Our 5'er has been sitting in the AZ sun for 18 months and we need new tires before we head home, cross-country, for Maine. Our RV guy in Maine recommended we buy Goodyear Marathons for replacements. But reading elsewhere on-line, it seems that even Goodyear tires are made in China now.....and possibly prone to destructive blow-outs. Has anyone bought Marathons in the last couple of years and, if so, what has been your experience with them? Our local AZ Discount Tire dealer is trying to sell us Carlisle tires; but when we go on-line, there are 3-5 pages of negative comments about problems with these tires. Help!! What do you recommend for very hot, cross-country, driving conditions? Are Marathons good, even though they are made in China now?
QUOTE(MaineDon @ May 21 2012, 12:25 AM) [snapback]29558[/snapback] Our 5'er has been sitting in the AZ sun for 18 months and we need new tires before we head home, cross-country, for Maine. Our RV guy in Maine recommended we buy Goodyear Marathons for replacements. But reading elsewhere on-line, it seems that even Goodyear tires are made in China now.....and possibly prone to destructive blow-outs. Has anyone bought Marathons in the last couple of years and, if so, what has been your experience with them? Our local AZ Discount Tire dealer is trying to sell us Carlisle tires; but when we go on-line, there are 3-5 pages of negative comments about problems with these tires. Help!! What do you recommend for very hot, cross-country, driving conditions? Are Marathons good, even though they are made in China now? Marathons are junk. If you are towing heavy, ( you didn't mention the size or weight of your rig ), the G614 are the only tire from Goodyear to use. Personally, I use LT tires. After my blow out, I bought 5 Hankook all steel LT tires. I am heavy, pushing 16,000 pretty hard. Thee tires weigh 3 times more than the ST's I took off. Plus they are rated for 85 mph instead of 65 mph.
QUOTE(MaineDon @ May 21 2012, 08:35 AM) [snapback]29562[/snapback] Our 5'er is a Rockwood, Signature Ultra Light, 27 feet, loaded about 7500 lbs. I would go with a D Rated LT tire.Not made in China.
I have had issues with trailer tires too in the past. I put 4 new Goodyear tires on the trailer last year before my trip to Maine. I have over 5000 miles on the tires with no issues and they still look new. I am still surprise at how well the tires have held up. These are the first tires that have not worn funny. The tires I bought before the Goodyear barely made a 3500 mile trip. I am very happy with my Goodyear tires. I pull a 30 ft Colorado Dutchmen loaded about 7000 lbs.
Had Carlyle tires on my tow dolly and they were not even radial tires. Rated for a tire life of 1000 miles. I replaced them Carlyle radial tires and they seem to be doing better. I would not have gone with Carlyle except I was in place and that was all they had.
We put 23K in 34 states on a set of new Carlyle Radials on our Rockwood 30' Fifth Wheel. Not a single issue.
QUOTE(hoefler @ May 21 2012, 06:28 AM) [snapback]29560[/snapback] Marathons are junk. If you are towing heavy, ( you didn't mention the size or weight of your rig ), the G614 are the only tire from Goodyear to use. Personally, I use LT tires. After my blow out, I bought 5 Hankook all steel LT tires. I am heavy, pushing 16,000 pretty hard. Thee tires weigh 3 times more than the ST's I took off. Plus they are rated for 85 mph instead of 65 mph. I agree with hoefler. We just made a trip from Florida to Ohio and blew three Goodyear Marathons along the way. Goodyear credited each time due to so many problems with this tire. Prior to 2007 it is hard to find a bad post about them but after 2007 when they were out sourced to China you can't find anything good said about them. Our tires came on our rv new in 2010. We have kept them inflated at 80# cold and they all had less than 5,000 miles when they came apart. We too are looking at what is available so we can replace the Marathons before our return trip South this fall. I know of one person who replaced Marathons on their rv with the Goodyear G6 14 LT235/85 R16 which supposedly have a heavier side wall. Problem is he doesn't tow near as much as I do so I am hesitant about another Goodyear brand that the jury is still out on. I think that the G6 14 is made in the U.S.A. so it does have that much going for it.
I put Michelin ribs on my fiver (probably around 13,000 lbs) two years ago and have had no trouble. I have them filled with nitrogen and keep them around 80#. Only drawback of the nitro is you need to go somewhere that has it to have them topped off, but they do hold their pressure well. Not cheap, but dependable.
Saw this thread that I started last May roll around again, so thought I'd share an update. We ended up buying 10-ply Maxxis tires for the RV, which were pretty pricey. We made it from Arizona to Maine, but not without a blowout on the Trans Canada highway near Ottawa. In the process, we crushed the wheel bearing, whose repair delayed us even more. Maxxis tires are apparently not available in Canada (or so we were told); so we now have 3 Maxxis and one Carlisle on the 5'er. Don't know what the implications of this might be, but we finally "limped" home to Maine with the mismatch.
