Goodyear marathon Born dates?

[Pappy]

I went to buy 4 new Marathons today and I am having trouble finding them unless I order them. I am trying to get the latest Born date but that is posing a problem as well. The newest I have found are 9 months old and I was hoping to find tires with a 3 month old Born date.

If I order who knows what I will get.

Am I being unrealistic?

Thanks Pappy

[ArtStream]

YES

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, that makes sense to me, but I don't have an answer other than ask until you find what you want. Also check for a dealer that sells a lot of tires so they don't just sit around getting old. With basically the same idea, when my batteries went bad, I waited for six months to buy new ones because I wasn't going anywhere and once you buy them the clock starts ticking.

[dogpound]

I would believe you would have better luck going through a Goodyear dealer because if they don't have them in inventory they could get them relatively soon from their supplier. Our Goodyear dealer here gets trucks in from his distributor at least once a week. As far as the Born date that will be a potluck.

Bob
FCU/CAC
WBCCI # 10105
AIR # 28748

[Pappy]

I settled for the 9 month old tires. After calling around locally none of them stocked the marathons and I live in a million plus market. I believe in this economy parts etc associated with RV's will be stocked to a lower level which will resort in higher prices down the road. I appreciate the comments.

Pappy

[Pappy]

One last comment when I took my tires off I had two with broken belts. One was obvious one was not so obvious. The obvious one was larger in diameter which even I could see. The point is I couldn't see this defect when it was on the Airstream. My dealer gave me a 50% adjustment on the two wheels. These wheels were mid 2004 and put on a 2006 model Classic which I picked up in 2005 they had 20K miles on them and when the airstream was not in use it was in a metal building. The new Marathons look much better than the old ones which had scalloped sides from the very beginning. Hopefull the extra rubber and additonal nylon that I have read about on this forum will be an improvement. I know lots of folks have have went different ways on this issue but I thought I would make the point without removing the tires you may not see the problem.

[Beginner]

I don't look at tires to judge their condition (belts). An old trick I learned from an old mechanic (when checking for front end alignment) is to place your hand on the tread area of the tire (fingers on the inner sholder and heel of your hand on the outer sholder (palm towards the tread). Rub (feel) the tire as you carefully slide your hand around the tire as far as you can. As you rub your hand around the tire the tread should not try to "grab" your open hand but should be fairly smooth. Usually the bench mark or best case situation is to first rub your hand around the tread of the rear tires on your tow vehicle (solid rear axle) and compare all other tires to those two tires. If the belts have seperated you will feel the lumps. If you have any questions go back and rub your hand around the rear tires on the tow vehicle (again with a solid rear axle).
Beginner

[richinny]

beginner,

one trick i learned while being a mechanic was to use a rag on the first pass as scissors cut paper and steel cuts skin ;-)

in the days before stell belted tires, you only had to worry about glass, splinters and nails :-)

[Beginner]

That might be a good idea. Your post reminded me of my ST tire with Steel Mesh protruding from between two tread lugs.
Beginner

[Pappy]

After running my new GY tires about 2500 miles a couple of the sidewalls seem to be scalloped just like the old ones. I am just curious those of you who have bought Maxxis have you noticed this same scalloping of the sidewalls where the belts meet?
I have been told this is normal by GY!

Pappy

[GStephens]

Pappy, I not suggesting that your axles are out of alignment, but they could be. All it takes is one curb or other anomally. I experienced uneven tire wear in spite of running Centramatic balancers. I took it to an alignment shop capable of aligning our rubber torsion axles and all four of my wheels were out of alignment. Had the axles realigned and a new set of tires installed. No more uneven wear patterns and perhaps it is my imagination, but it seems my trailer rolls along with much less resistance now that the axles are properly aligned. An axle alignment should cost no more than $100 per axle. At least that is what I paid at North Dallas RV.

GStephens

[Pappy]

Gstephens,

I guess thats a possibility but I have even tread wear patterns on the new tires as well as the old ones that I took off. I can see where the front tires would be succeptable to side loads while turning but I think if the axle was out of alignment I would see an unusual wear pattern on the tread in addition to the side walls scalloping and thats not the case here. It would be interesting for me to hear from those with the Maxxis if they have found the same sidewall imperfections.

Pappy