Goodyear Marathon Tires

I had a set of marathons (USA Made) on my previous trailer and now have a set of Marathons (USA made) on my current trailer. Previous trailer went over 30,000 miles over five years and the current trailer has seen 20,000 miles over four years. So far no blow outs and no trailer damage. Will be looking for new tires after they see their fifth birthday.

I did have one blow out when the current trailer was new with China bombs on it. $800 worth of damage only 10 miles away from the selling dealer. All I got from Duro tire was $90 to buy another Duro tire.

I would trust the newest China Marathons made in the last 18 months but the first go in China seems to have produced a lot of trouble. And of course you hear a lot of GY issues because they sell far more tires than most.

Horseman120247 wrote:


I know this has been beat before, but I purchased a 2011 40 foot Jayco Pinnacle. It came with 235-80-16 load range E Goodtear Marathon tires (dated 2010).

I am pursuing this through Goodyear and would appreciate knowing of tire failures of the same size and approximate age and mileage.

Jayco has a bad habit of equipping their 5th wheel trailers with tires that meet the *minimum* spec for dry weight. Bean counters saving bucks at (ultimately) your expense!

Got that info from a friendly Jayco factory rep when I was replacing the USA mfg Goodyear 235/80/16 LR D Marathon "Balloons" on my 34' Jayco Designer with XPS Ribs.
As a poster suggested you prob should have G rated tires and 17" rims (wheels).

For a "plethora" of Goodyear Marathon Failures.....just use the search feature on the 5th Wheel forum.
Enter: Marathons", "Goodyear Marathon", "Goodyear Failures", "Marathon Blowouts", - or other descriptive term.

If you do that for the current year - then on posts over 12 months old, you should have lots and lots and *LOTS* of reading & documentation..:W

You see posters (here) that state they have driven to the moon and back with their Marathons - but look at their sigs. Usually the tires are on light TTs. (I had one of those and 8 y/o Marathons were going strong when I finally replaced them.)

However......a lengthy thread -(50 pages and over 650 posts)- on GY Marathon failures on *Travel Trailers* , ran for *five* (5) years can be found on the Airstream Forums - with a poll at the conclusion.

"Goodyear Marathon Failures"

Catchy thread title, huh?..:W..:B

~

A couple of thoughts:

Horseman120247 wrote:
.......When these tires blow the whole tread and center section atre coming off and the only thing left on the rim is the two side wall discs.....

If the only thing left is the 2 sidewalls, then those are air loss type failures - commonly called a "RunFlat". If you had the tread, you'd find the puncture. Needless to say, punctures are random type things and not the fault of the tire.

Oh and for those who say that it is impossible for 4 tires to have this in a short time - I've estimated the risk of a single individual vehicle having 4 punctures in a month as 0.017% - and since there are about 225 million vehicles in the US, then that's just under 4,000 people who will experience that this year. Unfortunately, Horseman seems to be one of those people.

Nevertheless, I would recommend that ALL failures be reported to NHTSA. They will not launch any investigations unless there are a substantial number of failures being reported.

I'd also recommend that Goodyear be contacted. They will want to have the tire(s) for examination. Contact them even if you don't have the tires. They aren't going to fix anything without a substantial number of reports.

And lastly, I'd recommend the trailer be weighed - Worst case condition (with everything one can think of on board, including full water tanks.) It's best if each tire is weighed (or calculated), but if not, I'd use a 10% value if the vehicle is weighed by axle, and 15% if all axles are weighed at the same time. Compare that to the load carrying capacity of the tires (and I think tires shouldn't be loaded to more than 85% of their rated capacity).

Was talking to a Ryder truck tech the other day. Here is what I learned. Most trailer tires that lose their treads, do so, not because of air pressure, or heat, or any of the things we talk about a lot. They lose their treads because of curbing. Meaning they are dragged over curbs, or they hit curbs with their side walls. Tires hitting curbs with their sidewall. Cause the belts, and wires in the side walls to break, and when they do, they separate.

So IF you hit curbs a lot, Your tires are more likely to separate. Remedy. Swing out farther, give them plenty of room. IF you have to hit a curb. If possible. Hit it straight on, and not from the side. If you can't get into Hardee's with out going over the curb. Don't go.

Terryallan wrote:
Was talking to a Ryder truck tech the other day. Here is what I learned. Most trailer tires that lose their treads, do so, not because of air pressure, or heat, or any of the things we talk about a lot. They lose their treads because of curbing. Meaning they are dragged over curbs, or they hit curbs with their side walls. Tires hitting curbs with their sidewall. Cause the belts, and wires in the side walls to break, and when they do, they separate.

So IF you hit curbs a lot, Your tires are more likely to separate. Remedy. Swing out farther, give them plenty of room. IF you have to hit a curb. If possible. Hit it straight on, and not from the side. If you can't get into Hardee's with out going over the curb. Don't go.

I'm thinking rental trucks hit about 10000 more curbs than the typical rv does. The claim makes sense in his usage, but maybe not so much in ours.

These are tread separations. Happens quite often with Chinese ST tires. They don't need punctures. They don't need to be hopped over curbs. They need better construction methods and/or materials. It seems many try to make excuses, or rationalize why they do NOT last. It is just that they are not up to the task.

I have had several tires go down like that. Never jumped a curb. And two of them had the tread wrapped around the suspension. And yes...I looked closely at them. No punctures. Just the ends of the treads that have come apart. And off they go. The tires have not gone flat until later. On one tire, it never did go flat. And still had 80# of air. But still the tread was off it. And yes...that was a second gen Chinese Marathon. LRE ST.

RVUSA wrote:

Terryallan wrote:
Was talking to a Ryder truck tech the other day. Here is what I learned. Most trailer tires that lose their treads, do so, not because of air pressure, or heat, or any of the things we talk about a lot. They lose their treads because of curbing. Meaning they are dragged over curbs, or they hit curbs with their side walls. Tires hitting curbs with their sidewall. Cause the belts, and wires in the side walls to break, and when they do, they separate.

So IF you hit curbs a lot, Your tires are more likely to separate. Remedy. Swing out farther, give them plenty of room. IF you have to hit a curb. If possible. Hit it straight on, and not from the side. If you can't get into Hardee's with out going over the curb. Don't go.

I'm thinking rental trucks hit about 10000 more curbs than the typical rv does. The claim makes sense in his usage, but maybe not so much in ours.

Just giving some of the reasons. It really does not take but once to break the wires, and belts. And It's not a truck rental place. They take care of trucking fleets. And those are professional drivers. I'm betting a lot of weekend warriors drag over curbs a lot more than the pros do.


I do agree GoodYears suk