diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d3d758058..4a418674f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,5 +19,6 @@
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Add spanlogger package. #42
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Add runutil.CloseWithLogOnErr function. #58
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Optimise memberlist receive path when used as a backing store for rings with a large number of members. #76 #77
+* [EHHANCEMENT] Memberlist: `-memberlist.packet-write-timeout` config option is now handled as an idle timeout for individual write operations instead of the max time the whole packet transferring can take. #87
 * [BUGFIX] spanlogger: Support multiple tenant IDs. #59
 * [BUGFIX] Memberlist: fixed corrupted packets when sending compound messages with more than 255 messages or messages bigger than 64KB. #85
diff --git a/kv/memberlist/tcp_transport.go b/kv/memberlist/tcp_transport.go
index afbd1b201..7a6065979 100644
--- a/kv/memberlist/tcp_transport.go
+++ b/kv/memberlist/tcp_transport.go
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ func (cfg *TCPTransportConfig) RegisterFlags(f *flag.FlagSet, prefix string) {
 	f.Var(&cfg.BindAddrs, prefix+"memberlist.bind-addr", "IP address to listen on for gossip messages. Multiple addresses may be specified. Defaults to 0.0.0.0")
 	f.IntVar(&cfg.BindPort, prefix+"memberlist.bind-port", 7946, "Port to listen on for gossip messages.")
 	f.DurationVar(&cfg.PacketDialTimeout, prefix+"memberlist.packet-dial-timeout", 5*time.Second, "Timeout used when connecting to other nodes to send packet.")
-	f.DurationVar(&cfg.PacketWriteTimeout, prefix+"memberlist.packet-write-timeout", 5*time.Second, "Timeout for writing 'packet' data.")
+	f.DurationVar(&cfg.PacketWriteTimeout, prefix+"memberlist.packet-write-timeout", 5*time.Second, "Idle timeout when writing 'packet' data to other nodes.")
 	f.BoolVar(&cfg.TransportDebug, prefix+"memberlist.transport-debug", false, "Log debug transport messages. Note: global log.level must be at debug level as well.")
 
 	f.BoolVar(&cfg.TLSEnabled, prefix+"memberlist.tls-enabled", false, "Enable TLS on the memberlist transport layer.")
@@ -440,11 +440,7 @@ func (t *TCPTransport) writeTo(b []byte, addr string) error {
 	}()
 
 	if t.cfg.PacketWriteTimeout > 0 {
-		deadline := time.Now().Add(t.cfg.PacketWriteTimeout)
-		err := c.SetDeadline(deadline)
-		if err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("setting deadline: %v", err)
-		}
+		c = newConnectionWithTimeout(c, t.cfg.PacketWriteTimeout)
 	}
 
 	buf := bytes.Buffer{}
diff --git a/kv/memberlist/util.go b/kv/memberlist/util.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b0d8cb117
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kv/memberlist/util.go
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+package memberlist
+
+import (
+	"net"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+)
+
+type connectionWithTimeout struct {
+	net.Conn
+	timeout time.Duration
+}
+
+func newConnectionWithTimeout(conn net.Conn, timeout time.Duration) net.Conn {
+	return &connectionWithTimeout{
+		Conn:    conn,
+		timeout: timeout,
+	}
+}
+
+// Read implements net.Conn.
+func (c *connectionWithTimeout) Read(b []byte) (n int, err error) {
+	if err := c.Conn.SetDeadline(time.Now().Add(c.timeout)); err != nil {
+		return 0, errors.Wrap(err, "set deadline")
+	}
+
+	return c.Conn.Read(b)
+}
+
+// Write implements net.Conn.
+func (c *connectionWithTimeout) Write(b []byte) (n int, err error) {
+	if err := c.Conn.SetDeadline(time.Now().Add(c.timeout)); err != nil {
+		return 0, errors.Wrap(err, "set deadline")
+	}
+
+	return c.Conn.Write(b)
+}