Tires I use on my Voyager 1200 for pulling my trailer

[MalamuteMike]

I use Continental TK-16 and TK-17 and run max pressure, Dunlop does not warrenty there tires if you pull a trailer, I like the tread design on the Conti's better and they have the same weight rating as the Elite 3's.

[debron]

What kind of tire-life (miles) do you get out of the Contis?

[biggersm]

When we had an XII we had Metzler 880s. I can't say that I would recommend them. Even at max pressure they kind of got flat in the middle and started looking like car tires on all of our straight roads in Florida.

On our Goldwing we just finished up a pair of Dunlop E3s however that would mean radials not bias ply. We had about 11K miles and still had tread (maybe 4/32" at each tire) but since we had other work that needed to be done we got rid of them. The Dunlops get noisy in the few turns we can enjoy down here and I slipped with them once in the rain (but recovered well, wish I had a video).

I don't really have any recommendations. I'm not sure if Bridgestones are made for the XII but we are starting to wear in a pair of 704/709 on our GL 1800 and they seem to be both quiet and sticky.

Some will recommend going to the darkside (car tire). It can be a touchy subject (some say you will crash and burn as soon as you pull out on the street in a car tire while others go hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles). If you chose to cross over to the Darkside there are some things you will have to do to the wheel to get a bead to stick. gearheadfla (forum name, real name Jim) will help you through the darkside if you are adventurous.

[MalamuteMike]

One of these days I get you a reply I have tried 3 times now and when about done I hit something that deletes it and I don't type very fast, I'll try again tomorrow !!!

[HMB Don]

On my 1200 I used E3s, while pulling a Time Out camper trailer. The Time Out was loaded about 450 pounds, the last two trips were to Ellicottville, NY and DeGary, AR. My speed when pulling the Time Out was 65 mph on the 1200's speedo. My tire mileage was 22k to 24k rear tire and about the same mileage for the front tire.

Don Medina
President
NorCal Voyagers Club
AVA boardmember

[MalamuteMike]

I have put around 5000 miles on the Conti's, 3500 miles pulling a trailer, all but a few miles has been riding double and they got 70-75% tread left, but I think they quit making the TK-16 & TK-17 and replaced them with milemakers or something like that, what sold me on the Conti's was the weight rating on rear tire, the Conti's have a 990 lb weight rating @ 49psi and the Dunlop E-3 is 908 @40 psi and I like the way grooves remove the water better then E-3's, I got a set of E-3's I got when I bought the 1998 Voyager that we got to replace the 95 Voyager that gave it's life because of a Moron and a cell phone, but that's another story, I'm taking the low mileage parts (28,000 miles) from the 95 and putting on the 98 (166,000 miles) the engine is going to be replaced next winter, I am putting the Conti's on then put the E-3's on after we wear out the Conti's, I like the tread design on E-2' a lot better then the E-3's but the weight rating is in the mid 850lbs I think. I have had the TK's and the E-2's in very very bad rain storms with high winds and had no slippage, but the E-3's I was in a mild rain and rear tire slipped and they are new tires.

[Turbo4x4]

I tow a Harbor Freight trailer, and have gone to the darkside. Now running a Dunlop SP 5000 195-60R/16, and required no rim modifications. I'm very pleased with the performance both with and without the trailer.

[gearheadfla]

I went Darkside about a year ago and will never come back, the only mod SOME have to do was polish the "inner" bead inside the rim, I use a good tire mounting paste (lube) and had no problem at all setting the bead at about 50 lbs of air with no polishing of anything, as a matter of fact it seated so fast and easy it scared me when it popped lol. Over 6000 miles on it now and no sign of wear at all on the tire, can and have hung right with all the other bikes in the twistys (YES WE HAVE THEM IN FLORIDA TOO) Mike has seen it first hand in Leesburg and will again in a couple of week, by the way Mike, you and the Wing was hold me up just a little, just saying. In July Lori and I are going to slay the Dragon on the way back from Ohio. As soon as I wear out the new E-3 on the Vulcan Nomad I just got, it too will be Darkside.

[biggersm]

I went Darkside about a year ago and will never come back, the only mod SOME have to do was polish the "inner" bead inside the rim, I use a good tire mounting paste (lube) and had no problem at all setting the bead at about 50 lbs of air with no polishing of anything, as a matter of fact it seated so fast and easy it scared me when it popped lol. Over 6000 miles on it now and no sign of wear at all on the tire, can and have hung right with all the other bikes in the twistys (YES WE HAVE THEM IN FLORIDA TOO) Mike has seen it first hand in Leesburg and will again in a couple of week, by the way Mike, you and the Wing was hold me up just a little, just saying. In July Lori and I are going to slay the Dragon on the way back from Ohio. As soon as I wear out the new E-3 on the Vulcan Nomad I just got, it too will be Darkside.

Well you know, just trying to be nice to the more leisurely riders (that's my excuse).

For all others I'll put together a good ride on 27 April for anyone living in or visiting Florida. There will be a couple places to join in for those interested or others can meet in Yalaha. Some of the ride will be on roads that will be new to you (although Doug, Frank and Tim along with a friend so them a couple months ago). Look at some of the roads South of Mt. Plymouth. There will be an all new post in the week before the ride. Sorry for hijacking some threads and when I do post about the ride please feel free to bump it with other topics (hey a bump is a bump).