More success with 15-inch Goodyear Marathon tires

Originally Posted by Tom-417

A couple of weeks ago I bought 3 new Marathons and had some metal valve stems installed. I had to get the valve stems from O'Reilly Automotive but this weekend when I was was about to hook up I noticed all 3 had gone flat. I had dropped the corner stablizers when I installed them, so they were still standing nice and tall. After wheeling the aircompressor out I discovered the air was leaking at the valve stem seals. I took them off and had rubber valve stems installed but I am wondering if anyone else has had a problem like this. I went back to O'Reilly but they said they only had two sizes. The other size being for old Volkswagens and it appeared much to large for the wheels. The ones I bought appears to have rubber o-rings much too tiny to ever make a good seal.

For some foreboding reason, I think you got a hold of some Alcoa wheel type stems, since you said the rubber was so small. O-ring does not sound good either (and sounds more like an Alcoa stem). These type of stems have a small o-ring on them, and are made for a special type of wheel. It should have been a rubber grommet. Can you take a pic of what you got/bought, so I can see. Thanks

Did it resemble the pic below?



or was it more like this one?



EDIT: It might be fun to make a free 'youtube" video of installing these types of stems. That way, everyone would know the correct stem to get and to also make sure the store where you have your tires installed, is installing them correctly. (We have already had that problem popup here).

Would that halfway interest anyone? (or just bore you silly) We all might could make a whole series of Trailmanor specific videos.

Tires... buying, installing, changing, upgrading, maintaining, wear, balancing, ride, life expectency, monitoring, ... etc. Obviously, if you own a TM (or any other trailer for that matter), these topics are incredibly important you. How much time do we all spend thinking about our trailer tires? Better question maybe... when do we ever stop thinking about them?

If you were generous enough with your time to share your knowledge, I have to believe that there is a forum full of folks that would soak it up like sponges. Count me among them...

[Wavery]

I bought new tires about a month ago. I had them install steel valve stems and they are fine. We've made 2 trips since they were installed and they had 50# of air before each trip.

There is NO WAY that I could put 15" on my '98 2720. There is only about 1/4" clearance between the rear of the tires and the frame.

One other tip for those of you that have new tires........you may want to check the torque on your lug nuts as soon as you get home from the tire store and before each trip for the 1st few trips.

I watched the tech at the tire store torque mine. I went around the corner and checked the torque with my own torque wrench and they were fine. When I got home (about 12 miles), I got a full turn on each nut. I got about a half turn before each of the last 2 trips.

Thanks for replying wmtire. I appreciate your expertise. They definitely resemble the first one pictured.

We do have GoodYear, Firestone and Big O here. Also, Auto Zone and Pep Boys. I was thinking of taking them to a truck tire company next time, but what do you recommend.

Tom

[arniland]

We replaced the almost new, original Marathons with the 14 inch Kuhmos a year ago. In 2008 we ended up putting over 12,000 miles of mostly summer driving on them with no problems. Held the speed down to 65 mph except for the occasional 70 descending steep grades. Did not require new rims and the spare fits in the original holder. Could not be happier thus far.

Arn

[Bill]

wmtire posted

It might be fun to make a free 'youtube" video of ...

and jon/mgoblue responded

If you were generous enough with your time to share your knowledge, I have to believe that there is a forum full of folks that would soak it up like sponges.

I agree - I love the idea! There are a number of other topics that would benefit - how about Greasing the TM Wheel Bearings? I don't personally have the ability to make any video, but I would welcome anyone else's skill. The bigger problem is likely to be finding an Internet host for the video files. I don't believe that this TMO site will accept them, and I don't think that Doug's generous donation of space over at tmphotos.org will accept them, either. They could certainly go on You Tube, but the quality of the YouTube video format is generally so poor that we might not get everything we hoped for, and I'm told that YouTube stuff has a tendency to vanish after a while. Ideas gratefully accepted - I think this is worth pursuing.

BTW, anyone know if Skype can be used to make a video? I have a camera for that purpose - I'll try to look into it.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

BTW, anyone know if Skype can be used to make a video? I have a camera for that purpose - I'll try to look into it.

Bill

Hey Bill, several of my friends in my local geocaching group (including me), just bought ASUS netbooks that came pre-loaded with Skype. We have been playing around with it, and like it a lot......especially doing conference calls.

My skype account name is the same as here, wmtire.

Feel free to ring me up one evening, if you see I'm online with it.

Bobby

Just converted from 14 to 15" Marathons, metal stems, balanced, modified spare rack and all is well. Old tires were 2 yrs old, about 9000 miles and hardly any treadwear. Plan to carry 65psi. Hopefully will not worry as much about a blowout now!

[Harry Womack]

I had both of my 15" Marathons seperate on my Trailmanor. I bought 10- 15 inch Marathon tires for 2 scout trailers (both are tandem axles and 2 spares).
On the trip to Colorado this summer we had 4 of the tires seperate. I have switched to Maxxis tires. So far no problems.

[Bill]

At the risk of becoming boring, I'll mention that we just completed our latest twice-a-year cross-country trip, Maine to Rocky Mountain National Park, then on to Arizona, with the 15-inch Marathons on the TM. Another 3000 miles of perfect performance (yawn!). At every stop, I immediately put the back of my hand on all six tires (2 TM, 4 TV) as a temp test. The Marathons, running at 55-60 psi, were always stone-cold. Metal valve stems, balanced wheels - I love this setup.

As always, we were travelling heavy, since we are moving our entire lives for six months.

Thanks again (and again!), Bobby. I think The Great Tire Experiment is yielding results.

Bill