[commodor47]

It might be helpful to post a survey of tire failures. The Epinion link had 12 reviews -not enough to reach a valid conclusion. I also noticed all the reviews were for larger TT.

We had a tire failure this past winter in Florence, AZ. But it was not so much a result of tire failure as it was operator error. We were headed to a CG on SR 79 and encountered a large motorcycle rally. Traffic was backed up several miles but finally started to clear. As we passed through the intersection my DW said "turn here". I did something I never do, turned quickly and immediately felt the TV drop off the edge of the road into some loose, large traprock. Needless to say the TM also took a quick drop onto the rock strewn shoulder. As I continued into the campground we both realized it was the wrong one! The CG we were looking for was 100 yards up the road. By this time I was moving slowly towards the CG office (looking for a place to turn around) along side people returning from viewing the rally. They started pointing to the back of the TM shouting "flat tire". The sudden drop off the edge of the roadway turned out to be a three inch depression directly onto the pointed edge of a large piece of trap rock. It literally ripped open the side wall of the tire, exposing the steel belts. I found a tire shop that had a replacement tire. When I gave the manager the tire name he was somewhat hesitant. He was about to suggest a different tire until I gave him the tire size. Apparently there are some Marathon sizes that seem to have had more issues than others. The replacement tire got us back home after traveling over 4000 miles. The date on the tire that failed was 2002 -same as the other tire on the trailer. The new tire is dated 2005. I will be replacing the other tire within the year.