Tires and towing

[mechmike10]

I recently installed Michelin LTX M/S2 265/70R17 Load range E tires on my 2011 SR-5, and I thought I would contribute my experience. I went with the Load range E because we tow a trailer, and because we are planning a trip along the Trans-Labrador Highway next year, for which 10 ply tires are recommended. I am running 44 psi cold pressure. What I have noticed so far: On local roads up to 55 mph, I can see no real difference between these and the OEM tires. They might result in a slightly harsher ride and better cornering, but it is hard to say. At highway speeds (65-70 mph) I notice that slight road imperfections are more noticeable than with the OEMs. Towing our trailer (about 4000 lbs) is much more stable with these tires than with the OEMs. I would say there is no comparison. (I ran 34-36 psi in the OEMs.) I have had no snow experience with these yet. I would buy these again in a heart beat if only for the improved trailer towing.

 

[mailman69]

MechMike10,
I have driven the Trans-Lab highway twice, the second time a year ago this past summer. I was pulling a 24 foot trailer both times, the first with a '99 Land Cruiser and this last time with an '04 Tundra. Huge sections of this road have been upgraded between our first and second trips. Seriously, you do not need ten ply tires to run this road. The Cruiser had Michelins on it and I ran 40 PSI, if I remember correctly. I had BFGs on the Tundra last year. No tire problems on either trip, which totaled about 15,000 miles each. The highway is a combination of gravel and paved. Where is it gravel, the dust can be horrific. I just sloe3d down to 20 MPH or so till it cleared. There are LARGE trucks that travel that road and they do not slow down very much when approaching, and like to drive in the middle of the road. Once you hit the Labrador border, the road is almost all paved to Goose Bay and is an easy 50-55 MPH road with a trailer. Stop at the Churchill Falls and walk the approximately 1 mile trail to where The Churchill Falls used to be. It's impressive. Stop in Churchill Falls, the town, and go on the tour they do of the hydro-electric plant that is there. You go down an elevator something like 900 feet below ground to the power station. From Goose Bay, the road is almost entirely gravel, but when we were on it, there was relatively little traffic. For a real treat, if you are there early in the season, take the side road to Saint Lewis. We spend three days there because there were HUGE icebergs floating in the bay. Also, I would advise taking a 5 gallon can of gas between Goose Bay and Red Bay. There are no gas stations between Goose Bay and Port Hope Simpson and it is about 260 miles, unless you go off the road to Cartwright, which involves a ninety mile each was trip. Have a great trip!! But, in my opinion, to answer your question, as long as your tires are good and you have a good spare for the trailer, as well as your truck, you should be OK. Cell service is essentially non-existent along almost all of the Trans-Lab

 

[mechmike10]

Thanks for your reply. We are not planning on taking the trailer for a couple of reasons. Our plan is to drive to Sydney Mines in Nova Scotia and take the ferry to Argentia, Newfoundland. Then we will tour Newfoundland a little before taking the ferry from St. Barbe to Blanc Sablon, where we will begin our trek. The ferry to Argentia is very pricey, and adding the trailer would add to that. Also, I figure that if we pull the trailer, we would definitely need an extra can of gas for the Port Hope Simpson to Goose Bay run. Without the trailer, we shouldn't need extra gas at all, although I will probably take a 5 gallon can just in case. Lastly, this past June we spent about 3 weeks touring Maine and Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton. Many of the roads were in bad shape and the trailer took a bit of a beating, so I am reluctant to expose it to 400-500 miles of gravel.

Did you take the trailer on each trip? I am trying to find places to stay in the various small towns and it is challenging in some cases. If you have an suggestions for non-camping lodging I'd be interested.

