I would probably argue that there is more wear on your motor at 75 than there is at 65. Might be hard to measure though (depending on the motor). At 55 MPH the motor in our F-150 is barely making 1500 RPM.

However if I set the cruise control at 65 I know I am just a tad under so I shoot for just under and accept just a bit over 65.

I plan on upgrading tires before any long trips. 

Just curious if actual towing speeds on the interstates are higher. I like 60 when I can do it safely but when I tow on I81 (the main 4 lane freeway through my area), the traffic on which is frequently wall to wall semis running at 70-75+, I pick up my speed to the high 60's. Being a road boulder on a congested interstate can be dangerous for everyone.

Offgrid's suggestion that taking a different route or traveling out of peak hours is a good idea.  The other thing we can all do, is try to give the big rigs lots of room and to help them with lane changes by making space for them to get by.

Okay, I misunderstood. With two lanes in each direction, I still drive 60. If I felt it was unsafe, I would take an alternate route. It is also best to check each state's laws regarding towing. You would be surprised to see that the Interstate speed limit is well above the legal towing speed for a number of states.

https://www.doityourselfrv.com/state-towing-speeds/ - https://www.doityourselfrv.com/state-towing-speeds/

Though driving significantly below the flow of traffic also poses a danger, the accidents are generally the result of faster drivers' inattention and failure to take appropriate action.  One of the most basic rules of safe driving is drive no faster than your ability to avoid an accident.  Granted, some people do not have the physical reaction ability to drive appropriately and they shouldn't be given licenses.  But, driving faster than one's ability to manage an emergency maneuver is dangerous, especially with a trailer.  Who is to blame, the person driving within the speed limit or the person breaking the law?  In all the cases I ever defended, the one driving within the rules won.  

The physics says that the kinetic energy your rig carries (which you can think of as the damage it could do to yourself and others before coming to a stop) is 40% higher at 65 than at 55 (kinetic energy goes with the square of velocity). That is nothing to sneeze at (although I guess there is nothing we should be sneezing at these days ). 

But the 40% additional energy your rig is carrying is only part of the puzzle. The road and weather conditions obviously need to be considered as well of course.  But the impact you are having on other traffic, and the risk the other traffic is placing on you is critical to your safety. 

That is where the relative speed difference comes in. If you "rub" (NASCAR term) other traffic the kinetic energy being transferred is also proportional to the square of the speed, but in this case its the square of the speed difference between you and the other vehicle. So you really don't want huge speed differences between you and heavy vehicles like semis passing two feet away from you. If that semi "rubbed" you (or vice versa) and you're only going a couple mph different in speed not much is going to happen other than some cosmetic damage, but if he's passing you at a relative speed difference of of 25-30 mph its a very different story. You will be off the road (at best) in a heartbeat. 

So, if the road and weather conditions are good I will choose to drive a little faster if traffic demands it to avoid creating risk to myself and others by being a bottleneck. The day that I drive at the legal speed limit because I'm more worried about litigation than actually being safe is the day I think I will give up my driver's licence.  

What do you mean "some"? They are all either 55 or 65 (I may have missed one or two). I didn't count, but it looked about evenly split. Which ones you want to laugh at?

Since I am no traffic engineer and they generally know what they are doing, I'll give them the respect they earned and try to stick to within +/- 5mph of the limit.  If others don't want to wear a mask and wash their hands, well that's their issue as long as I'm not on the road with them.  When a big rig driver wants to drive 80 when the limit is 65, I'm not going to join him in his foolishness.  I'll just try to keep out of his way.

As for lawsuits, it isn't the suit that matters.  It's living with the decision of 12 ordinary people who looked at what you did and said you were were the one to blame in the fatal accident.  I wouldn't want to carry that around the rest of my life.  

You are right to question me, i didn't look into the numbers in that web link closely enough. I don't know where the author got is data but it is not correct. 

VA for example has a max speed limit of 70 for all vehicles, there isn't a different one for vehicles towing trailers. I should have known that as I just moved here a couple months ago and read the DMV manual. I would have remembered something like a 55 mph trailer speed limit. It doesn't exist. Yet another example of needing to be careful what one believes on the internet I guess. 

It turns out only a very few states do have different speed limits when towing. Of those, CA is the only one with the towing limit at 55. WA is 60. The others are higher. 

So, the answer is to your question is: CA is the one that is most laughable, with WA coming in second. But, what else is new?  At least in CA it is well posted and not a super top secret special speed limit. .  

As for other states, there is a lot of conflicting information on the internet.  One source that may be more reliable is the AAA site: http:// drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/trailer-speed-limits/ -  https://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/trailer-speed-limits/   For each of us, if we are going to drive in states where we don't know the speed limits for towing, it is our responsibility to find out.  If you can't get it from a reliable web site like AAA's, then stop at the state's welcome center as you enter and find out.  Probably it'd be a nice time to take a leak too.

As for California, I would hardly call the engineers who work for CalTrans laughable for setting a 55 mph speed limit for vehicles that are towing something.  It is insulting to those very capable engineers who have studied the situation and exercised their best judgment.  CalTrans has led the standards for road construction in much of the country and has not rolled over for the trucking industry lobby.   Would it hurt to raise the limit to 60?  Probably it would be more in line with the 85% "rule," but it's the law there whether you like it or not. 

There is a more fundamental issue underlying the issue of speed limits.  We have a big problem in this country with people thinking the law only applies to others, not to them.  Whether you like it or not, speed limits apply to you.  No one is above the law, at least so says our Constitution.  

