Tires

[gbaglo]

Nah. Too much competition.
100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Not all of it cats.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

I am a little disappointed that the video didn't actually show the trailer's behaviour...

Originally Posted by J Mac

How could that be done?

With so many dash cams in use, I thought it might turn out to include video from a vehicle that happened to be behind the trailer. There are dramatic videos out there of trailers swaying out of control or falling over in crosswinds. In hindsight, blowouts seem to be quite uneventful so there wouldn't be much to see from behind.

[Grant & Kathy]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Grant, you shudda been there last year! I know of two 19' that were put up for sale (at the park) as soon as the owners saw the new 21'

Donna D.

Last year this time I still had the 38 foot 5th wheel (without Goodyear tires) and wasn't thinking about getting a small trailer.

Who knows maybe once I see an Escape 21 in person, maybe I will change my mind about what I want.

Grant

[LeonW]

on another thread, AZJACK said:

Originally Posted by azjack

The thread on tires I read with interest as I paid an extra $50 per tire (5) to have Reace and company install 5 Goodyear Marathons. I had new Marathons on an Airstream 20 years ago and no problems, I had various import names on a Casita 17 later and lost several treads, one on a LA freeway with a very high dollar car following me, no damage except a lot of black to clean off the trailer. With the Casita I then switched to LT tires and no more problems. My 19 had Goodyears and no problems for 3 years and a lot of miles. I felt the cost was worth it to buy another set for the 21 as I do run at the speed limits up and down hill

Have other folks done this? We have Marathons on our 17B, and I have been very happy with them. I know that there are many google hits about problems with both Goodyear Marathons and Carlisle tires. Interestingly, all of the hits seem to be a couple years old or older. Perhaps this is one those topics that has as many opinions as there are members of the forum.

[escape artist]

Hi: Leon W... The only problem we had with Marathon Radial tires in 6 yrs. of towing, wasn't the tires but the valve stems. In 2007 the Chinese valve stem maker put 13-15 million stems on the market all without any UV protection in the compound.
When I heard this I checked mine and all 3 were badly cracked. I towed to my tire dealer and he changed them for $10. each. No problems, but because of this I believe a lot of tires got a bad wrap. Usually when a tire goes flat or a blowout occurs it's a bad tire. No one checks the weakest link in the chain!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[thoer]

I can now confirm that the much reported sidewall blowout problem with Marathons appeared on our 2010 17B. I had hoped we were impervious to the Marathon sidewall problems as we are quite a long way under their load limit and that maybe Goodyear had solved the problem before ours were made.

We were driving about 60 mph, temp about 70F, fairly light load, tires inflated at 47 psi before we left that morning. Tires have less than 20K total miles on them.

We had been driving for about 1.5 hours, when I heard a noise like we went over a rumble strip, looked in rear view mirror and saw the trailer tipped to one side, looked in outside rear mirror and saw smoke pouring out of the wheel well. The trailer did not swerve at all and I easily immediately pulled over to the shoulder, ran back to find a smoking mess of rubber. The entire tread has come off in one piece right where the sidewall meets the tread. (see photos) With the assistance of the nice folks across the road and a young sheriff deputy who luckily came along and used his flashing lights to protect me as I took off the carcass and put on the spare.

Last year I put spray on bedliner in the wheel well and I think it greatly helped prevent any damage to the fiberglass.

So, my current plan is to go with new Carlisle Radial Trail RH slightly larger ST215/75R14 rather than the stock 205's. I am assuming that the slight size increase should present no clearance problems? Anyone made a similar size change? I will also need to replace the rims with 6" width rather than the stock 5.5"

[dave macrae]

Yikes . Glad to here you made it off the road safely and with no damage to the trailer.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by dave macrae

Yikes . Glad to here you made it off the road safely and with no damage to the trailer.

Thanks Dave - me too!! Sure gets ones heart racing.

[Seef]

Sjeessshhh, that's more than enough to rise one's stress level.

Glad no one got hurt.

Have fun!

Severinus and Yvonne

[fudge_brownie]

Eric,
Good information. With the earlier theme of valve stems, did that have anything to do with it? Not sure there is enough tire left to make a determination but it appears the valve stem hole is empty.

How about the rim? Is that salvageable?

