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You know, the more and more I think about this, the more puzzling I find it. In one hand, you have what I would consider a fair number of people having issues. Statistically small given the number of tires out there, but concerning nonetheless. OTOH, there are folks like me that may just be lucky. I check the pressures all the time, load carefully and my Safari is nowhere near the max weight rating of the tires combined.
Then I read about speeds, weight distribution of load, etc and can't help but wonder if some folks that have had issues (not all) simply don't check the pressures and drive faster than 65, regadless of outside temps.
Are there statistics or other evidence that suggest Marathons are more prone to blow outs than other RV tires? It's not surprising there are more posts reporting blow outs because Marathons are by far the market leader. Probably naive of me, but I would think Airstream wouldn't be shipping trailers with tires that are known to be unsafe.
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Mike & Joan
WBCCI #1521 New England Unit
07 25' International CCD FB
06 Chevy Duramax/Allison
Something else to consider is that Goodyear might deliver 10 times more Marathons than the competitors. There is no question they are popular. If that were the case I'd expect to hear 10 times as many complaints.
More interesting is the ST vs LT debate.
Or, you can look at it another way! From the report by SURMAN1322 we can deduce that 50% of Marathons fail in a catastropic way! You don't have to know the outcome of every tire to be able to predict the outcome of a few tires. For 2airishuman, we could deduce that 33% of Marathons are near failure after 30,000 miles of frequent checking. Obviously these deductions are about as accurate and absurd as saying Goodyear ships 100,000 Marathons but we're only hearing about the 20 tires which prematurely destructed. Bottom line is do you feel perfectly safe and comfortable using and trusting your family and valuables to them. If they leave you feeling a bit uneasy, perhaps a safer more trustworthy alternative is available.
I also find it amazing that we accept without question the necessity to constantly be monitoring and adjusting our trailer tires when we wouldn't think of giving that much attention to the tires on say, a car or pickup weighing about the same as the airstream. Take a 5500 lb. Airstream and a 5500 lb. Ford F-250. The person driving the Ford in the real world isn't going to spend near as much thought on his tires for the truck as he does the Airstream. Makes a case for getting better tires for the Airstream.
Hi, in reponse to Bob Thompson's statement on checking tire pressure of trailer versus tire pressure of tow vehicle; A possible answer for some owners is, I have my tow vehicle serviced [oil changed] every three thousand miles. [four times a year] At that time the dealer checks my tire pressure. How often do you change the oil on your trailer? What I'm saying is, we service our tow vehicles, maybe four times a year and our trailers maybe once a year.
I agree with both Bob and Bob. Checking tire pressure AND oil is a drag, just a drag. Changing it is ever worse but it has to be done.
Reminds me of the paved road.
close but what it says is 10psi above the 'recommended' inflation for the load...and not over the wheel rating, and not more than 10 psi above the recommended pressure for the load....
cheers
2air'
Perhaps that is what it should say , but that is not what it does say . Please read that sentance again carefully , I had to re-read it several times .
I find the messages here interesting. I have replaced 5 Marathons in the past year and a half on my 2004 Classic. The first was after a blowout that caused some minor damage. The second was discovered during some maintenance work at local RV dealer -- a bulging area in the tread that he said indicated belt separation. After that, I began checking the tires very carefully at every rest stop while on the road, and that is how I found the other three tires that had similar bulges in the tread area. This is not an underinflation issue. I check the pressure daily before hitting the road, and as I mentioned, visually at every rest stop. I know the trailer is not overloaded -- I have weighed it twice this year, once at the end of a long trip when it was REALLY packed and still 200 lbs under GVWR. I'm not exactly a newbie at trailering, been towing TT's for more than 30 years. A majority of that time with Marathons, and have never had real problems with them. Right now I'm waiting for a return call from customer service, but have no real hopes of getting any useful information from him. I'm not as concerned about warranty issues as I am in feeling comfortable towing on Marathons now.
Planning a trip to Alaska next year, and am seriously considering changing all four Marathons out to a different brand, maybe keeping one or two of them for spares. Any suggestions as to what, would be appreciated.
Hi, somehow I feel safer, for example, brijbldr's trailer has the same tires (4) I have, but is carrying another 2,500 lbs. [estimate] 25' Safari versus 30' Classic. Open for opinions on heavier trailers useing same tires. What's your thought?
Hi, somehow I feel safer, for example, brijbldr's trailer has the same tires (4) I have, but is carrying another 2,500 lbs. [estimate] 25' Safari versus 30' Classic. Open for opinions on heavier trailers useing same tires. What's your thought?
Bob
Hard to know , all you give is the brand. What size and rating?
I find the messages here interesting. I have replaced 5 Marathons in the past year and a half on my 2004 Classic. The first was after a blowout that caused some minor damage. The second was discovered during some maintenance work at local RV dealer -- a bulging area in the tread that he said indicated belt separation. After that, I began checking the tires very carefully at every rest stop while on the road, and that is how I found the other three tires that had similar bulges in the tread area. This is not an underinflation issue. I check the pressure daily before hitting the road, and as I mentioned, visually at every rest stop. I know the trailer is not overloaded -- I have weighed it twice this year, once at the end of a long trip when it was REALLY packed and still 200 lbs under GVWR. I'm not exactly a newbie at trailering, been towing TT's for more than 30 years. A majority of that time with Marathons, and have never had real problems with them. Right now I'm waiting for a return call from customer service, but have no real hopes of getting any useful information from him. I'm not as concerned about warranty issues as I am in feeling comfortable towing on Marathons now.
Planning a trip to Alaska next year, and am seriously considering changing all four Marathons out to a different brand, maybe keeping one or two of them for spares. Any suggestions as to what, would be appreciated.
It is a great perspective with experience that ends with an unanswerable question. You will have to go with your gut or start a new current poll. I hate to put it that way but you won't find statistical data that will shut everybody up and overwhelmingly point to the best tire. Airstream uses Goodyear ST, they had to make a decision right or wrong.
Got a response from Goodyear customer service today, and was much as expected. I had unreasonable hope that he would tell me that my tire failures were due to "X" and if I did "Y", all would be solved. Of course that is not possible, but hope knows no bounds. He did confirm that the tire I had sent back to the factory this past summer was found to be defective, and I would be receiving a check; and the bad tire that I have not yet had replaced will be replaced at no charge for me when I bring it in to the local Goodyear dealer. He also confirmed that I am doing just as they would recommend. That is, maintaining 65 psi all around, and checking the pressure daily.
With the mention in a previous post of a strike at Goodyear, I am wondering if there has been lax quality control over the past couple of years, or even deliberate sabotage. It does seem strange that I have had five similar failures in the past 1 1/2 to 2 years, and calls into question the integrity of Goodyear products, at least in my mind.
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Hi, in reponse to Bob Thompson's statement on checking tire pressure of trailer versus tire pressure of tow vehicle; A possible answer for some owners is, I have my tow vehicle serviced [oil changed] every three thousand miles. [four times a year] At that time the dealer checks my tire pressure. How often do you change the oil on your trailer? What I'm saying is, we service our tow vehicles, maybe four times a year and our trailers maybe once a year.
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