish you all great times in your A/S's and most of all safe times.

Best,

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Old 09-01-2007, 10:06 PM   #52
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I think we all want our rigs to perform at their best; we sweat the details of tires, rigging and TV concerns and -- hopefully -- we practice some emergency manuevers at highway speeds (fast lane change to avoid big debris, say) to gauge what might happen IF . . . but I hope we don't throw it out the window, all of it clean out the window, over a few minutes of time.


Hi, REDNAX. I agree with most of what you said except for the "fast lane change to avoid big debris;" I personally, from experience, believe you are safer to just run over whatever is in the road than to try and dodge it and lose control of your vehicles [tow vehicle and trailer] and / or run into other vehicles causeing a bigger mess than running over somethings like a tail pipe and muffler or a drive shaft. I have actually run over a tailpipe and muffler on the freeway; It made a lot of noise, but suffered no damage. I have run over a drive shaft on the freeway and got a flat tire from it; Not a big deal. And finally I have run over a 2"X4" on the freeway, while driveing a motorcycle; We [the motorcycle and I] left the ground a few inches, for a few feet and kept on going. My theory, is basically, to not panic.
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Old 09-01-2007, 11:15 PM   #53
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I, too, sir, agree that sharp swerves are to be avoided. The reason I mention practicing a double lane change at speed is to know what the heck it feels like and how much distance it takes.

My parents, in 1997, were northbound on I-25 out of Walsenburg, CO with their Silver Streak behind their Suburban at 55 mph. Pops had to swerve into the left lane to avoid a 40' 6x6 some lousy truck driver failed to secure and that was laying athwart the striping. He almost made it but the rear tandem tire caught it, the trailer flipped one way and the truck rolled twice in the air the other way (hitch broke) before landing upright. The propane system went (on a Silver Streak the gas is enclosed in black iron under the enclosed belly) and the trailer exploded/burned. The Suburban was rebuilt and ran another eight years (amazingly).

I'll put my old man up against anyone in a driving skill contest. His record since 1939 speaks for itself. His gentle swerve still did not save him, nor would driving over that wood have been any better. The witnesses attested the accident to the CO Hwy Patrol who themselves expressed their humility at being able to have done the same.

One needs to know ones own limits, one needs to know ones' rigs limits and one needs to be traveling at a reasonable speed.

(And now you know why I bought a Hensley Arrow the day after I bought the trailer. Skill, luck and experience are not a substitute for eliminating chance).
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Old 09-02-2007, 05:07 AM   #54
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Driving aware

[quote=REDNAX]I, too, sir, agree that sharp swerves are to be avoided. The reason I mention practicing a double lane change at speed is to know what the heck it feels like and how much distance it takes.
[/quote

Couldn't agree more!!! I firmly believe that a very large portion of our winter driving accidents here in Buffalo are made worse by drivers not knowing how their vehicles will react in such conditions. After the first Major storm every year my wife and I go to a very large open parking lot and re-learn our winter driving skill's<><><><> BE SAFE...............BOB
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Old 09-02-2007, 08:11 AM   #55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by REDNAX
...
Braking distance, reaction time, and evasive manuevers are far more easily acccomplished at a reasonable speed.
...
I think we all want our rigs to perform at their best; we sweat the details of tires, rigging and TV concerns and -- hopefully -- we practice some emergency manuevers at highway speeds (fast lane change to avoid big debris, say) to gauge what might happen IF . . . but I hope we don't throw it out the window, all of it clean out the window, over a few minutes of time.
...
Good discussion by all. Going faster complicates things, whether it's 15 mph in a parking lot or over 50 on the highway.

I haven't heard anyone talk about practicing stops. How short of a space can you haul that combined 7-15k lbs of TV/trailer to a complete stop? What if it's on a corner?

Safe towing speed? There is no speed without risk (even zero), but your ability to react to situations decreases with speed. Your tolerance for risk will determine your comfortable towing speed, which I suspect will be significantly reduced if the tail ever wags the dog (with or without an accident).

I feel that people towing with marginal setups can go as fast as people with great setups, but probably cannot swerve, accellerate, or stop as well. I hope I'm not around the marginal TV if they run out of luck and can no longer control their path. They say "the fall doesn't kill you, it's the sudden stop at the end".

I guess I am just feeling a little depressed. I have showed my wife pics of Airstream accidents and now she says she doesn't want to drive...I can understand why.
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Old 09-02-2007, 11:07 AM   #56
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Another factor to consider:

Just as important as your towing speed is how close you follow the traffic in front of you.

A normal distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you are going to be different with and without a trailer. I see many people on the road pulling a trailer keeping the same distance as if they didn't have the trailer. I do my best to stay away from them. And I back off farther from someone in front of me if they're tailgating the vehicle in front of them.

Also, keeping your distance can give you additional reaction time to avoid those things laying on road.

