Goodyear Marathon tread separation ... and our solution

[2airishuman]

Originally Posted by RossFam05BH

...I would think that Marathon T302244 BW 1GKH was made right after T302243 BW 1GKH, but who knows?....

once again an example of the relevant production code.

note the maple leaf above...

cheers
2air'

[RossFam05BH]

Originally Posted by 2airishuman

once again an example of the relevant production code.

note the maple leaf above...

cheers
2air'

2AirisHuman,

Thanks again for your invaluable input. I really mean this. Those nasty DOT brands are located on the other side of the tire. Duh!! Here it is: DO5R PDHH MLO4 2704. All tires have the production date of 2704. BTW, my new wheels just showed up via UPS. Off to Sam's club I go.

Paul

[2airishuman]

Originally Posted by RossFam05BH

here it is... DO5R PDHH MLO4 2704. All tires have the production date of 2704....Paul

so those tires were produced at the valleyfield quebec canada goodyear facility in early july 2004.

cheers
2air'

[jcanavera]

I've been looking at the Maxxis web site for their ST trailer tires. One of the features they provide is a nylon cap. Silvertwinkie did some more research and look at what he found. This is very interesting.

CBC Marketplace: Dangerous Tires

Jack

[2airishuman]

CHENG SHIN rubber industires (maxxis) makes good tires...

ABOUT US

including jinrikisha tires

nylon cap reinforcement isn't new....

that news piece is 6+ years old.

very common on low profile performance tires from japan and europe.

clearly helpful at 100+mph.

would they make a difference on st rated tires?

perhaps.

what's a marathon sell for, 65-90$...

while the equivalent maxxis is 120-140$ per tire.

and still the load rating is established at 65mph.

still IF you stay close to home and have a maxxis dealer nearby, might b a good choice.

currently the maxxis network is very thin.

i will consider maxxis IF they are still in this segment when my next half dozen are needed....

in about 14-18 months...

i've gone through about 8 maxxis in the past 2 years with one failure...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/355228-post122.html

cheers
2air'

[Beginner]

Fwiw?

[markdoane]

. . for what it's worth . . .

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by 2airishuman

what's a marathon sell for, 65-90$...

while the equivalent maxxis is 120-140$ per tire.

and still the load rating is established at 65mph.

still IF you stay close to home and have a maxxis dealer nearby, might b a good choice.

currently the maxxis network is very thin.

i
http://www.airforums.com/forums/355228-post122.html

cheers
2air'

Looks like the 8 ply rated tires in my size is about $120 with the 10 ply rated tire at $140. That 10 ply is of interest to me since it has a load capacity of just over 3,000 lbs. That gives me a lot more fudge factor when I'm pulling with a full fresh water tank.

Personally the fact that a dealer is nearby is of questionable value. From what I have read here in most cases, a tire failure probably is not covered under warranty since it seems to be blamed on under inflation or overloading. Road hazzards are usually not covered unless you have some type of add on package with the tire dealer, and even with that it might not be of value once you are out of town.

Maybe if you want to replace a blown tire with the same make would be the biggest consideration. Hopefully by making a better tire choice we are trying to reduce that occurance...

65 is still fast enough for me, so no limitations there.

Jack

[RossFam05BH]

Hi All,

We can now record that 4 out of 5 Marathon tires that originally came with the trailer have separated. The fourth tire, which was in the roadside front position, and which I thought was not separated, exhibited a bulge under closer inspection. The separation field on the tire's road surface was much less in area than the really bad tire, but as shown in the following picture, I would hesitate to drive another mile with it. The bulging ridge on the left half of the tire extends 8 inches around the circumference of the tire.



I was unable to see the problem with this tire until I had removed it from the trailer.

The reason why I removed this tire was so that I could install the new Michelin tires! They fit in the wheel wells somewhat snugly, but the Michelin's are still lower in profile than the really bad separated Marathon. In the following picture, the O.K. Marathon is left, the Michelin is center, and the nasty separated Marathon is on the right. All tires are on wheels and inflated to 65 lbs.



Finally, here is a picture of the new Michelins installed on the trailer.



We are now ready for further adventures. We will keep you posted on the tires' performance after they have some miles on them.

Paul

[3Ms75Argosy]

fwiw... "for what it's worth..."
Maxxis - now I'm REALLLY going out on a limb, but they do make some fine BIKE tires... really! The press has been saying they're quite good!

I don't know, for every blown tire, there's a zillion more out there still going round and round. I haven't stopped every person that has a flat out there, but there are a lot on passenger cars too.

Knock on wood, my Canadian Marathons are still going strong... will I look at some other brands when I replace them next year? Yes... Did I hate the OEM Goodyear's on my Mazda - Yes....

I've had good experiences with BFG and Michellin... FWIW!

Paul, I like those new tires/rims! Those are 16", right?
Marc

[RossFam05BH]

Originally Posted by 3Ms75Argosy

Paul, I like those new tires/rims! Those are 16", right?
Marc

Hi Marc,

They are 16" wheels with LT225/75R16 LRE tires. BTW, I now have 4 low mileage Goodyear Marathon tires, suitable as tire swings, for sale.

Paul

[Beginner]

Thank you.
Still a beginner.