[thoer]

Originally Posted by fudge_brownie

Eric,
Good information. With the earlier theme of valve stems, did that have anything to do with it? Not sure there is enough tire left to make a determination but it appears the valve stem hole is empty.

How about the rim? Is that salvageable?

Paul,

As you say there is nothing left of the valve stem, but my guess is that even if it went, this is not a typical way the tire would be destroyed from that going. We had stopped probably 30-45 minutes before the failure for lunch and my normal tire kick check of both tires sounded as they always to. (Mary says maybe I kicked it too hard ) Again, my guess is that the stem got destroyed by all that flailing rubber. But I am surely no tire expert - would take someone with much more knowledge then me to make a real determination. The way it failed does seems to closely match descriptions I have found in the web about the Marathon sidewall failure. It reminds me of the old days of retreads doing something quite like this.

Rim is hard to tell yet with all the melted rubber. But if I move to 215 tires I will need to replace them with 6" wide one anyway.

[fudge_brownie]

I remember reading about all the Marathon tire issues on the Casita forum. It actually got depressing after awhile. I will say it does not appear as great a problem on this forum, the Marathon tires, not the depression. I recall it was not limited to Casita's, as other models of trailers also experienced problems.

You are just passing your fourth anniversary with the tires, I believe the current recommendation is replacing between 5 and 7 years depending on how much hot weather driving you do. You were going to face new tires anyway, you just need a better way to get notified. Glad to hear how the trailer and tow handled the failure.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by thoer

I can now confirm that the much reported sidewall blowout problem with Marathons appeared on our 2010 17B.

Thanks for the report!

Originally Posted by thoer

The trailer did not swerve at all and I easily immediately pulled over to the shoulder...

I see that this is another confirmation that tandem axles are not needed to handle tire failures.

Originally Posted by thoer

So, my current plan is to go with new Carlisle Radial Trail RH slightly larger ST215/75R14 rather than the stock 205's.
...
I will also need to replace the rims with 6" width rather than the stock 5.5"

While the wheel width change would be suitable, I don't see it as needed. The allowed rim width for Goodyear Marathon ST215/75R14 is 5.5" to 7.0", so the original wheels would still be within the allowed range.

If you are changing wheels you could go wider for better stability (especially on a single-axle), so 6.5" might be an even better choice... although there usually isn't much choice in rim width in "trailer wheels", and 14" x 6.5" may not be available. A wider wheel will pull the tire out a bit wider, so clearance does need to be checked (but you're going wider and so need to check anyway).

[thoer]

I've emailed Reace to ask him if the 6" rims with the 215's will present any clearance issues in his opinion. I know he is more than a little busy with refridge issues along with all his ordinary busy, but I will report back when I do hear from him.

[rbryan4]

That's scary. Would the stock tires be a better choice? We hadn't planned to change it.

[LeonW]

Eric, sorry to hear about the tire failure, but glad to hear that you and Mary and Blue are all ok. Did the spray-on Bed liner come out of it ok, or will you have to re-apply?

[thoer]

Originally Posted by LeonW

Eric, sorry to hear about the tire failure, but glad to hear that you and Mary and Blue are all ok. Did the spray-on Bed liner come out of it ok, or will you have to re-apply?

Leon -Thanks. From the quick look I have had at it, the spray on liner seems to have survived amazingly well. There is some melted rubber stuck into it. I will have to inspect it more, and may decide to give it another coat.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

That's scary. Would the stock tires be a better choice? We hadn't planned to change it.

I think that Reace now uses 15" on the 17's so they should have loads of extra capacity if that is the case.

[LeonW]

we got 15s on our 17, but it was an extra charge then. Not sure if that is still the case. It would make sense for ETI to move to a single tire size, just to simplify the inventory.

By the way, when we were doing the build sheet for the Skylark, I asked if it was possible to get Marathon tires. I know at least one other forum member paid $50.00 additional per tire to get them. But ETI no longer has any Marathon's in stock, so everyone gets Carlisle tires.

[azjack]

As I stated much earlier, when our 17' Casita was going through tires of off name, I took two wheels to the store and bought two name brand LT tires and the problem went away. I also have been using good name LT tires for 20 years on a smaller single axle car/motorcycle trailer and I have only changed them for age. I also check pressure and hub temps frequently. Our Marathons on the 19 and now the 21 have been very good to us for many miles, although a tandem axle will allow me to reach the next off ramp if I have a tire problem.
Jack