The weather was perfect yesterday.I needed to work,but the T-100 is due for inspection next month and this time of year you don't take the weather for granted,so I did routine maintenance with a little time left for mischief.
Air temp was 71F(21.6C) which is almost the SAE 'cold' temp for tires.
I pulled Viking out of the shop,'topped-off' the tire pressure at 90-psi(621kPa),hooked 'er up,and headed out.
I drove north on I-35,accelerating to 70 mph (112.6 km/h) north of Sanger and went the 16-miles to Gainesville,Texas.
Road temp was 72F (22.2C),Tires ran at 94F (34.4C),and bearing hub at 89F (31.6C).It was a non-event!
Purvis Bearing Co. had recommended a 200F (93.3C) temperature limit to prevent liquifaction of the bearing grease,then failure.
So,it looks like I've got 111F (61.7C) of wiggle room left on the table for bearing life.
Of course,when spring comes and temps start to climb I'll want to monitor things,but for now it seems safe to contemplate elevated speed trailer pulling.
I have quite a bit of higher speed mpg data for the T-100 for later comparison if I do trailer tests at these speeds.
I'll refine the gap-filler hardware,get everything as airtight as possible,then at some point re-create Run #1 out to Odessa,then on to Monahans where the speed limit switches to 80 mph ( 128 km/h). There I can bracket speed runs at 75 (120.6 km/h) and faster,depending on what the pyrometer indicates.
The fear of bearing failure has been the big bugaboo so far on this exercise.
Looks like there's some tasty chapters ahead with this science fixin' story.
