15" Marathon Failure
Well, installing the lift kit and upgrading to 15" is not a cure all.
Had a complete tread separation on the curb side, traveling from Pittsburgh, PA to Ithaca, NY. Nice cool day, smooth interstate highway (somewhere in the Allegheny boonies), low traffic. I decelerated quickly, there was a nice wide shoulder, and was back on the road in 30 minutes.
So much of the tire was gone that the remnant hardly weighed anything. The wheel well was OK but there was quite a bit of shaking damage on that side of the trailer (the side mount AC and drain pan was shifted, the stove and oven were practically falling out of the cabinets...).
It was about 100 miles to Ithaca, AAA told me there was a Goodyear shop there and a cell phone call to them told me they had one in stock, so I went for it. I figured I had AAA+ if I lost another one. We made it fine, to the shop before closing, and were on our way (the shop was only a few miles from the state park where we were staying).
Note: My TPMS failed early in the trip (sensor batteries died) so I was manually checking the pressure every morning. I do not think the TPMS would have helped with this one. As ol' Gus said, "it just blew".
The tire was bought and manufactured in 2011 (date code 0311). The 2 tires now on the ground are date coded 0311, 2111. The new spare is 1814.
We proceeded on to Vermont and back to Texas without further tire problems. But when I was crossing long bridges with no shoulders, I was thinking about it for sure.
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