Proper speed for safe towing?

[ls1mike]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
If the bearings are maintained, the tires aren't too old, and the pressure is up to the max, 70 mph for a pop up should be fine.

A 30' travel trailer? Probably not.


It is all relative. Age of equipment, type of tires, length of wheelbase, type of trailer, type of hitch.

Since most ST tires are rated at 65 MPH that is where you should be at or under.

I have ST tires rated to 81 MPH on my 7,500 lbs 32 foot travel trailer. I won't tow over 70. I generally stay around 60-65 on places like I-5 or I-90. 70 is on the highway in wide open space.

The wheel base of the vehicle towing is rarely talked about, but is important when discussing overall stability.

 

[Oil_Flunky]

Ask yourself if a steer, drive, or trailer tire blew out, could I stop safely?

 

[IndyIan]

55-60 mph is plenty fast to have a problem at, although if you're on a road where people start doing suicide passes, I might increase my speed a bit or pull off every once in a while.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: ls1mike


The wheel base of the vehicle towing is rarely talked about, but is important when discussing overall stability.




Ding,Ding,Ding!!! Winner Winner chicken dinner.


Its a combination of vehicle wheelbase, weight of tow vehicle, loading of trailer( tongue weight as well), Properly adjusted trailer brakes, ( inertia sensing brake controller vs timed unit). Quality of the tires on both vehicles, quality of the hitch set up, and the skill of the driver.

I tow around 65, i have towed at 70 and short bits at 75. It seems with my travel trailer that fuel usage really goes up over 65mpg ( not that its good at any speed towing).

Being in tune with the feel of the towing setup. I can tell when i have a lot of grey water sloshing since my tank is in the rear. No sway issues but i can feel it.

 

[eljefino]

I like 55-60 with my old F150.

It's actually peaceful getting passed by *everything*. There's no drama, no will he/ won't he. Not even any road rage-- they know a mile behind that they're going to have to switch lanes and do so predictably. I can see how geezers enjoy it.

The additional money I'd spend on gas going from 55 to 70 is probably more than I make per hour at my job. Add the stress, no way is it worth it.

 

[Rolla07]

60-65 seems normal. Ive seen others fly by me while towing...not sure what the rush is lol... to each their own i suppose.

 

[ls1mike]

As far as wheel base goes here you go.
General rule of thumb:
For the first 110" of wheelbase, this allows you 20' of trailer.
For each additional 4" of wheelbase, this gets you 1' more of trailer.

My truck has a 167 inch wheelbase. It allows for a 34 to 35 trailer.

Also my truck loaded for camp weighs about as much as the trailer loaded, that helps as well. It does not push me around
corners or down hills.

I generally stay around 62 on the highways as the truck stays in overdrive there.

If I am eastern Washington, Montana, Wyoming(you get the idea)I will go 65. I will only go faster when I have to. Like merging or moving over to allow someone to merge.

 

[FermeLaPorte]

i would say 60 is the sweet spot

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Middle lane and modest speed is probably the best bet. Here in South Florida, the right lane has too much activity and the left lane is not for 3 or more axles. I’d be less concerned about the exact speed, and more concerned about driving smoothly and carefully with existing traffic flow.


Fact

 

[carguy996]

I use my Envoy to pull the camper with. I service the inner and outer bearings every spring when I pull it from storage. We have a bearing shop in town, the guy there told me if I go over 60 to pull over every 20-30 miles and feel the hub to make sure its not getting too hot. We bought this particular popup last spring, the previous owner had the bearings serviced every year at an RV dealer and replaced the bearings every 3 years. They also traveled with it a bunch, we take maybe 3-4 camping trips/year within 60 miles from home. My last popup had 10" bias ply tires that always ran so hot. I replaced those with 12" radial tires and they ran cooler and I felt safer with radial tires for some reason. The first thing I did in the spring was order new 12" radials for this popup to replace the 12" bias ply tires. I still get very nervous on the highway with that behind me, ever since I lost 3 of 4 lugnuts (not my fault) the first time we pulled our old popup I have been extremely nervous with anything in tow.

 

[FZ1]

I carry a complete hub change kit with a spare hub,grease,mounted spare tire,etc and all the required tools to change a hub on the road each time I tow.

 

[DoubleWasp]

I'm not going to lie, I routinely tow at 70-75 MPH with very stable loads. Why? Its necessary to maintain a certain authority out there on the highways. Getting continually whipped around by cars and semis is as dangerous as anything.

The most dangerous situation is when cars start whipping around you, maintaining or increasing speed as they pass. Why? They think that the road is wide open ahead of you, because they are stupid.

4 or 5 start jumping ahead and then all simultaneously come to the conclusion that there is another vehicle in front of you and all slam their brakes. Guess what happens next?

I won't deny that there are some loads that are just wacky at that speed. Feels like flying an airplane in a hurricane.

 

[WishIhadatruck]

Every situation is different depending on the tow vehicle, trailer, load, etc. Many have found that 3/4 and 1 ton trucks are much more stable than 1/2 ton trucks. The LT tires and beefier tires do make a noticeable difference.

As has been said, many trailer tires are only rated for 65 mpg, and many pop ups have tiny tires that cause the bearings to spin much faster than on larger trailers. Also, if you're talking about an RV, everything is typically lowest cost. That means it is pretty easy to over load the tires, bearings, axles and springs, etc.

I have a 7800 lb loaded 29' travel trailer. I tow it with my 2500 Suburban and it tows great. We do thousands of miles each summer. I used to tow at 65 mph, but a couple of summers moved up to 67 mph. Last summer I towed at 70 mph most of the trip out west. We did smoke one brake/bearing assembly (literally on fire). I don't know what started it. My trailer only has 3500 lb axles and I'm sure some of the wheels are holding more than 1,750 (1/2 of the axle rating). I think I'm going to swap in some 5200 lb axles this spring as we will continue to do a lot of travel and will keep the trailer for many more years.

My parents have a 5th wheel that is heavier than my trailer, they never drive more than 63 mph. They have burned up 2 different bearing/brake assemblies over the last couple of years (they do bearing maintenance at least yearly). The last time they replaced the entire axle with a 6,000 lb axle. It came with 4,400 lb axles. The repair guy said the 4,400 lb axles have the same bearings as the 3,500 lb axles, just larger hubs and axle tubes. They just bought a bigger heavier trailer last month and it still only had 4,400 lb axles. They had the dealer swap over the 6,000 lb axle from their older trailer as it was practically brand new.