Leon -
I bought the TM new in the fall of 2001, so the tires are 3 years old. They haven't seen much sun - the TM is stored in the garage in Arizona, and in a shady nook in Maine. They do have a fair number of miles - maybe 20-25K.
In the end, I'm embarassed to say that Frenchy may be right. When the TM was a year old, I loaded it up for a trip (no water, but food, clothes, etc), and weighed it at about 3350 pounds. But that was a "local" trip. Coming across country this time, we added two cases of champagne for our daughter's upcoming wedding, three or four boxes of canned and bottled food that couldn't stay in Maine (it would freeze when we shut the house down), two solar panels and carrying cases, a TE cooler full of food, and maybe 75 pounds of raw glass and tools for my wife's beadmaking hobby. I wasn't really thinking about the weight of all this stuff, but it might have pushed the limit.
I'm sure looking forward to our next TM, with the 15" tire / heavy duty axle option.
Bill
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