 

[mailman69]

Places to stay along Trans-Lab Highway

Thanks for your reply. We are not planning on taking the trailer for a couple of reasons. Our plan is to drive to Sydney Mines in Nova Scotia and take the ferry to Argentia, Newfoundland. Then we will tour Newfoundland a little before taking the ferry from St. Barbe to Blanc Sablon, where we will begin our trek. The ferry to Argentia is very pricey, and adding the trailer would add to that. Also, I figure that if we pull the trailer, we would definitely need an extra can of gas for the Port Hope Simpson to Goose Bay run. Without the trailer, we shouldn't need extra gas at all, although I will probably take a 5 gallon can just in case. Lastly, this past June we spent about 3 weeks touring Maine and Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton. Many of the roads were in bad shape and the trailer took a bit of a beating, so I am reluctant to expose it to 400-500 miles of gravel.

Did you take the trailer on each trip? I am trying to find places to stay in the various small towns and it is challenging in some cases. If you have an suggestions for non-camping lodging I'd be interested.

There is a small hotel in L'Anse aux Clair, just after you get off the ferry in Blanc Sablon. There is also a hotel in Red Bay, up the coast. (The Basque whaling station here is worth the time to visit.) There isn't much but fairly poorly maintained dirt road between Red Bay and Goose Bay. If you were camping, there are gravel pits and rest stops along the way. Goose Bay is by far the biggest town along the way, with several hotel choices. From Goose Bay, the next motel is in Churchill Falls, and as I said earlier, the tour of the power plant there is well worth the time and it's free! Next come Labrador City, at the border with Quebec and there is actually a Wal-Mart there, along with at least one hotel. Just across the border into Quebec is Fermont, which also has a hotel, but then that's about it until you run back into civilization at Baie Comeau, Quebec. FYI, yes we pulled a trailer both times we went, in 2002 and in 2013. We pulled a 24 foot Sunnybrook with a 2004 Tundra 4.7 TRD. No problems either time, but were weren't in a huge hurry either time, so we kept speeds down to 55 MPH or so most of the time. Have you considered taking the Ferry from North Sydney to Port aux Basques? The trip is only about a six hour ferry ride rather than the 16+ hour ferry ride to Argentia. So the cost is way less than half as much. We've gotten off the island via both routes. If you have pets with you, the Argentia route is tough on them because the ferry requires you to have a hard-sided cage for them, or they have to ride in your vehicle the whole time and you never have access to the vehicle deck during the trip. It just depends on what you want to see in NFLD. If you do go via Argentia, there is a really neat drive out to the Cape Race Lighthouse that's not too far from Argentia. We were not terribly impressed with St. Johns and really liked the western coast of NFLD much more. Rugged beaches and just prettier scenery, we thought. More chances to see icebergs, as well. Gros Morne Nat'l Park and L'Anse aux Meadows, where the Vikings had a small settlement 1000 years ago, before Columbus "discovered" America, are also interesting on the west shore. They are also fairly close to where you catch the ferry at St. Barbe. Anyway, hope this helps and enjoy the trip!

 

[mechmike10]

Thanks for the return. We have a reason for going to Argentia instead of Port aux Basques. A few years ago, we traveled to Newfoundland with a minivan and a small folding trailer. We took the ship to Argentia, toured a lot of the island and returned via Port aux Basques. We saw a lot of the stuff you mentioned, but there was some we didn't see. Since we missed some stuff on the east side of the island, we thought we would return and retrace our steps, in part. If we sailed to Port aux Basques, we would have to cross the island twice, which wouldn't be helpful. While we were in Newfoundland, we traveled over to Labrador for one night and some sightseeing, before returning the next day. At that time, you could not drive through to Baie Comeau. I am familiar with the motel in L'Anse aux Clair--when we were there, it had a good restaurant. The day we were in Labrador, it snowed (in mid-July!), which put a damper on a lot of sightseeing--visibility was lousy. We did visit the whaling museum in Red Bay, and I would agree that it is a must see. We don't travel with pets, so that is not an issue. I have to say that the worst ship travel I have ever experienced was the return trip from Port aux Basques. For about 2-3 hours in the middle of the trip, about every 3rd wave broke over the windows of the lounge deck, which was, as I recall, 7 decks above the lowest vehicle deck. There were a lot of sick people, much less pets. I was glad that we were about the last ones to drive onto the ship; anybody in the front of the vehicle decks got a salt water car rinse. Some people commented that it was the worst trip they had experienced on that route.

