NelAndKen -
Just as a matter of interest, why did you decide to abandon 15-inch Marathons if they gave you no trouble - the problem was the valve stem? We are collecting this kind of information on this board, as part of The Great Tire Experiment that you may have read about in one of wmtire's posts.
I think some members have had good luck with the Maxxis tires, so you should as well. I would be concerned that at 80 psi, the tires will be so rock-hard that they will pound your TM a bit, but the suspension will soak up a lot of it, especially if you stay on mostly good roads.
Some of our members (starting with me) have had good luck switching from 14-inch Marathons to 15-inch Marathons. I run them at 55-60 psi, which increases the load rating quite a bit over the 14-inch tires.
And you have probably read here that TM used Carlisle tires until about 2002, and then switched to Marathons because of the poor failure record of the Carlisles. Perhaps they have improved - I don't think that The Great Tire Experiment has collected any data on more recently-manufactured Carlisles.
Bill
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