Road trip and two blow outs on Goodyear Marathons

[Spade_Cooley]

A year and a half ago I bought new Goodyear Marathons (14 inch "D" rated) for my 27 Foot Crossroads Sunset Trail TT. I took a couple of trips on them putting on around 8K. I recently took a trip to Idaho to visit family and the tires looked fine. I had kept them under cover and aired them up to the desired 50 psi. The trailer had also been stored up on jack stands. On my second day out I have a blow out on the left front of the travel trailer on I 80 near York, NE. I change it and go to my nearest Walmart to get a new tire. I have it changed and the next day north of Ogden, UT I have another blow out on the other side. I end up spending the night in the Walmart parking lot awaiting the opening of the tire shop the next day when I got all the tires replaced. I'm now riding on four new Good Year Marathons because that was the only trailer tire they carry.

During my trip which is now over I have four lousy unsafe tires on my trailer. Before I take another long trip I will remove the Good Year Marathons, "D" rated trailer tires and replace then with either a truck tire or get a better quality "E" rated trailer tire. The tires came apart just like a cheap re-cap tire. Any ideas on what I should switch to?

[Charley67]

I have had bad experiences with Marathons, but may try Endurances next tire change.

[Ohio_Engineer]

Vintage465 wrote:
It is interesting all the different issues with trailer tires. One thing is for sure. They have been historically bad in most cases. My trailer came with and still has Goodyear Marathons 205's in 14" with the "C" rating. I have pulled it some where around 20,000 miles and I'm having good success. I'm pretty religious about keeping the pressure at 50psig, but I do cook down the road at 65-75 mph depending on the speed limit. Looking at the spec's on the Maxxis, I'd say in a like for like size, in my case the 205-14's the Good year Endurance is going to win the comparison with me as it is a Load Range D and not C. Although, I have to say, I've read nothing but good print on the latest Maxxis. One thing I haven't done is tow at very high ambient temps. Most of my long distance driving has been in the fall and winter.

GY Marathons have a MAX speed rating of 65 mph (this is like engine redline)

Belt separation (pealing) is a sign of excess heat in the tire structure. High Speed can be the root cause.

[Spade_Cooley]

When I was running my Marathons and had my blowouts where they delaminated I was pulling a 6,000 trailer (5K empty) at between 60 and 63 mph. It was a hot day, around 90 degrees. I lost two Marathons in three days. I think Good Year discontinued them after numerous similar complaints.

Let me use an old Military expression, " I would rather have a sister working in a house of ill repute than a brother running a set of Marathons on his trailer.

[Crabbypatty]

How fast were you driving and was the trailer overloaded? Marathons are rated for 65mph. If you drive faster and are heavy they heat up. That said perhaps one of them may have been defective but two? I just replaced all four shoes with the Good Year Endurance. Load range E speed rated 80 mph. Just came back from a trip and they are designed to run cooler and they were as I checked them at fill ups and when I stopped.

Blowouts could be from multiple causes. Debris in the road, underinflation, driving to fast, to heavy or overloaded.

PS I had two sets of Marathons on my prior TT and never had an issue other than I wore them out. I liked the tire. I would have put than on this TT but they offered a upgraded version the Endurance, so thats what I did. The cost difference was negligible.

[SoundGuy]

Grit dog wrote:
If you could care less then why are you so interested in it?

I'm not, never have owned a set, never will, but I do find it fascinating how so many are so willing to trash a product without substantiated evidence to that effect, based only on their own personal experience. If 3/4 of the millions of Marathon tires manufactured over the years failed you'd have something but saying 3/4 of those you owned failed and are therefore the product is junk is a meaningless statement, particularly when there are and will always be so many variables involved in any tire failure. Your feeble attempt at being dramatic isn't selling, especially to those many Marathon owners who haven't had any issues at all, as also posted in this very thread.

[Grit_dog]

SoundGuy wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Sound guy, it's ok, even Goodyear thinks they're no good. You don't have to defend them.

"Defend them"? Nah, I could care less, never owned any Marathons, never will obviously, I'm just amused at how readily others are willing to trash a product without knowing the full facts of the matter. Human nature I guess, certainly here on the forums. :R

Dude, seriously. I just said 3/4 of those tires I owned or had a trailer with spit their tread out like a bad re cap. And I'm not the only one. Happy for the people who didn't have that issue but they are/were bad tires. Nothing more nothing less.
If you could care less then why are you so interested in it?

[Atlee]

Too early to know if the GY Endurance is as good an any ST tire out there. Not enough long term use, yet.

I do hope they will be as good as advertised. They came OEM on my Jayco 23RB.

time2roll wrote:
The GY Endurance is as good as any ST and far better than most IMO.
Still possible to have a road hazard.
Great to read that they made good on the tires for you.

[time2roll]

The GY Endurance is as good as any ST and far better than most IMO.
Still possible to have a road hazard.
Great to read that they made good on the tires for you.

[SoundGuy]

Grit dog wrote:
Sound guy, it's ok, even Goodyear thinks they're no good. You don't have to defend them.

"Defend them"? Nah, I could care less, never owned any Marathons, never will obviously, I'm just amused at how readily others are willing to trash a product without knowing the full facts of the matter. Human nature I guess, certainly here on the forums. :R

[hawkeye-08]

Glad it turned out right.. thanks for updating us.

[Spade_Cooley]

The End of the story.

After calling the Good Year Customer Service they set me up with a Corp. Good Year store and refunded the money I spent on the C rated Good Year Marathons. I paid for the upgrade to the new Good Year ST "D" rated tire that is made in the USA. The new tire is heavy duty (8ply rated) and takes 65 psi that requires a stronger tire valve. I'm happy with my new purchase.

The Good Year Mgr. thought the Marathons were great tires and most of the fault was due to owners running over objects or storing them in plastic bags. When he spoke with the same Customer Service Rep. he was advised the Marathons are discontinued due to delamination problems.

Walmart needs to take them off the shelf and supply the new ST tire like I have.

[Grit_dog]

Sound guy, it's ok, even Goodyear thinks they're no good. You don't have to defend them. They're just tires....
My personal data is 3 trailers, 4 sets of Marathons, and about 10 of the 16 tires lost their tread.
Compared to countless other trailers and tires with no set pattern and no d lamination and far fewer tire failures and not the same repeatble failure mode.

[JIMNLIN]

Towmax or blowmax as victims call them....Carlisle Radial Trail ST tires....Westlake ST....Marathon and a dozen other ST tire makers all have their supporters that swear their brand the best...but slowly they all are redesigning their new tires for more reliability......nylon caps under the tread.....higher speed rating.....dumping the rounded sidewall......better tread designs.....Flatter tread..... better quality internal materials according to company pr.
Carlisle HD replacing the old Radial Trail and Goodyears Endurance replacing the Marathons are prime examples.

Like the Ford Explorer bad air pressure advice and faulty Firestone tire victims said to those that had no problems.....be thankful.

[Hannibal]

I got seven years out of the last set of Marathons on our previous 5th wheel. Noticed a very slight bulge in one and replace all five. Then two years later traded for a TT. When the Chinese brand tires get a little age on them, I might give the Goodyears another go or try the Carlisles. I've seen old Carlisles worn down to the belts and still working hard.