..... tyre pressures were supposed to be 12-15 psi ..... they reckon if I paid more than $500 then I was being ripped off.
The guy I bought my Classic from said the same thing. I tired combinations of weight on towball and tyre pressures, and came to the same conclusion as you - 12 psi.
Trailer probably needed a little more weight over the towball. if the weight is to far to the rear, the trailer will sway
I had 25kg on the towball, could not stop the swaying unitil I dropped the psi.
I'm not saying what's right or wrong, only saying what worked for me.
Here is my setup ...... Gotta love a comfy bed on the road......
Noice
Here's mine (an earlier Elite than yours):
Supposedly a bit lighter. Same comfy bed though - Mrs W agrees.
There must have been a reason for that. I got 13K off 1st set of tyres even with towing the trailer. Its not overloaded by any means
Might have been the extra weight, might not have been - probably never know.
I figured that the CB1300 was pulling over 600kg (bike with loaded top box and bags 260kg, trailer 100kg, trailer load 100kg, Mrs W and me 150kg) touring around East Gippsland, Canberra, Yass and back home without tyre problems. The 80km trip from Yass to Micalong Creek in those days included around 20km of gravel road, still no problems.
The Yass to Micalong included some extras like a couple of slabs of beer and bags of ice - you get a lot of new mates when you have a trailer - like, "Can you carry this, or that for me into the camp site?"
Rear tyre wear? Worst 10,000km, best 15,000km (Avon Storm
).