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agesilaus's avatar
agesilaus
Explorer III
Nov 28, 2020

Strange advice

I finally got around to looking at the latest Escapee magazine. They have a help columnist in it and he was asked this question(paraphrased):
"We have a giant fiver with four slideouts. We drive six hours a day at 70 mph on the Interstates on GY Marathon tires. We had two blowouts in one day! What is our problem??"
Now looking at this I see two glaring issues myself but the help guy saw another third issue: get your fiver weighed. Now I admit that is general good advice but the fact that the Escapees seem to run a weighing operation may have crept into his thoughts.
What do you guys think, good advice or not.
Seeking Advice
  • Lwiddis's avatar
    Lwiddis
    Explorer II
    Nov 28, 2020
    I don’t believe that Escapees is making a huge fortune on weighing RVs. Good advice.
  • enblethen's avatar
    enblethen
    Nomad
    Nov 28, 2020
    Very great advise! Then compare with the rig's weight chart that should be in the rig.Don't go by online spec sheets as they are for selling information.
  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Nov 28, 2020
    enblethen wrote:
    Very great advise! Then compare with the rig's weight chart that should be in the rig.Don't go by online spec sheets as they are for selling information.


    Right what about the known bad tires: Marathons and driving at 70mph on ST tires.
  • valhalla360's avatar
    valhalla360
    Navigator
    Nov 28, 2020
    agesilaus wrote:
    enblethen wrote:
    Very great advise! Then compare with the rig's weight chart that should be in the rig.Don't go by online spec sheets as they are for selling information.


    Right what about the known bad tires: Marathons and driving at 70mph on ST tires.


    Need a baseline of what you are dealing with first.

    70mph on ST tires is not an automatic blowout by any stretch of the imagination.

    Find out what it weighs first. Far more likely an overweight situation, especially on a full timer.
  • C_Schomer's avatar
    C_Schomer
    Explorer
    Nov 28, 2020
    Age has been the biggest factor for my ST tires. I had a triple axle cargo trailer and the tires were two years and two months old and all six of them shredded within a 30 mile stretch. I never got more than four years and two months out of ST tires on my fifth wheels. All of those trailers had either 5200 pound or 6000 pound axles and 16 inch wheels so I switched all of them to LT tires and no more problems. The current Cooper’s on my fifth wheel are seven years old and they Still look like new. Craig
  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Nov 28, 2020
    Age has been the biggest factor for my ST tires.


    How long ago did GY stop selling those Marathons? It seems like several years if not more. Well a check on that shows that they are still making and selling the Marathons. I thought they moved to Endurance or some such tires. I dumped mine for LT tires like you did.
  • Lynnmor's avatar
    Lynnmor
    Explorer
    Nov 28, 2020
    Driving a huge trailer too fast on cheap Chinese tires of unknown age, carrying unknown weight, what could possibly go wrong?
  • naturist's avatar
    naturist
    Nomad
    Nov 28, 2020
    Lynnmor wrote:
    Driving a huge trailer too fast on cheap Chinese tires of unknown age, carrying unknown weight, what could possibly go wrong?


    X2

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