[2airishuman]

Originally Posted by jcanavera

That 10 ply is of interest to me since it has a load capacity of just over 3,000 lbs. That gives me a lot more fudge factor when I'm pulling with a full fresh water tank...

with that hefty slide on 4 legs this make some sense.

you have the classic 5 spoke alcoa wheels?

might wanna check the load rating for them

cheers
2air'

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by 2airishuman

with that hefty slide on 4 legs this make some sense.

you have the classic 5 spoke alcoa wheels?

might wanna check the load rating for them

cheers
2air'

Well I'm assuming that the wheels are rated correctly to carry the load rated by the existing Marathon's. I'm not planning on exceeding the trailer gross which is 9100 lbs. So the fact that I'm putting tires on with additional capacity shouldn't be a factor for the wheels. I would just like a little more cushion between what the gross of the trailer is and the max capacity of the tires. If I run maximum gross on the trailer, I'm sitting around 90% of the Marathon's weight capacity.

Jack

[scottanlily]

Well ,these days I stay away from this particular thread subject .My advocacy for Maxxis and other non marathon ,tires is well documented in old threads .I run Herculese bias ply on my single axle 60 trdwind .No problems of any kind in many thousands of miles .They are made by CHENG SHIN . they are very well made tires .I just installed some new tires on my 1970 honda trail 90 ,CHENG SHIN again , these are knobby trail tires . Not all want bias ply tires ,but I found them to be excellent in the non failure catagory ,
not as smooth as radials ,but a safe reliable tire is important ,my bet also goes with Michelins ,and excellent tire .

The trail 90 is a cool ,days gone by motorcycle ,mine is mint and going on my airstream travels as soon as figure out how to bring it along .

Scott of scottanlily

[peegreen]

Maiden voyage with the new to us trailer, (remember, just picked up last weekend as the other one was ready to be towed to salvage); heading to Cape Cod (round 2) and a few miles down I-95 and I can see the rubber trail behind me. Quickly pull over on the shoulder and sure enough the tire is ripped to shreads. I could deal with throwing on the spare, but there is considerable damage to the trailer aft of the tire. Ahhhh, I just got the trailer less than a week ago. So after I propped up the reflective triangles that I purchased yesterday since I realize we didn't have any roadside emergency equipment, and figuring this was a $30 insurance policy against ever needing them (carrying an umbrella), Chuck (moderator) pulls up. He looked at the tire and thought that load range C seemed to be on the light side. We tried to find a tire dealer, but it was late Saturday afternoon, so I nervously made our way the rest of the trip. Tomorrow or Monday we'll make some calls. It appears from the DOT stamp that these are original tires, 1997, so it's time for new shoes and something a little beefier. I hope we have good weather.

[handn]

I had a nearly identical tread seperation with an origianal equipment "made in Canada" Goodyear Marathon tire on my 2004 25 foot Safari this May.
Tread speratated and the tire blew out on left rear. I checked pressure and inflated to 65 lbs before the trip. GVW on my rig is 6300 pounds and I am sure it was not overloaded. The tire had less than 10,000 miles. The airtemp was hot, perhaps 100 degrees.
I purchased a no name replacement "made in China tire". Of course I am nervous about the replacement tire, but I don't know what my choices are. I don't know if I have the clearance for 16 inch Michlelins. My Marathons are 225 R 15's load range D.

[Beginner]

I had my old ST225/75R15 LRD tires inflated to 65 PSI cold and were indicating 70+ PSI after two hours running.
The monitor alarmed at 59-57 PSI if memory serves.
These tire just don't explode.
The rubber compounds heat to the point where they loose integrity.
When this happens the belts start to slip.
This causes an air leak.
The tire pressure goes down.
This causes the sidewalls to flex more building up more and more heat.
Thes heat spike causes the rubber to release more rapidly until the tire comes apart.
My personal experience with my Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitering System was that by the time I made it to the side of the road and a full stop the tire stil had 20 pounds of pressure in it (as indicated by the Monitor) and had not come apart. Part of the steelbelt was hanging out between the tread lugs though.
These Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems are cheap insurance.
Mine was $300.00 plus change.
Beginner

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by peegreen

....Chuck (moderator) pulls up. He looked at the tire and thought that load range C seemed to be on the light side.

The mod staff is everywhere!

I live just a few miles from the spot...was out doing errands, and just happened to be passing by. Saw the airstream on the other side of the highway, and thought the TV looked familiar...so I turned around to see if I could lend a hand. Of course, Peegreen had it all under control, and I just lent a little moral support.

Originally Posted by peegreen

....It appears from the DOT stamp that these are original tires, 1997, so it's time for new shoes and something a little beefier. I hope we have good weather.

Well, that explains it. Didn't you say that the seller told you it had "new" (or at least "recent") tires? hmmm....

Plus, it was a really HOT day, yesterday. That might have more than a little bit to do with why the tire picked that particular day to fail.
As for the load range, I don't know that "c" is correct or not. 4 x the 2150lb rating exceeds the gvw of the trailer, but not by a huge amount.

What do M&M have on theirs? I'd contact "golddigger", too. He's got a similar trailer, and has gone through a whole bunch of tires.

[Cracker]

With respect to Load Range "C" being correct for a 30' Excella, that's what was on my 2000 Excella until I put new Load Range "D" tires on at the mothership. The old tires (Goodyear Marathons) still looked good but I changed them because of age. I'm running the new tires at the old recommended pressure - 50 psi - which provides the same load capacity at that pressure as did the C's. Two years so far with the new tires but relatively light travel - probably less than 5,000 miles.

With all of the problems everyone has been having with the Goodyear Marathons it seems like it would be raising a flag at Jackson Center. Is Airstream still using Marathons on the 2007 trailers?