Quote:
Originally Posted by Civil_War_Buff
The #1 cause of blowout is . . . OVERLOADING.
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I think many of the folks just on this forum that have had their Marathons blow out will disagree. I believe TMs used to ship with 205/75R14s, which is what I had, and they have a 1,760 pound weight capacity and were LR C.
Like others here have reported, my TM fully loaded weighs 4,000 lbs. Subtract 600 lbs for tongue weight, and that leaves each tire supporting 1,700 lbs. That's very close, but not overloaded.
Or take my former 3-year old well cared for Kumhos, which had a weight rating of 2,146 pounds per tire. Certainly, they were far from being overloaded with a nearly 20% safety margin on each wheel. I had two of those blow out. .
So do I think that overloading contributes to tire failure? Certainly. Are there other factors? Definitely. Are you likely to not have a blow out if you take good care of your tires, don't overload them, and keep them until they are 3 years old? Maybe, but that's not my experience, so I chose to increase the safety margin. I don't proclaim to be immune from future failure in doing so, but I think I have decreased the odds.
Dave