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Old 10-09-2018, 04:28 PM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Vegas 27.7
State: California
Posts: 289
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Drove around the block in a heavily modified Vegas...

...and the wheels didn't fall off. lol. And by "the block" I mean the entire country. This is a follow-up to this thread... http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f27...gas-14108.html


So our daughter had our first grandchild, unfortunately she lives 3100 miles away from us in upstate New York. My wife got some time off work so we decided to drive instead of flying to see the new baby. We threw a bunch of stuff in the Vegas and took off. It had 30 miles on my new wheel/tire swap when we left. Even with the comments about impending doom and death, I had total confidence it would be fine. And it was beyond that, it was AMAZING!

The entire trip me and my wife kept saying the same thing, "OMG I can't imagine taking a trip like this with those cr@ppy little SUV tires on this thing". We don't like to drive slow, we cruised for hours on end at over 75mph, I actually did 3 hours straight at 85+mph! (Notice the speedo in the picture below. GPS speed was actually reading 92mph.) We drove in everything from 100+ degree heat to 30 degrees with snow on the roads. This wasn't really a sight-seeing trip, although we did take several detours to visit friends and see some cool stuff.

So how did the wheels and tires do? Freakin' amazing! After checking the tire temps at a few stops, I ended up running 75psi front and back when checked @70 degrees. The highest tire pressures I saw on the tpms was ~90psi when it was 100+ degrees outside and we were running fast for hours. Perfect temp readings across the entire tread and no tire wear shown whatsoever after putting ~6300 miles on them. I checked the lug nuts a few times, they never lost torque whatsoever. I also checked the front hub temps, they were pretty much slightly above ambient temps. The front rotors and calipers didn't get hot even with heavy braking abuse. The ride and handling is night and day different. The "floaty" feel that the original tires had even at 85psi is gone. It handles like a car in heavy wind and mountain roads. The ride is smoother and quieter by a large margin over the stock tires. And cruising at higher speeds is awesome, much lower rpm's and less rolling resistance with the taller, highway rib tires.

And the last part, gas mileage... We averaged a little below 10mpg for the entire trip! That's pretty darn good considering we averaged probably 70mph for the entire trip. Plenty of headwinds too, we only had one day of nice tailwinds. There's no way we would have gotten that kind of mileage with the smaller all-season tires running that fast.

Anyway, just thought I'd post a follow-up on how the wheel/tire swap worked out on our first long trip. California to upstate New York and back. Northern route there and southern route back. 6 days there and 5 days back, 6300 miles total. I think we stayed in 9 Walmart's and 2 truck stops. lol. All of my mods worked amazing. The only issues were a stress crack at the bottom of the windshield and the furnace wouldn't stay lit on the last night of the trip back. Good thing I put that Coleman Mach 8 Heat Pump on the back! I fired that up and we had heat even though the furnace quit.

The second to last picture below some of you might recognize. It's outside of Wendover on highway 80, before you go across the salt flats towards Salt Lake City. We had to stop there because it was the rest stop that we stopped at almost 30 years ago so I could unbolt our roof AC unit to turn it around backwards!
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Old 10-09-2018, 04:53 PM   #2
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Congratulations!
We never had a doubt...

So how does your lovely Bride feel about finally having to sleep with somebody's Grandfather?
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Old 10-09-2018, 04:56 PM   #3
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I can't believe you actually took that think out on the public highway...much less, endangered your wife's life and everyone else on the highway with those dangerous tires and wheels that could just fly off at any minute!!!








JUST KIDDING!!! Looks good...I would have to sit on a 5 gallon bucket to run mine that fast...wouldn't want to mess up the seats!
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Old 10-09-2018, 05:08 PM   #4
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Ignorance is bliss: isn't it?
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Old 10-09-2018, 05:15 PM   #5
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I love the look!! Always been a fan of bigger and wider tires on every vehicle I bought.
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Old 10-09-2018, 05:52 PM   #6
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I agree: it's WAY "too cool for school"!
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Old 10-09-2018, 06:27 PM   #7
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Well done, sir! Nice mpg too!
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Old 10-09-2018, 08:05 PM   #8
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Model: Axis 24.4
State: Michigan
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That's great. Looks like a cool trip too.

And you drove right by me and didn't even stop?? (from your map looks like you went through Detroit tunnel or bridge--that takes you within about 5 miles of us !--even if you took 94 all the way up to Port Huron you still drove by our house LOL).

Also bad news for you: I get 9 and change mpg all the time in our Axis. It seems to be stuck there no matter what we do: pull a toad, don't pull a toad, go 75 mph, go 65 mph...its just 9 and change. Thus with your "a little below 10mpg" could just be due to the trans (I have an older unit with the older trans). Although your's is a tad bit longer and, likely, a few 1k lbs heavier...
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Old 10-09-2018, 08:49 PM   #9
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Thats awesome. Good job sir. I love the looks of your RV. Very aggressive looking.

Need to black out the front windows and add a Knight Rider flashing red light to the front. LOL.

Thats one heck of a test drive. I hoping me an my bride can do some long runs next year (or so) ..... right now we are still taking care of my mom = in home hospice :-(
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Old 11-03-2018, 10:25 PM   #10
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Terrific report and congrats on your promotion to Grandpa! I'm siding with the high pucker factor crowd re: 90mph indicated but good for you. I did change out the tires to 235/85 and enjoyed the ride for ~2300 miles this month. My question for you is, how did you recalibrate the speedo? What's involved? TIA
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