Tire Research ?

I know we have group of TM owners who are currently road testing a number different tires under the counsel of Bobby (aka WMTire). Bobby, by the way, has to be the sharpest tire guy in the country (even though his Louisiana"food" choices are questionable), and he's done a lot for this forum. I'd sure like to see us support him and his business if possible. I hope I haven't violated any forum policy in saying this.
But I believe that the tire test group is quite small and I was wondering if we'd really be able to draw any conclusions about tire reliability from such a small study. So --- what do you think would happen if we asked for many more volunteers (however many necessary to provide really good test groups) to line up behind Bobby's top two or three picks? There are thousands of folks who participate in this forum and many would be interested in making such a contribution. Even though my Canadian Marathons have less than 5k miles --- I would probably be a willing participant (don't tell my wife though). We'd need a way to track all the volunteers and monitor their experiences. Could this be done through the forum and would it be worth the effort ? Maybe a thread could be established for each tire brand and our monitors could be sure that only research participants could post to these sites ? What do you kids think ?

Eric, I appreciate the kind words.

I personally believe you have a great idea. We do need to keep up with what everyone is testing or trying out. We are all working together on this and sharing information is the key.

I have some computer guru friends who I have ran Fcatwo's idea past, of designing a kind of tire failure self-reporting webpage. We could link to this page and report problems we have with tires. This page would also need to be setup in a way, that any (all) of the information fields could be summed up.

We could then check these sums, and see if we could find any patterns to tire failures. I want to make this page open to everyone here for reporting and searching.

In trying to adhere to the KISS principle, I am asking everyone just what should be reported, Please feel free to add or critique any suggestions here.

I believe we need for sure
1. Tire brand
2. Tire Size
3. Tire age
4. Trailmanor model
5. Type of failure (ie. blowout, tread peel, separation w/o peeling, etc.)

What else does everyone recommend?

[commodor47]

wmtire,

The Web site to track tire failures will certainly have a profound impact. Thanks for pursuing the matter!

A few more items to add to your list?

-curb or street side tire failure (or both sides)
-approximate number of road miles on the tire(s)
-was the tire failure due to a road hazard?
-on average, how many miles do you tow each year?

Bobby,
Might also want a short description or $ figure on the collateral damage caused. This might be captured obliquely in the type of failure but only if you know that a certain type of failure results in a certain type of failure.

All things equal I would go with the tire that failed but caused little if any damage to the unit over a tire that failed as frequently (or even less) but took out most of the plumbing or cabinets behind the wheel with it. JMHO.

BIll

Great suggestions on what data to report so far. Please keep the ideas coming.

I am having to go thru some friends to make a web site/page like we need, as my skills in this area are sorely lacking (Ok, actually nonexistent). I will be at their mercy for their time and expertise to get it done. I have no idea of a time frame. If we have any TManor members with 'puter' know-how, that may want to make this themselves for us, feel free to grab the ball and run with it. You won't be stepping on my toes any.

Hello Bobby et. al.,
Shouldn't we also suggest that all participants have their tires "balanced". This would help eliminate one variable that may contribute to failures. I still think it would be nice if everyone got behind one of your three tire choices as early as possible. You've already determined which tires seem to hold the most promise. The rest of us folks need to select one of the three and become part of an organized, volunteer study group. Gee, if this was organized well enough --- and if we gathered enough data --- I wonder if the manufacturers might be willing to get behind us in some fashion --- maybe making tires available at cost for participants, or pay for shipping, or ??? There's a lot of "good" that could come from such a research group. The manufacturers could even help design the study and how we'd monitor tire and road conditions. We'd be their lab rats so it would seem reasonable to expect a few morsels. We'd almost become a research body --- like Consumptive Reports. Anyway, we're heading for Ouray, Co in a few days and I'll hold to 60 mph on balanced, Marathons and hope that the Canadian folks who made my set were on top of their game the day that the tires were produced. Still glad that you, Bobby, are in our corner.
Eric

[hsannerud]

If someone decides to do this please include me. I just purchased Kumo'and am having them installed on my 2720 SL next week.

Harry Sannerud

I have concluded that Goddyear Marathons are "sorry." We're 22 days into a trip and had a blowout yesterday. Both tires were balanced before we left and I checked the pressure often and kept them at 65 lbs cold (3124KS). I managed to get the spare on with 18 wheelers blowing by and forunately was able to find a tire dealer open on Saturdat afternoon. He replaced the blown tire with some brand I've never heard of and also checked the other Goodyear. The belts were separating in it and it would have blown before I got home. These tires were manufactured in June 2003 and the tread looks brand new. It is absolutely ridiculous that they are not any more reliable. When we get home I will be looking for some D load range LT tires that will fit and will permanently forsake the ST tires. I refuse to believe that we have to continue traveling with the constant dread of another blowout. I'll keep this forum updated with my experience with the truck tires.

[countrygirl]

bfezel...did you sustain any damage to the TM?

I have to agree on the quality of the Goodyear Marathon tires. I recently purchased a used 2004 3124KB and towed it from Ft. Myers, Fla. to Dothan, Alabama, I did not have any trouble towing the trailer and the trailer did fine. A while ago I was reading the treads on tires and read that the Goodyear tires were giving the most trouble so I went to the trailer to check the tire brand and found that one of the tires was a Maxxis and the other was a Goodyear. I thought I would replace the Goodyear with the spare and found that it too was a Goodyear, anyway I bought two new Trail America tires and replaced both the new Goodyear tires which didn't have but about 1000 miles on them and found the one Goodyear that was on the drivers side to have a swollen patch the size of a silver dollar on the sidewall just below the tread. Luckly I found this before taking another trip, because it surely would have blown out on the road!! I can not thank the Trailmannor forrum enough for bringing this to my attention. I have since replaced the Goodyear tires with Trail America ST225/75R15 tires. As a side note, when I received the new tires I compared the weight of them with the Goodyear tires, the Trail America tires weighed about twice that of the Goodyear tires, so how is it that both of them carry a load range D rating? Both have stamped into the side info that says two steel belts, 8ply with two plys on the sidewalls. Why do the Goodyear tires weigh a lot less? How much less am I getting for my money with the Goodyear Marathons?