Tow Pac tire pressure

[DanB]

I've had my Tow Pac since January and have ridden about 4k and noticed my TP tires are wearing more in the center of the tire. This appears to be a high tire pressure issue. I'm running mine at #50 psi. For Tow Pac owners what tire pressure are you running?

[cblack6540]

i'm still running 50lbs in mine thats what the Tow Pac rep said to do . they do wear the middle down first. i think the high pressure is to keep the sway out of your ride.

[DanB]

i'm still running 50lbs in mine thats what the Tow Pac rep said to do . they do wear the middle down first. i think the high pressure is to keep the sway out of your ride.

Ok, thanks. Seems to be the consensus.

[John Luciano]

You are seeing wear at 4,000 miles? Wow. On my Voyager I rode it for 6,000 miles and didn't notice much wear at all. Is the wear significant? Are you going to need new tires soon?

[DanB]

You are seeing wear at 4,000 miles? Wow. On my Voyager I rode it for 6,000 miles and didn't notice much wear at all. Is the wear significant? Are you going to need new tires soon?

Not significant wear John, but noticeable. Don't need tires yet but will probably order soon to have on hand.

[billie]

I have the ETrike by tow- pac mine was wearing in the center as you stated ,I droped it to 40 psi, all is good no handling change.

[DanB]

Thanks Billie. I'll drop mine to #40 pounds also.

[jmk865]

I just aquired my bike with the tow-pac already on it. When I took it out for a "shake-down", I noticed quite a bit of wobble in the front end especially on our local crowned side streets. When I checked the tires I noticed the previous owner had the tow-pac tires at 24 PSI; I read on this forum that 40 to 50 is the correct pressure; so I promptly aired the tires and that seems to have taken care of most of the low speed wobble.

[dadztoy]

I dropped mine to 40 as well after noticing that the wear pattern was spread across a very small area across the center of the tire... Originally I had dropped tire pressure to 45 PSI and I just dropped it to 40PSI about a week ago... Honestly, the bike handles a better and the ride is a less harsh... I'll be staying with 40 PSI for a while to see what happens...

Les

[jmk865]

Been nearly a year since I aquired my Tow-Pac equiped Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 and I've ridden it approx 3500 miles. Haven't noticed any unusual tire wear. I run mine around 40 lbs. The prev. owner had them at 25 which resulted in quite a bit of front end wobble. I strongly suspect the guy didn't ride it much and probably just around his town.
I don't know how many miles the Tow-Pac had been on it when I got it since the guy that I got it from didn't know either. Entire bike only had 19000 miles on it and it's a 1994, so neither owner rode much at all. I have noticed I have an occasional "rattle" that sounds like it's coming from the right side; but have checked all bolts and mountings and haven't found anything loose at all, so am assuming rear fender shake is the culprit.

[slick rick]

My brother in law has one on a 2005 Goldwing and the tires lay out at the bottom how can that be adjusted to ride straight . He gets very little mileage out of tires , they wear on the inside bad because of wheels laying out .

[dadztoy]

Almost sounds like he has too much down force on the wheels... Tow Pac told me that the proper force on the outrigger wheels is such that you can just turn the tire when grabbing it with both hands and try to turn it... In other words, it should be fairly hard to turn, but you should be able to turn it with some degree of effort...

Also make sure that the tow-in is near perfect... Mine are within 1/16" on both sides... Improper adjustment here will wear out tires rapidly...

Les

[slick rick]

Almost sounds like he has too much down force on the wheels... Tow Pac told me that the proper force on the outrigger wheels is such that you can just turn the tire when grabbing it with both hands and try to turn it... In other words, it should be fairly hard to turn, but you should be able to turn it with some degree of effort...

Also make sure that the tow-in is near perfect... Mine are within 1/16" on both sides... Improper adjustment here will wear out tires rapidly...

Les

That's what I have come to think but looked and can't seem to find any adjustments to raise . I did raise it as high as it would go in the back and helped a little but I'll check again ,,,thanks a lot I think that's the problem now just to fix it .

[slick rick]

Let me ask you another question ,he's running the air suspension about half way , by airing it up should put less pressure on the tow pac I would think . How tight are you running yours .

[dadztoy]

My bike a 2009 and I run the rear suspension at 5 ... IIRC, increasing preload (higher number) removes weight off Tow Pack and decreasing number loads the Tow Pac with more weight... You should also have wheel height adjustment on each wheel - the large hex head adjustment in the back... See the photo below...

Les

[slick rick]

,,,,Thanks Les ,,,I had him bring it to the shop and found the adjustments I was looking for you've been a lot of help . The wheels are almost perfectly straight now again thanks even though it's not mine I hate trying to fix something and can't seem to get it .

He's now happy and so am I , maybe he'll leave me alone about this thing ,,no I don't mind helping anyone just bothers me when I can't get it .

[dadztoy]

Glad to have been of some help slick rick... I fooled around with mine for a while before I finally got it dialed in... It's working quite well now, but it is a bit hard on the regular bike tires... I'll be lucky if I get 6K miles off my existing "stones"... I have about 4K miles on my InstaTrike kit now...

I'm looking at going over to the darkside (car tires) for the extended mileage with the trike kit on... I purchased a used TPMS rim and car tire (Yokohama Avid Enviger) form a fellow over in Alabama and will mount it soon - hopefully that will extend the mileage with the Tow Pac on... I may even buy a 4.5 degree rake kit from Bazooka on this forum - haven't made up my mind on that one yet but am seriously considering it...

Les