Goodyear Marathon Failures

[xrvr]

Which report?

[Rpatrick16]

Originally Posted by avionstream

Which report?

This report:


GOODYEAR MARATHON | Safercar | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

For additional info see the first post on this thread.

[OTRA15]

Thanks Rpatrick16.

Happy Trails.

Peter

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/...prod_ids=71738

[xrvr]

Thanks

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by ahillring

No tires should separate like this! Shame on Airstream for continuing to put these on their trailers.

Welcome to the forum! I have taken the liberty of replying on this GYM Failure thread, in addition to on the 20-footer thread which is a fairly specialized thread focused on a particular model. I agree with your assessment and plan to upgrade soon.



Thanks for the clear photo! Could you tell us about how the blow-out occurred, and whether you had any loss-of-control issues while towing maybe?

Also do you know the DOT date of mfg. stamped on the tire? It is a 4-digit number in a small oval showing the week ( __ of 52) and the year.

Thanks,

Peter

[Tbo]

Michelin doesn't make a 15'' trailer tire. Goodyear Marathons are trailer tires. Trailer tires are made to scrub and sway among other things. The new best trailer tire I am hearing about is a Pro something.
I have run Marathons for almost 20 years now. I had 2 blowouts that were 10 years old and 1 road hazard puncture, a bolt or spike that ruined the tire.
I just bought 2 Marathons to replace 2 that were just worn out, 7 and 8 years old, with small visible cracking. I'm running them at 55-56 lbs psi and 62-63 mph.
Just my 2 cents.

[tjdonahoe]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer

Just to put some numbers into this:

If 99 failures were reported over a 15 year timespan, and I assume a failure rate of 0.1% (1 out of 1,000, which was at one time was an acceptable rate), then Goodyear produced 6,600 tires a year - and that sounds EXTREMELY low. My guess is that Goodyear is producing more like 100,000 of these a year - which equates to a failure rate of 0.007%, 1 out of 15,000. That may be why no action has taken place.

And don't forget that trailer manufacturers do NOT see tire issues as their problem.

And we don't know how many curbs or big chuck holes these tires have hit,or have been run on low air pressure then run 70 mph on a 100 degree day.....just saying..

[Tbo]

Now I see MADE IN CHINA on my new Marathons. I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

[Snaken49]

GYM failures are very common among the majority of SOB trailers at my storage facility. The owner of an SOB parked next to my FC had two GYM blowouts with low milage tires mounted on the same side and wheel.

It also seems like the SOB tire market is dominated by GYM. So it is understandable that Thor would equip Airstreams with GYM as a standard tire.

It is difficult to really gage the GYM performance when the majority of owners do not report the failure to the National Highway and Traffic Administration or any other authority. Like my next door neighbor they simply pay for the damages to their rig, by a new GYM and move on.

I highly recommend any Airstream or SOB owner to upsize their wheels if possible from 15" to 16", mount Michelin or equivalent LT tires, Centramatic balancers and good TPMS like the TireMinder A1A system.

Investing in these systems can give you peace of mind and prevent thousands of dollars in damages to your Airstream. My neighbor whose rig was damage twice by GYM blowouts spent over $4000 dollars in repairs. Something to think about.


http://www.centramatic.com/

http://www.minderresearch.com/


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

[ahillring]

I've seen a lot of posts in the AS Forums about issues with GYM tires...and at least one where the owner had just drove it off the lot brand new. Ours is a 2013 20-ft FC. I did check the manufacture date and I believe it was 2012. And, yes, they are made in China. We never drive over about 63 mph and ensure the tires are properly inflated...we check them frequently. Fortunately, we were going very slow when the blowout occurred so it was not catastrophic. However, we did incur some damage to the trim around the wheel well and black piece along the bottom. It is going to cost us about $400 to fix, but our AS dealer that is doing the work said that he has repaired some damage from blowouts that hit the aluminum panels and costs as much as $4000. We were very lucky! I will be replacing the tires now with 16-inch rims and Michelin LT's Load Series E. I believe the GYMs that AS is installing on their trailers...at least the 20-footers...are just at the edge of their load capacity. And having a single-axle trailer makes it especially concerning!