Driving faster than a tires speed rating?

[haven]

Before somebody posts how fast they were driving the Space Shuttle, let me say that the original question was not about not how fast you have driven, but rather, how advisable is it to drive faster than your tire manufacturer recommends?

I know the temptation is to drive a loaded 4x4 truck with off-road tires as if it were a passenger car. Distance to your weekend destination is long, and the truck has the power to go faster. Why not make time while the road is open?

The answer is that driving faster than the tire manufacturer recommendeds is dangerous to you and others on the road around you. Anybody who is telling you otherwise is doing you and your passengers a disservice.

Also, you're assuming a financial risk. Your insurance company will pretend they don't know you if your accident is caused by you operating your equipment in ways it was not designed for.

So believe the manufacturers. Know your equipment's limits and drive accordingly.

Chip Haven

 

[cruiser guy]

I've been to Germany and I've driven on the Autobahn at 200kph so speed is not foreign to me either. The difference is that in Germany I was driving an Audi designed for the Autobahn with "Z" rated tires. I would not even consider driving an SUV at speeds anywhere close to that!

 

[Gurkha]

A typical SUV even the rounded ones have aerodynamics of a brick and therefore high speeds are just hypothetical mostly. The G600 is limited at 130mph and for a good reason, anything above and it will flip. So trust me, it would the vehicle flipping over before one gets a chance to overheat and burst the tire out.

 

[madizell]

I suppose I started this digression, but I did so not to brag about how fast I drive, but to illustrate a point, which is that we sometimes drive faster than we think, and that circumstances on the road sometimes place us in the position of doing things we would otherwise not do. For these times, we need a safety margin, and my take on the speed rating of the tires in question was that they didn't offer much of a margin for speed-related safety.

But now that you mention it, the last time I drove the Space Shuttle......