DavidCD

Hi Joe - Oh yeah - I'm up to 10 ply tires now ... all the 8 ply Marathons are gone. These are on a dual axle Puma travel trailer; max gross weight with all the tanks full and carrying a full load of travel gear is approx 11,000 lbs. The Marathons were on the trailer for 2 years before the first one blew out, the other two blew within 500 miles - total travel mileage was less than 10,000 miles. What surprises me is that they all seem to have failed at approximately the same time after only two years of use. I think most people consider tire life to be around 4 years before you need to consider replacing them because of age.

Hey y'all - Within the last 500 travel miles we've had 3 Goodyear Marathon (ST 225/75 R15 - D rated, 8 ply) tire blowouts - these tires were manufactured in May of 2015 and installed in April of 2017. They did not show any unusual wear and the air pressure had just been checked within a week prior to each blowout - total mileage on these tires was less than 10,000 miles. I thought that Goodyear tires were made in the USA but the tire installer replacing the 1st blowout showed me where "Made In China" was stamped (really tiny letters) along the bead of the blown tire. So - what's the deal? - do the Chinese put some sort of catalyst in the rubber that makes it breakdown after two years? So, I guess I got bombed .... 2nd sad story : When the first tire blew out I was able to get it back to the NTB store where I bought it - they told me that Goodyear Marathons were no longer 8 ply - the new Marathons are 6 ply. They said the only Goodyear they had in my size was the E rated, 10 ply Endurance tire so I went with that one. So, a month later we're back on the road - all tires are holding their pressures and otherwise, doing OK. Two days ago, traveling south on US 65, south of Branson, Mo, the other Marathon on the same side (passenger) as the first also blew out! The first blowout was rather explosive and did a lot of damage to the polyethylene lining at the wheel well - this time it, the blowout just trashed the tire. When we got to the campground in Little Rock, the closest tire seller who had 10 ply travel trailer tires was the nearby Walmart; they had Chinese "Hi-Run" tires. I didn't have time to shop around nor, was I in the mood to get tangled up in Little Rock's afternoon traffic so I just went with the Hi-Run - this is when I learned that Goodyear Marathons were also made in China. Next day (yesterday) - back on the road - made it through Texarkana and headed west on I-30 and POW!, a third Marathon blows out - this time, the wheel well fender is blown loose and is sticking out. I tear off the fender and start driving at a crawl on the shoulder - I needed to get off the interstate; traffic was flying by about 2 feet from the side of the trailer and I wasn't going to try to do any tire pulling with all that going on. About a mile down the road, there was another Walmart - so, I managed to get to their tire and automotive shop and told them I needed to replace both tires on the driver's side with some of their 10 ply trailer tires (also Hi-Run brand). The Walmart shop people said they'd be happy to sell me the tires but they could not remove or replace the wheels on the trailer - I would have to pull the wheels myself, they would mount the new tires, and then I would have to put the wheels back on the trailer. I didn't have much choice so, I pulled the trailer into an open spot in their lot, next to the door of the auto service bay and started jacking the trailer and loosening the lug nuts. I had to use a breaker bar to loosen the nuts and one one of the nuts, the socket slipped and my hand struck the edge of the exposed sheet metal where the fender had been. I ended up with a pretty deep cut (down to the bone) and that was the end of my wheel work for the day. We managed to find someone with a local wrecker service who sent a young guy out to pull the wheels and hand them over to the Walmart guys. Luckily, there was an urgent care clinic in a strip mall adjacent to the Walmart so, I went off to get some stitches and my wife stayed with the truck to handle the paper work & payments for the tires and the wrecker service. So - does anybody know what the deal is with Walmart that they can not touch the wheels on a travel trailer? My wife said that when the guy from the wrecker service got the wheels off, the Walmart guys wouldn't touch them until he brought the tires into their work bay. Yesterday was not one of my better days on the road.