Oh No, Marathon issue!

[Bruce B]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

What does GY and Hunter say about the 80# roadforce measurement? I am sure there are GY dealers that use Hunter and similar equipment. I am pretty sure that GY does not ship tires with anywhere near 80# roadforce to any car or light truck manufacturer.
I use to have contacts that could give me the approx numbers but not since retirement.

Hunter says you can use up to 40 lbs RoadForce on an LT tire. Goodyear replaced the first tire when the RoadForce numbers were less than that (I can't remember how High the RoadForce was on the original tire, they had no qualms replacing it). You can feel the "imbalance in most cars once the numbers reach the mid 20's. In some cars you can begin to feel vibration in the high teens.

The other tire (the replacement) is under 10 lbs. The bad tire was below 10 for the first 10,000 miles, that is he last time I spun it.

I have not even called Goodyear about he tire. I simply want to try something else.

Bruce

[LFC]

All you guys running Light Truck tires on Airstreams will be singing the blues soon enough.....

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by LFC

All you guys running Light Truck tires on Airstreams will be singing the blues soon enough.....

....because...?

:-)

[LFC]

Real simple.

Because LT (Light truck) tires were not made for use on trailers....if they were the manufacturers would advertise them as such.

Like one guy said earlier Goodyear Marthons have gotten a bad rap because there is more of them in use.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by LFC

Real simple.

Because LT (Light truck) tires were not made for use on trailers....if they were the manufacturers would advertise them as such.

Like one guy said earlier Goodyear Marthons have gotten a bad rap because there is more of them in use.

Thanks. I see that point and don't disagree. I just wonder if Airstream's use of the non-ST Michelin tires on the Eddie Bauer is a signal of a move in a new direction? I also called AS before switching to the 15" Michelins to ask if it would void my warranty. They said it wouldn't. Again, just wonder if things may be moving in a different direction.

Whatever you choose, have happy, safe travels!

[LFC]

I'd just about bet that if you purchased a new Airstream from Airstream with LT (Light Truck) tires on it and had a serious accident because of a tire failure or simply a lose of control that with the right lawyer you or anyone involved in the accident might very well be the new owner of Airstream.

[idroba]

For what it is worth, my 2014 FC 20' single axle has shocks. Maybe it is just the Safari series which does not have them.

[Bruce B]

Originally Posted by idroba

For what it is worth, my 2014 FC 20' single axle has shocks. Maybe it is just the Safari series which does not have them.

Our Airstream is an International series. Maybe Airstream is reconsidering the wisdom of the no shock status of the single axel trailers?

I will not matter to me any longer, as of today I will be welding on those brackets (Thank you Colin Hyde!).

Bruce

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by r carl

He probably got all his good tools at harbor freight.

What's wrong with Harbor Freight?

I didn't mean to appear to mock LFC - I was genuinely interested in why he felt that way. Sorry if that came across the wrong way...

I was dead set against swapping out the tires AS chose to put on the trailer. I'm happy I finally did and to my untrained eye, the Michelins even visually appear better on every level and side by side, the GYMs look less trustworthy (I have no training or experience to back that up so take with a huge grain of salt).

Like every hot topic - I think folks need to know why they choose one direction over another. The only wrong choice might be the one you make without knowing why...

[LFC]

I didn't think you were....Fact is I've never bought any Chinese junk from Harbor Freight.

And I've also never ran out and bought a set of tires because of what I read on an internet forum either.

[SteveH]

I have a friend in our unit that refuses to run anything but 7.00X15D bias ply tires on his Airstream, and his reasoning is when one blows out, it does not do any damage to the trailer because there is no steel belt flopping around tearing stuff up. To date, he is right because he has blown two of them with no damage to the trailer.

Before the tire manufacturers, for what ever reason, came out with the ST tires, everyone ran 7.00X15 bias ply tires on trailers. To my recollection, they were fine, just didn't last many miles.

Maybe if we changed out the GYM's at 15,000 miles we wouldn't have trouble with them either?

[boondockdad]

I wonder how many of the folks that disparage us LT'ers, actually come back and post crow when their ST's fail?

[SteveH]

I wonder has anyone reported an LT tire failure on a trailer. There sure have been plenty of the ST tires fail.

[gandttimes]

Originally Posted by idroba

For what it is worth, my 2014 FC 20' single axle has shocks. Maybe it is just the Safari series which does not have them.

No, as we owned a 2008 20 ft Safari as well as a 2005 19 ft Bambi which also had shocks.

[gmw photos]

Originally Posted by LFC

Real simple.

Because LT (Light truck) tires were not made for use on trailers....if they were the manufacturers would advertise them as such.

Like one guy said earlier Goodyear Marthons have gotten a bad rap because there is more of them in use.

My feelings are it's not actually "real simple".

I would suspect that Tire Rack, being a major player in the market, is pretty careful in what they post and recommend on their website. From them:

"Also consider that Special Trailer (ST), as well as Light Truck (LT) tires are fully rated for trailer applications. This means ST- and LT-sized tires can carry the full weight rating branded on the sidewalls when used on a trailer."

