diff --git a/peer/brontide.go b/peer/brontide.go
index 1fa6c1311a..7aea59be11 100644
--- a/peer/brontide.go
+++ b/peer/brontide.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"math/rand"
 	"net"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
@@ -76,6 +77,16 @@ const (
 
 	// ErrorBufferSize is the number of historic peer errors that we store.
 	ErrorBufferSize = 10
+
+	// pongSizeCeiling is the upper bound on a uniformly distributed random
+	// variable that we use for requesting pong responses. We don't use the
+	// MaxPongBytes (upper bound accepted by the protocol) because it is
+	// needlessly wasteful of precious Tor bandwidth for little to no gain.
+	pongSizeCeiling = 4096
+
+	// torTimeoutMultiplier is the scaling factor we use on network timeouts
+	// for Tor peers.
+	torTimeoutMultiplier = 3
 )
 
 var (
@@ -389,6 +400,23 @@ type Brontide struct {
 	bytesReceived uint64
 	bytesSent     uint64
 
+	// isTorConnection is a flag that indicates whether or not we believe
+	// the remote peer is a tor connection. It is not always possible to
+	// know this with certainty but we have heuristics we use that should
+	// catch most cases.
+	//
+	// NOTE: We judge the tor-ness of a connection by if the remote peer has
+	// ".onion" in the address OR if it's connected over localhost.
+	// This will miss cases where our peer is connected to our clearnet
+	// address over the tor network (via exit nodes). It will also misjudge
+	// actual localhost connections as tor. We need to include this because
+	// inbound connections to our tor address will appear to come from the
+	// local socks5 proxy. This heuristic is only used to expand the timeout
+	// window for peers so it is OK to misjudge this. If you use this field
+	// for any other purpose you should seriously consider whether or not
+	// this heuristic is good enough for your use case.
+	isTorConnection bool
+
 	pingManager *PingManager
 
 	// lastPingPayload stores an unsafe pointer wrapped as an atomic
@@ -528,6 +556,12 @@ func NewBrontide(cfg Config) *Brontide {
 		log:                build.NewPrefixLog(logPrefix, peerLog),
 	}
 
+	if cfg.Conn != nil && cfg.Conn.RemoteAddr() != nil {
+		remoteAddr := cfg.Conn.RemoteAddr().String()
+		p.isTorConnection = strings.Contains(remoteAddr, ".onion") ||
+			strings.Contains(remoteAddr, "127.0.0.1")
+	}
+
 	var (
 		lastBlockHeader           *wire.BlockHeader
 		lastSerializedBlockHeader [wire.MaxBlockHeaderPayload]byte
@@ -558,25 +592,24 @@ func NewBrontide(cfg Config) *Brontide {
 		return lastSerializedBlockHeader[:]
 	}
 
-	// TODO(roasbeef): make dynamic in order to
-	// create fake cover traffic
-	// NOTE(proofofkeags): this was changed to be
-	// dynamic to allow better pong identification,
-	// however, more thought is needed to make this
-	// actually usable as a traffic decoy
+	// TODO(roasbeef): make dynamic in order to create fake cover traffic.
+	//
+	// NOTE(proofofkeags): this was changed to be dynamic to allow better
+	// pong identification, however, more thought is needed to make this
+	// actually usable as a traffic decoy.
 	randPongSize := func() uint16 {
 		return uint16(
 			// We don't need cryptographic randomness here.
 			/* #nosec */
-			rand.Intn(lnwire.MaxPongBytes + 1),
+			rand.Intn(pongSizeCeiling) + 1,
 		)
 	}
 
 	p.pingManager = NewPingManager(&PingManagerConfig{
 		NewPingPayload:   newPingPayload,
 		NewPongSize:      randPongSize,
-		IntervalDuration: pingInterval,
-		TimeoutDuration:  pingTimeout,
+		IntervalDuration: p.scaleTimeout(pingInterval),
+		TimeoutDuration:  p.scaleTimeout(pingTimeout),
 		SendPing: func(ping *lnwire.Ping) {
 			p.queueMsg(ping, nil)
 		},
@@ -1252,15 +1285,13 @@ func (p *Brontide) Disconnect(reason error) {
 
 	p.log.Infof(err.Error())
 
