TKW wrote:
Thermoguy wrote:
I thought I could get away with my 7 year old Marathon tires this year as well. Found out that I couldn't. 2 of the 4 had major bulges and had to be removed on the spot. One blew on a trip, but I can blame that on the shackels braking and not the tire. But, the point is, and everyone on here will tell you, 7 years is too long for a trailer tire.
Where are your 2 bad tires located? The one failed on mine is at the right front side and the diagonally opposing one also showed signs of belt separation. The other 2 still looks good with a bit of tread left.
Everyone here is talking about replacing trailer tires every 7 years. My last set of Marathon still looked good after 19 years when I sold off my last TT as a reclamation project. These Marathon were made in Canada in the '90 though. We didn't travel enough to wear them down
to get new tires. We keep the pressure up on every trip, park at home out of the sun and keep an close eye on them for dry rot or uneven wear pattern.
Trailer tires dry out from the inside out. Tread life is never an issue unless you are a full-timer that likes to travel. I thought I could go one last season with my Marathon tires - new in 2013 - I was wrong... I had a blowout on the road. 1 of the other tires showed separation and had a small bubble on it. After repair and replace with my spare and a new tire, I had 2 Marathon tires still on the trailer, put one on each side. After driving home, one of the tires had a huge bulge on it, surprised it didn't blow. Changed it out. When I got new tires, they showed me the other one had signs of separation. So, all 4 tires had separation. Moral of the story, they were done - period... I should have changed them out before the season not waited until after. Simple as that. By the way, tread like looks great - other than the belt separation...