Also, if you look on the Good Year website, and dig down thru their LT tire category, they state that LT tires are suitable for trailer use, as long as you maintain or go up in load capacity.

I have, in writing, an approval from Continental to use their Vanco LT tire for trailer use, again, with the stipulation that the tire meets or exceeds the load carry capacity of the OE supplied tires.

For my mind, all of the above satisfies my requirements of proof that the tire companies approve all this. I run LT tires on both of my horse trailers ( one bumper pull and one gooseneck ), my gooseneck equipment trailer and my travel trailer. They work for me, and when it comes to especially the horse and equipment trailers, we often have to spin these trailers around in tight places, so these tire get the dreaded twisting/scrubbing action. I have had zero LT tire failures on these trailers ( knock on wood )....which is not something I can say regarding my experience with ST tires.

As always, y'all run whatever you want, but to make a blanket statement that users of LT tires will regret that choice is rather misleading in my opinion.

[SteveH]

Originally Posted by gmw photos

My feelings are it's not actually "real simple".

I would suspect that Tire Rack, being a major player in the market, is pretty careful in what they post and recommend on their website. From them:

"Also consider that Special Trailer (ST), as well as Light Truck (LT) tires are fully rated for trailer applications. This means ST- and LT-sized tires can carry the full weight rating branded on the sidewalls when used on a trailer."

Also, if you look on the Good Year website, and dig down thru their LT tire category, they state that LT tires are suitable for trailer use, as long as you maintain or go up in load capacity.

I have, in writing, an approval from Continental to use their Vanco LT tire for trailer use, again, with the stipulation that the tire meets or exceeds the load carry capacity of the OE supplied tires.

For my mind, all of the above satisfies my requirements of proof that the tire companies approve all this. I run LT tires on both of my horse trailers ( one bumper pull and one gooseneck ), my gooseneck equipment trailer and my travel trailer. They work for me, and when it comes to especially the horse and equipment trailers, we often have to spin these trailers around in tight places, so these tire get the dreaded twisting/scrubbing action. I have had zero LT tire failures on these trailers ( knock on wood )....which is not something I can say regarding my experience with ST tires.

As always, y'all run whatever you want, but to make a blanket statement that users of LT tires will regret that choice is rather misleading in my opinion.

Agreed.

[gmw photos]

And a little followup that I should have thrown in my earlier post, in case anyone cares for brand info, this is what I am running now:

On the little 4000 pound white box camper trailer ( funfinder ): Kumho 857. We have few choices in the 14" rim size, so I chose these. Load range D ( 65 psi ), these tires are a "commercial, light truck tire" ( made for cargo vans, etc, according to Kumho ) that are marketed by Kumho USA as "primarily for trailer use". That right there states that at least for this model of tire, Kumho calls trailer use and LT use as crossing over.

The horse trailers and equipment trailer all have 16" LR E, and are a combo of Uniroyal Laredo and Firestone Transforce HT. These trailers range from 3000 lbs. empty for the small horse trailer up to 15K lbs loaded for the goosenecks.
The Uniroyals are about due to be replaced, as they are close to worn out and are getting some weather cracking on them. Will probably replace them with a set of F-stone Transforce, because I can get a deal on them from my local dealer, and they have been fine on the other trailer.

[LFC]

Originally Posted by SteveH

I wonder has anyone reported an LT tire failure on a trailer. There sure have been plenty of the ST tires fail.

There's plenty of Michelin tire failures listed...

Michelin Tire Consumer Complaints

Another thing to consider is how many more trailers are running ST tires compared to the number of people running LT truck tires on trailers.

I'm sure if there was a way to figure it out the percentage of ST and LT tire failures would be close.

[dannydimitt]

Originally Posted by LFC

There's plenty of Michelin tire failures listed...

Michelin Tire Consumer Complaints

Another thing to consider is how many more trailers are running ST tires compared to the number of people running LT truck tires on trailers.

I'm sure if there was a way to figure it out the percentage of ST and LT tire failures would be close.

Glad you have not been bit by an ST tire ! Hope you stay lucky !


Having run Michelins "not exclusively" for many years in various sizes from
285/ 65R 14s to 1400 R 24s with a whole bunch of 1000 R 20s and 11R22.5s and never having one fail on anything , and having 100% of the ST radials that I have owned fail . This simple old man has decided never to use a ST tire on anything that goes over 20 MPH.
Just saying

[Phoenix]

Summary of Airstream Tire Failure Poll data:

189 = Total number of tires reported in poll (good and bad, combined)
089 = Number of GYM tires that failed
001 = Number of Michelin tires that failed
031 = Number of other brand tires that failed
082 = Total number of ST tires that failed
001 = Total number of LT tires that failed

Notes:
1. 55% of people completing the poll had at least one tire fail on their Airstream.
2. Two tires reported as Michelin LT tires were actually GYM ST tires, and above summary reflects these corrections.
3. 7 "unknown" type tires failed, but this data was not included in above totals.
4. Percentages do not necessarily total 100% due to the way calculations are performed by the underlying BBS software.