recommedations on trailer tires

[ss396s]

I have had Goodyear Marthons... I have heard some people not happy with these. The tires shops near me are recommending Carlisle and Greenball.... Any thoughts?

[wake_fun]

Marathons for me.

[ss396s]

How many miles do you have on them and how old. I have old ones made in New Zealand and a new one from China....

[wake_fun]

I think I bought them in 2003.......at the most 500 miles per year. It's always been stored in an insulated garage, never outside.

[AirTool]

Your best bet is the Marathons.

go to the goodyear site and find the part catalog PDF. IIRC, there are part numbers for foreign and part numbers for Made in USA. Pick the latter and go with those.

The carlisle are generally Chinese and peel like bananas. I don't think you will find green balls in your size if they are 225 or bigger.

[wake_fun]

Your best bet is the Marathons.

go to the goodyear site and find the part catalog PDF. IIRC, there are part numbers for foreign and part numbers for Made in USA. Pick the latter and go with those.

The carlisle are generally Chinese and peel like bananas. I don't think you will find green balls in your size if they are 225 or bigger.

I cannot find that info....??

[AirTool]

I cannot find that info....??

Not good...neither can I.

I'm just seeing a pop up list. I hope that means they are all US and not all China.

I will look from home tonight. Previously, I was able to download a PDF of all the tires and there were either two columns or *'s indicating made in USA vs China.

Maybe just go to your dealer and tell him USA or no deal.

I'll look again later....gotta go.

[east tx skier]

If you search Marathon on tirerack.com, and then hit specs, you can see the country of origin. As of last year, some of the 225s were made in the US. Now, they all list China.

[AirTool]

If you search Marathon on tirerack.com, and then hit specs, you can see the country of origin. As of last year, some of the 225s were made in the US. Now, they all list China.

Not good. We should write a group letter to Goodyear and ask them the cost difference to us to go with USA. Some of you guys are carrying $100k boats. I'm thinking an extra ten or twenty bucks per tire is worth the investment.

Their response is probably... "oh, these are just as good"

[howdy]

Check out Maxxis. Many happy people running them.

[jhiestand]

I've heard a little bit about Greenballs. No direct experience, but there's a good discussion in Airstream regarding them and Carlisles.

My current trailer I have Marathons and haven't had any issues with them in the 10 years I've owned it. Thus far I've only had to replace them once. I probably would be more anal about replacing them if I had a single axle trailer.

Had Carlisles on my previous trailer for a while, but didn't log a ton of miles on them, so I don't know that I can comment.

There's a TON of discussion on one of those OTHER board about the evils of Goodyear Marathons. As indicated earlier, I think a lot of it seems related to US manufactured versus the China ones.

I've read a lot of threads (including in bassboat forums) where guys like Kumho's. I guess there's quite a few options.

Personally, I think properly maintaining whatever tires you end up with is every bit as important as what brand you go with.

[AirTool]

greenball and carlisle were once good trailer tires. I'm pretty sure that most of the 14" and larger tires are now Chinese. Hence the recent rash of blowouts and separations.

Chinese Marathons will soon have the same problems.

[xrichard]

FWIW, I went with Kuhmos on my travel trailer after reading a lot about trailer tires on the RV forums. I don't have enough experience with them to give any meaningful feedback, but they're pretty beefy looking. When I did that, I stepped up a load rating, something that I don't think can hurt.

[east tx skier]

Not good. We should write a group letter to Goodyear and ask them the cost difference to us to go with USA. Some of you guys are carrying $100k boats. I'm thinking an extra ten or twenty bucks per tire is worth the investment.

Their response is probably... "oh, these are just as good"

My current tires are made in the USA and are on their 3rd year. This is where I start to inspect pretty carefully.

As for their likely response, I, too, wish they were still made in the US even though my last set of Marathons were also made in the US and this is what happened to them on their third year with fewer than a couple of thousand miles on them. Turns out, some of the tread separation issues with the Marathons were corrected when GY changed the layup of the tires some time in 2006 or 2007. The other recommendation that was made to me concerning these tires is to go as large as you possibly can with them. I have some big ones on my Dorsey now.


So far, that has worked out. With a single axle trailer, I'm hoping it continues to work out. On my last set, I had one separate at about 65 mph on I-30 while I was towing my MC to St. Louis to its new owner. No damage to boat or trailer, but when I found a GY dealer, it was pointed out to me that the other one was about to do the same thing. By the way, I highly recommend M&M Bumper to Bumper on State Line Road in Texarkana. Changing a trailer tire on the side of the free way with a spring over axle setup stinks!