My wife knows I'm not happy about certain traffic when I start this unique twitch I have.
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Old 09-02-2007, 12:42 PM   #57
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With as many Deer and Moose collisions as we have here in Maine, you can always start a spirited discussion about whether to swerve or not to swerve. When I was a young fledgling driver I rolled one tire off of my Mother's new '56 Chevy when swerving to miss a dog that wandered across the road - and then a second tire when swerving back to miss another car in the oncoming lane. Tubeless tires were still relatively new on the scene and that may have been the cause of the tire failure - but, nevertheless, I swore from that day on that the only thing I would swerve for would be a person. That was in Florida and, now that I live in Maine, the jury is still out on what to do if I encounter a Moose or Deer. Accordingly, I drive a lot slower at night - and especially in June and July when we get the most collisions. Fact tis, if I was way up in the Northern part of the State, I'd seldom go over 45. It's hard to react to whether an animal is going to run, continue running, stop, turn around, or make a 90 degree turn, to the left or right, and run down the road in front of you. My best defense today, if I think we might be coming home late at night, is to leave the Saab and the Subaru home and take the GMC dually. That, hopefully, gives me a fighting chance to survive a Moose collision!
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Old 09-02-2007, 01:50 PM   #58
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Quote:
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Just as important as your towing speed is how close you follow the traffic in front of you.
I couldnt agree more! When driving I do everything possible to create a safty zone between me and the vehicle in front. One of the things that really irks me while driving is to have some yahoo pull into that safe space between me and the vehicle I'm following.

You have to wonder how it is that drivers of that sort never seem to think what would happen to them in the sandwhich they are making if the front vehicle had to execute an emergency stop.

I often muse about having a bumper sticker made for my truck and trade wind that simply asks "If suddenly stop, can you?" But I know it wont do any good.
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Old 09-02-2007, 02:46 PM   #59
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Amen on the safety zone. So many people think you created that space just so they could dive in.

But what the heck. I'm traveling.

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Old 09-03-2007, 06:23 PM   #60
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I wrote earlier of being the shepherd, not the sheep and specifically what I meant is as follows. As a truck driver I had to learn to do this to keep the four wheelers away from my rig. It is a matter of watching the mirrors and learning to predict what any member of a pack will do. (By pack I mean those groupings of cars who travel together at speeds just above the limit; none of them willing to establish a reasonable distance from others as they try to run a constant 70-75 mph).

As a slow-mover, usually, preferably, alone on the highway I know that I will be overtaken by these packs; that more than one cretin will try to pass the others from the right lane (pass cretins sitting in the left lane illegally -- they aren't passing, they are overtaking above the limit -- the law only allows for left lane driving while passing). Coming upon a slow mover there will be a bunch of lane changing to A] "get ahead"; B] maintain "the lead" and, C] "get around the slow guy". These are actually different drivers with differently understood motivations for passing (different to themselves, not to the outside observer). They'll shorten the distances amongst themselves, and actually speed up the closer they come to me as the slow-mover.

Now, to out think them I do one of several things to try to channel them into the left lane. The first is that I drop off the cruise control early, maybe even tap the brake lights. In other words, I increase the speed differential when the pack is back there a ways. Close enough that they all jockey into the left lane, not so far that one or more will go for a high speed right lane "pass".

If this works then I give it some fuel and come back to my cruise speed and maybe a little more while remaining under constant, light acceleration to keep the rig nice and straight, but keeping the cruise control off. Depending on the exact circumstances (how open the road is up ahead and the number of pack-cretins, for example) I choose a point to quickly and wholly disappear from the pack as they are lined up in the left lane to go around me.

In other words, as the pack approaches:

1] I change my speed downwards and I want them to notice this

2] I want to see them line up in left lane to go around me at the point it no longer works for any of them to be in the right lane.

3] I get back under acceleration to maintain positive steering response as they are coming along.

4] As they are going by in what passes for good order for cretins, I drop at least 10-mph under my previous speed, say, from 65-68 to 52 mph. A 20 mph speed differential from the cretins who are trying to stay above 70 mph.

5] When done well I can have six or seven cretins pass me in under a few seconds.

The benefits are obvious: the time I spend "trapped" by the pack is reduced drastically. I am not passively hoping for the best but actively making it so.

Were you in that pack then the most you'd likely notice is that as everyone was going around the slow guy that he suddenly slowed down so everyone could go around. Well, yes, but first I need all the cretins in the left lane. That's where the subtlety and skill can come in:

A] Jockeying speed with the need not to burn any more fuel than necessary

B] Keeping the rig under light acceleration to keep the trailer happy; as little slow-down time as reasonable

C] Get those reckless drivers around my family and me ASAP pronto

I make my 63-mph cruising speed work for me by not going any more than about 5-mph above it and 10-mph below. I just wait for the next downgrade to get back to speed and onto the cruise control.

When it goes well, I can see how it will all play out, even to the landmark where I'll be back on the cruise control before it begins. Having broken this out into steps makes it seem harder than it is. I'll wager some of you are already doing this even if unconciously. It is smooth and seamless, and, unless I make my passengers aware of it they tend not to notice (unless I'm tired and cussing the little dogies along under my breath).
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