Well, since CA is the only state with a statewide 55 mph limit for towing, I suppose that traffic engineers get trained differently in CA universities than in other states? But wait, I expect that max speed limits are set by legislators, not traffic engineers. Few state legislators are engineers by profession.

Re violation of statutory speed limits, I said I tow between 65-67 when conditions permit and I would otherwise be creating a hazard by impeding traffic. otherwise I tow at either 60-62 or at the posted limit for that roadway. So, in my state that is 3-5 mph under the limit, not 5 or more over the limit. I'm glad I don't tow in CA as I think creating a situation with a 15 plus mph built in speed difference between RV's and trucks and passenger vehicles is not a good idea. 

The situation is VA is quite simple. Here's the language from the VA DMV manual: "Unless there is a speed limit sign stating otherwise, the maximum speed limit for passenger vehicles and motorcycles is 25 MPH for school, business and residential areas; 35 MPH for unpaved roads and 55 MPH for all other roads." 

Yes the trucking industry has successfully lobbied many states to remove split speed limits.

When all else fails, remember this fact: split speed limits, and in fact, all speed limits, are all about generating revenue, first, and about safety, second.

Sorry. The delta is 10 MPH. Almost the entire state with very few exceptions has a 65 MPH limit. In very rural areas, it might be 70 or 75, but those are rare. 

That said, I usually set the cruise for 59 or maybe 60, so the delta ends up being more like 5 MPH except for scofflaws.

The VA statute states:  Except as otherwise provided in this article, the maximum speed limit shall be 55 miles per hour on interstate highways or other limited access highways with divided roadways, nonlimited access highways having four or more lanes, and all state primary highways.

The maximum speed limit on all other highways shall be 55 miles per hour if the vehicle is a passenger motor vehicle, bus, pickup or panel truck, or a motorcycle, but 45 miles per hour on such highways if the vehicle is a truck, tractor truck, or combination of vehicles designed to transport property, or is a motor vehicle being used to tow a vehicle designed for self-propulsion, or a house trailer. [Emphasis added.]

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the maximum speed limit shall be 70 miles per hour where indicated by lawfully placed signs, erected subsequent to a traffic engineering study and analysis of available and appropriate accident and law-enforcement data, on (i) interstate highways; (ii) multilane, divided, limited access highways; and (iii) high-occupancy vehicle lanes if such lanes are physically separated from regular travel lanes. The maximum speed limit shall be 60 miles per hour where indicated by lawfully placed signs, erected subsequent to a traffic engineering study and analysis of available and appropriate accident and law-enforcement data, on U.S. Route 17, U.S. Route 23, U.S. Route 29, U.S. Route 58, U.S. Alternate Route 58, U.S. Route 301, U.S. Route 360, U.S. Route 460, U.S. Route 501 between the Town of South Boston and the North Carolina state line, State Route 3, and State Route 207 where such routes are nonlimited access, multilane, divided highways.

No doubt some places use speed limits as revenue enhancers, but in more civilized states, speed traps are illegal.  The wisdom of split speed limits is debatable and it would be interested in seeing what professional traffic engineers have to say about it.  Just as one would not hire an urologist to perform open heart surgery, though s/he may be an outstanding urologist, perhaps we should look to highly trained traffic engineers to help settle this question.

Since each state is empowered to set it's own speed limits and we don't have a national speed limit, then our obligation is to follow the speed laws of the state we're in, even if we think they are silly, inappropriate, porrly thought out, laughable, revenue enhancers, or just plane dumb.  And most states, in the last analysis, have superimposed on all their speed limits, the basic speed law; i.e., no one should drive faster than is safe for existing conditions.

My experience with the rules of the road in the original 13 colonies is that they have no sense of organization.  In NJ I had to look up some driving rules and found them mixed in with laws about utterly unrelated topics, such as a contract rule and murder laws, and there were all kinds of rules about horse drawn sleighs.  In the entire time I lived in NJ, I never saw a horse drawn sleigh on a road.  

The problem with taking secondary highways in places with lots of at grade intersections and driveways is that greatly increases the frequency of speed differentials as slow traffic enters and exits the roadway. That's not a problem in rural NV 'cause hardly anyone lives out there but it is in the rural east. The interstates are much safer, even if you're travelling at 65 rather than 50. 

As for Elko, as with all towns and cities in NV, we are very forward looking and leaders of the civilized world.  Elko is an example.  The mask ordinance can now be implemented again without the need to hold a city council session, thus maintaining social distancing, which is pretty easy to do in rural NV.  The truly sad thing about social distancing and closure of non-essential businesses, not only is our sewing business completely shut down, a far older business is also shut down, depriving some rural counties of much needed tax revenue. 

I would think an attorney would not favor arbitrary decisions by law enforcement as to which statutes to enforce and which to ignore, as Elko would be doing without city council direction. So much for the even handed application of criminal justice. 

I'm not touching the shutdown of the oldest profession in NV other than to say that it might be argued that it is an essential industry in this period of isolation and high stress. 

The foresightful town council of Elko used this common sense and now have the perfect enforcement mechanism for the publics's safety.  As I said, it is just one of many examples of our forward thinking in NV.

As for necessities, worker safety comes first, even if there is an increased perception of need due to isolation and high stress.   Adequate protection of the "independent contractors" would make the utilization of their services rather pointless.  What is terribly unfair, however, is that these hard working people are ineligible for unemployment benefits unlike those who work in cabarets providing only temptations.  A solution is being considered.