More Marathon tire failures

I am curious also if anybody has gone to the 15" rims on a TM with a lift kit. I have a 2003 2720 that has the original Marathon maypop tires, and want to replace them soon. If the 15" rims and tires will work, then I think I am going to go that route. I am also curious if any one knows if the 14" & 15" rims have the same offset.

According to the Goodyear website, both the "C" & "D" rated ST225/75R15 tires have a 1.6" diameter more than the ST215R/75R14s, and are .8" wider. That would add ~.8" to the ride height (maybe a little more for the "D" rated tire, since it is stiffer). The width would be less than 1/2" on each side. On the "C" rated 15" tire, the weight rating is 2150@50 psi, almost a 300 lb. gain each over the 14" tires. And the "D" rated 15" tire, is 2540@65, a 670 lb. gain each. If I go the 15" tire route, I think I would just go with the "C" rated tires to save a little shaking in the TM due to the stiffer sidewall.

If only they made a "D" rated 14" trailer tire.

I going to do some careful measuring to see if the 15s might work on our TM. But first hand knowledge from someone else is probably better than my measuring and ciphering.

mtnguy

[kempert]

Bill -

Sorry to hear about your tire problems. Despite the problems, I hope you at least got to enjoy the absolutely beautiful scenery in the Four Corners area. I also hope you got a chance to spend some time at Arches.

Now I'm really in a quandry on what to do with my TM tires. I'm still using my factory installed Marathons and plan to replace them within 2 weeks before I head out again. They are about 5.5 years old being made "4801" and have no signs of being in need of replacement after around 25,000 miles of travel. They have good tread depth and I cannot find a single sign of cracking and they have been outside (uncovered) their entire life.

I keep them parked on wood or plastic for extended periods. I had all 3 balanced when they were new and have rotated the curb side tire with the spare once. I monitor the psi regularly and very, very rarely go over 65 mph. As a matter of fact, I've spent most of my towing under 60 mph.

I now have my repair guy (his father worked on vehicles for my father and grandfather) working on finding what he thinks is the best tire. He is checking with his tire supplier for me. I'll let you know what we find.

I'm wondering if the older GYMs are better than the new ones. There might be some fact in the union strike affecting the quality of their product. Hopefully, those of us who use this site can solve this problem ourselves.

I was feeling a little safer having moved up to the 14 inch wheels and tires from 13 inch. Now Im not so sure. One thing I heard AFTER I purchased my 14 inch Towmaster radials is that bias ply are better trailer tires than radials because they are stiffer side walls, although it makes for a bumpier ride. The flex of the radial sidewalls makes them more prone to failure.
Has anyone heard this theory?
Cheri (who wants to know why I always hear things after the fact )

[kempert]

My guy says his tire supplier suggested a Kelly tire and a Denman tire. Kelly has been around for a long time but so has Good Year. Denman is specialty tire manufacturer and that's all I know about them. I should get a chance tomorrow to do more research.

Originally Posted by 2bcs1jrt

I was feeling a little safer having moved up to the 14 inch wheels and tires from 13 inch. Now Im not so sure. One thing I heard AFTER I purchased my 14 inch Marathons is that bias ply are better trailer tires than radials because they are stiffer side walls, although it makes for a bumpier ride. The flex of the radial sidewalls makes them more prone to failure.
Has anyone heard this theory?
Cheri (who wants to know why I always hear things after the fact )

As my screenname implies, my business is tires. I have 26 years in the tire business, and know full well how faulty Marathon Radials are. I refuse to sell them. I see more than my share of them because my company also transports waste tires for other companies. We see MANY separated (tire terminology for when the belts become separated from the rubber they are encased in) Marathon Radials. Sometimes separation in tires is caused by damage, but this is not the case I see with the Marathons. A separated tire can cause severe damage, including the worse case scenario of death due to a wreck.

My personal observation has been that when these tires get around 3 years old, to replace them. Mileage/use doesn't matter.

Without boring everyone to sleep, I'm going try to put it in laymen's term about tires, all tires, not just marathons. Tire rubber is not naturally black, but an off white. The tire industry uses carbon black as a preservative for the rubber against ozone, which dries rubber out. When rubber dries out, besides not flexing easily, it will leak air, possibly separate, and other bad things. Carbon Black keeps the rubber from drying out quickly, and also gives it the black color. If anyone has ever noticed, a whitewall (which doesn't have carbon black) on a tire dry cracks before the rest of the tire.

There also is a trade off between carbon black and traction. Tires with less carbon black have better traction than ones with more carbon black. However, the better traction is negated by shorter rubber life out in the ozone, because it has less preservative. This is my opinion on part (but not all) of Marathon's problem. It doesn't have the proper amount of carbon black it needs, and therefore the rubber dries out too quick. The rubber drying, and not easily flexing, is allowing the steel belts encased in the rubber to break free.........thus separate and peel off.

Tire rubber starts drying out, as soon as it is manufactured. The clock starts ticking the day it's made. All tires manufactured for on road use have a Department of Transportation (DOT) code on the sidewall. If you will look at the last four digits after the word DOT (3 if manufactured before 2000) of this code, you can see the week and year manufactured. This code is usually 12 letters/numbers but not always. Ex: if the last four digits say 3603, then this tire was manufactured the 36th week of 2003.

Just because you purchase a new tire, doesn't mean you got a new made tire. This tire could have sat in a warehouse and then in dealers stock for years, before you got it. The whole time, the clock is ticking on the rubber. It's a good idea to see how fresh made the rubber is, everytime you purchase a tire, either for yourself or your trailer.

Another problem that all trailer tires suffer from is lack of use. Since we don't pull our trailers everyday, our rubber doesn't stay flexing, with all the oils in the rubber being constantly circulated with centrifugal force that our everyday vehicles do. Letting a tire sit, is not what it was made for. It helps the rubber to dry.

Proper maintenance of tires is essential for long life and safety, but with some tires, it won't be enough stop the failure of certain ones........which I strongly believe is just about every marathon radial.

Is anyone still awake?

If anyone is interested, I can explain the difference between radial and bias. Steel belted means something else.

BY ALL MEANS, PLEASE EXPLAIN!
And how do we keep our tires in shape outside of covering them, driving slow and checking PSI? Is there something we can treat them with to slow them from drying out??
And which are best and why?

[jimair1548]

Not too much being said about Maxis tires(15 inch). My unit is a 2004 3023 and it came with Marathon tires. Used them until they timed out (age). No blowouts or flats. Replaced them with Maxis and have had no problems, good ride,etc., and we travel a pretty fare number of miles. We drive at 60 to 70 mph(going downhill), don't overload it. Never had more than 4000 lbs. max gross,(we never carry water) and keep them inflated to mfg suggested psi. ????? I would recommend the Maxis...jim

[tentcamper]

This is my observation. It seems like Goodyear's did well except sometime in the late 2000's. It also seem like I'm not hearing much about goodyears built on or after 2011. Was this just a blimp in the quality? I have always had very good success with goodyears on my campers. But never had the years in question?

Is anyone having problems with goodyears built on or after 2011?

I also strongly suggest that everyone who has a marathon tire failure to file a report with the NHTSA. If they get enough complaints, they may order a recall on them. Here is the link.

http://www.safercar.gov/tires/pages/TireDefects.htm

That is great info. I do have the dot codes on the 2 tires I just replaced.
I've had 4 flats and 1 blow out on 3 Dutros a Towmaster and a Titan. (The blow out was the Titan) Im realllly tired of this. I will do what ever it takes to make it stop.
Im sure we all feel that way.
Inform away!
Cheri