I recently learned that a daughter of a cousin of my wife did the Trans-Labrador a couple of years ago in a RAV4 with another person. They slept in the car a couple of times when they couldn't find lodging. I suppose we can do the same if we have to.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[mailman69]

I envy your trip. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I'd go back to Newfoundland again in a heartbeat. I just really like it there! After you cross from St Barbe to Blanc Sablon, as you know, it's not a long drive up to Red Bay. There is a motel there and that;s where I would spend the night. Not pulling a trailer, it is an easy day from Red Bay to Goose Bay, or if you're so inclined to Caertwright, although there really isn't much to see there. We stopped there on our 2002 trip because the only way to get from Goose Bay to the Island was to take a 36 hour ferry trip. That ferry stopped in Cartwright for about two hours and we got off the ferry and walked around the town for an hour or so. Not really much to see of interest. Anyway, from Goose Bay, you are easy day drives between hotels in Churchill Falls, and either Labrador City or Fermont, Quebec and then from there to Baie Comeau is another relatively long day, but doable without a trailer. If you have time, stop and do the tour of the Manic Cinc Dam, in Quebec. The lake they created when they built the dam is an old meteor strike crater! But truly, there is nothing in the way of hotel accomodations after you leave Fermont until you get to Baie Comeau, which is a pretty good-sized city and has several hotels to choose from.
By the way, if you are going to be in the St. Johns area, there is a really cool tour of an underground iron mine on Bell Island, You take about a twenty minute ferry ride to get to Bell Island and it costs somewhere in the vicinity of $10 round trip. The tour goes underground and at one point, you are actually under the Atlantic Ocean!! Google Bell Island iron mine to read about it, The tour was only $6 or $7 apiece. We did a whale watching trip from Witless Bay, which is west from St. Johns. Saw humpbacks and minkes at 30 yards along with a huge bird sanctuary island included in the tour. I think the four hour trip cost us $25 apiece. It was well worth it! Can you tell that I'm a retired teacher and can't help myself? Anyway, enjoy your trip and take lots of pictures!

 

[mechmike10]

I haven't checked in here in awhile, but I'm glad I did. I was looking at that hotel in Red Bay. We plan on trying to visit Battle Harbor for a night or 2, and that looked like a good place to stay before going to get the 11 am boat from Mary's Harbor to Battle Harbor. The return boat is at 9 am and it sounds like we could make it from there to Goose Bay without too much trouble. I'll have to take a look at the Fermont to Baie Comeau run because I have not been successful finding any lodging along there.

I like Newfoundland too. We really enjoyed it. It is too bad it is so afar away for us. I would like to see the iron mine, but my wife does no do well in mines, so that will be a stretch.

We did that whale watching trip from Witless Bay. We saw a mother and calf humpback that we swore was performing for the boat.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[02SE]

MechMike10,
I have driven the Trans-Lab highway twice, the second time a year ago this past summer.

If you have some pictures you don't mind sharing, I for one would like to see them. That's a part of the World I have yet to see.

 

[mechmike10]

I wasn't sure if your request for pictures was directed to me or to mailman69. Since I haven't been on the Trans-Labrador Highway yet, I don't have pictures from there, but I do have pictures online from our Newfoundland trip and others. Here is the website:

Travel Pics by Mike & Pam

The photos are organized by trip, just look for Newfoundland. (Like mailman69, I am retired.)

 

[02SE]

I was referring to him, but your travels and related pictures are well worth looking at too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[mechmike10]

Thanks for the compliment. As you can see, we enjoy traveling and photography.

 

[Jonathan O'Sulliva]

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