Goodyear Marathon tires class action?
"If you have had problems with Goodyear Marathon tires on your fifth-wheel trailer, attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether a class action lawsuit can be filed in light of com...
Forum Discussion
Over the years the Goodyear Marathon RV trailer tires, both USA & China manufactured have taken a beating in the user market.
Our 5th wheel trailer was one that suffered numerous failures before increasing tire load capacity solved our problems. Our (new) 2003 Keystone Everest 363K had 6000# vehicle certified GAWR axles. The factory installed original equipment (OE) tires were USA made ST235/80R16 LRD GY Marathons. Their maximum load capacity was 3000# at, 65 PSI which is what the placard recommended. Within 9 months we had used all five that came on the trailer because of various failure problems, all had lost their treads and a few blew out when the treads departed. A few trips to some scales showed that we had a single tire position overloaded but the axle was not overloaded. We were constantly traveling very close to maximum axle weights. The tires were provided nearly zero load capacity reserves and in some configurations, tires that were always overloaded. Top that off by traveling right at the 65 MPH maximum tire speed range you can see that the incident of early catastrophic failures was very predictable. By the middle of the second year of traveling we ditched all LRD tires and replaced them with LRE. Our failure rate almost completely disappeared. So, in my opinion, laying 100% of the blame on the GY tires was a misjudgment.
It was common practice by nearly all RV trailer manufacturers to provide OE tires with minimum legal load capacities. I just happened to have a Keystone product.
The rule has not changed, just the manufacturers application of it. Here is official minimum allowed tire load capacity per axle. (The sum of the maximum load ratings of the tires fitted to an axle shall not be less than the GAWR of the axle system as specified on the vehicle's certification label).
Our 5th wheel trailer was one that suffered numerous failures before increasing tire load capacity solved our problems. Our (new) 2003 Keystone Everest 363K had 6000# vehicle certified GAWR axles. The factory installed original equipment (OE) tires were USA made ST235/80R16 LRD GY Marathons. Their maximum load capacity was 3000# at, 65 PSI which is what the placard recommended. Within 9 months we had used all five that came on the trailer because of various failure problems, all had lost their treads and a few blew out when the treads departed. A few trips to some scales showed that we had a single tire position overloaded but the axle was not overloaded. We were constantly traveling very close to maximum axle weights. The tires were provided nearly zero load capacity reserves and in some configurations, tires that were always overloaded. Top that off by traveling right at the 65 MPH maximum tire speed range you can see that the incident of early catastrophic failures was very predictable. By the middle of the second year of traveling we ditched all LRD tires and replaced them with LRE. Our failure rate almost completely disappeared. So, in my opinion, laying 100% of the blame on the GY tires was a misjudgment.
It was common practice by nearly all RV trailer manufacturers to provide OE tires with minimum legal load capacities. I just happened to have a Keystone product.
The rule has not changed, just the manufacturers application of it. Here is official minimum allowed tire load capacity per axle. (The sum of the maximum load ratings of the tires fitted to an axle shall not be less than the GAWR of the axle system as specified on the vehicle's certification label).