+	// Stop PingManager before closing TCP connection.
+	p.pingManager.Stop()
+
 	// Ensure that the TCP connection is properly closed before continuing.
 	p.cfg.Conn.Close()
 
 	close(p.quit)
-
-	if err := p.pingManager.Stop(); err != nil {
-		p.log.Errorf("couldn't stop pingManager during disconnect: %v",
-			err)
-	}
 }
 
 // String returns the string representation of this peer.
@@ -1296,7 +1327,9 @@ func (p *Brontide) readNextMessage() (lnwire.Message, error) {
 		// pool. We do so only after the task has been scheduled to
 		// ensure the deadline doesn't expire while the message is in
 		// the process of being scheduled.
-		readDeadline := time.Now().Add(readMessageTimeout)
+		readDeadline := time.Now().Add(
+			p.scaleTimeout(readMessageTimeout),
+		)
 		readErr := noiseConn.SetReadDeadline(readDeadline)
 		if readErr != nil {
 			return readErr
@@ -2178,7 +2211,9 @@ func (p *Brontide) writeMessage(msg lnwire.Message) error {
 	flushMsg := func() error {
 		// Ensure the write deadline is set before we attempt to send
 		// the message.
-		writeDeadline := time.Now().Add(writeMessageTimeout)
+		writeDeadline := time.Now().Add(
+			p.scaleTimeout(writeMessageTimeout),
+		)
 		err := noiseConn.SetWriteDeadline(writeDeadline)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -4148,3 +4183,15 @@ func (p *Brontide) sendLinkUpdateMsg(cid lnwire.ChannelID, msg lnwire.Message) {
 	// continue processing message.
 	chanStream.AddMsg(msg)
 }
+
+// scaleTimeout multiplies the argument duration by a constant factor depending
+// on variious heuristics. Currently this is only used to check whether our peer
+// appears to be connected over Tor and relaxes the timout deadline. However,
+// this is subject to change and should be treated as opaque.
+func (p *Brontide) scaleTimeout(timeout time.Duration) time.Duration {
+	if p.isTorConnection {
+		return timeout * time.Duration(torTimeoutMultiplier)
+	}
+
+	return timeout
+}
diff --git a/peer/ping_manager.go b/peer/ping_manager.go
index c456a05818..f5c6180be1 100644
--- a/peer/ping_manager.go
+++ b/peer/ping_manager.go
@@ -196,12 +196,10 @@ func (m *PingManager) pingHandler() {
 	}
 }
 
-// Stop interrupts the goroutines that the PingManager owns. Can only be called
-// when the PingManager is running.
-func (m *PingManager) Stop() error {
+// Stop interrupts the goroutines that the PingManager owns.
+func (m *PingManager) Stop() {
 	if m.pingTicker == nil {
-		return errors.New("PingManager cannot be stopped because it " +
-			"isn't running")
+		return
 	}
 
 	m.stopped.Do(func() {
@@ -211,8 +209,6 @@ func (m *PingManager) Stop() error {
 		m.pingTicker.Stop()
 		m.pingTimeout.Stop()
 	})
-
-	return nil
 }
 
 // setPingState is a private method to keep track of all of the fields we need
diff --git a/peer/ping_manager_test.go b/peer/ping_manager_test.go
index bdfeeb6aff..0f4c3be498 100644
--- a/peer/ping_manager_test.go
+++ b/peer/ping_manager_test.go
@@ -83,6 +83,6 @@ func TestPingManager(t *testing.T) {
 			require.False(t, test.result)
 		}
 
-		require.NoError(t, mgr.Stop(), "Could not stop pingManager")
+		mgr.Stop()
 	}
 }