I was driving home from Alabama and noticed a bad vibration in the trailer. I stopped and made sure the boat was on correctly, tire pressure, etc. When I got home, I noticed the left tire was warped, tread was uneven, and there was a bubble. Dang lucky it didn
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Jim B
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Teri,
In my opinion the Good Year is as good a trailer tire as you will find anywhere( and i othertise hate good year tires). It sounds to me like your issue was caused by under inflation more then anything else. Under inflation seems to be the cause of most of the trailer tire issues i have ever read about. Under inflation + speed = tread seperation a lot of the time, think ford explorer and firestone tires.
The trick is check the pressure EVERY time you hook up the trailer to the truck and keep it at 50PSI cold. Also get them balanced when you get onew ones, they will travel down the road smoother regardless of what the tire guy tells you.
For me i have towed a lot of miles on good year marathons for a number a years and i have never had a blowout. I think the tires on my 882 trailer were darn near having 75k on them and the still looked good when i traded in the boat. I have had flats from running over screws and stuff but never an outright failure.
In my opinion the Good Year is as good a trailer tire as you will find anywhere( and i othertise hate good year tires). It sounds to me like your issue was caused by under inflation more then anything else. Under inflation seems to be the cause of most of the trailer tire issues i have ever read about. Under inflation + speed = tread seperation a lot of the time, think ford explorer and firestone tires.
The trick is check the pressure EVERY time you hook up the trailer to the truck and keep it at 50PSI cold. Also get them balanced when you get onew ones, they will travel down the road smoother regardless of what the tire guy tells you.
For me i have towed a lot of miles on good year marathons for a number a years and i have never had a blowout. I think the tires on my 882 trailer were darn near having 75k on them and the still looked good when i traded in the boat. I have had flats from running over screws and stuff but never an outright failure.
Texas Transplant
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I'm with Jim, you need to pay close attention to the pressure and all of the other things on this.
Tex
Tex
Max Neathamer2
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I agree with what everyone said however, another issue for tire wear is when your trailer has sit for 6 months without moving (during the winter months), leaving in time, a flat spot. It may not happen the first couple of years however, in time, the weight of that boat will put a lot of pressure on those tires esp in the winter when the tire pressure will drop a couple of lbs. As far as marathons go, Great tires. I replaced mine the winter before last. The tires I had on there were 11 tears old. Never a prob with them. Tires will start breaking down at around 7 years. Sure, they will last as long as mine did if you take care of them i.e, proper tire presuure, check for wear, etc, but after 7 years, your on borrowed time..
Max
Max
Jim B
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Good point Max, something i never gave much thought too. I always put mine up on blocks for the winter so thats never bee na problem for me. I also bought a cheap set of RV tire covers to keep the sun off them whils its sitting years ago and they work great.
Teri, run them at 50psi. The tires are designed to carry thier rated weight at 50psi. When you srop the pressure you also drop how much weight the tire can carry. The size you have is rated at 1870# @50psi. That means the total trailer weight the tires can carry is 3740# total if the tires are at 50psi. Im not sure what your Ranger weighs but my Z7 is about 3500# fully loaded(the cert that came with it said 3250#, the extra is gear) so there isnt a lot of buffer there before the tire may be overloaded.
I wouldnt worry too much about the speed, 70-75 isnt going to hurt much except your wallet. I have towed up to triple digits before but i generally try to keep it at 65. My truck does ~30% better on gas at 65 then it does at 70.
Teri, run them at 50psi. The tires are designed to carry thier rated weight at 50psi. When you srop the pressure you also drop how much weight the tire can carry. The size you have is rated at 1870# @50psi. That means the total trailer weight the tires can carry is 3740# total if the tires are at 50psi. Im not sure what your Ranger weighs but my Z7 is about 3500# fully loaded(the cert that came with it said 3250#, the extra is gear) so there isnt a lot of buffer there before the tire may be overloaded.
I wouldnt worry too much about the speed, 70-75 isnt going to hurt much except your wallet. I have towed up to triple digits before but i generally try to keep it at 65. My truck does ~30% better on gas at 65 then it does at 70.
Jim B
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There are still USA made marathons available, you just need a good tire shop and be specific about what you want. I jsut got two for a guy in my club about a month back from my tire guy and he got USA made ones just like mine.
Personally i dont think i would run a Carlsile on my lawn mower trailer after seeing what my dad when thru with them on his utility trailer. He had tread seperations happen 4 times in a one year span on a trailer that was never once overloaded and would go on 3-5 mile trips to home depot or to the recycle center. He had them on his old 17' 4 winns F&S trailer too and had nothing but grief with them there as well. In both cases Marathons cured the issue.
Here is a pic of the type of stuff that happened to him, this tire was ~2 months old, driven on maybe 30 miles and never had more then 500# loaded onto the trailer it was on. This tire was rated for 1870#. It failed for no good reason in an instant catastrophic failure.
Personally i dont think i would run a Carlsile on my lawn mower trailer after seeing what my dad when thru with them on his utility trailer. He had tread seperations happen 4 times in a one year span on a trailer that was never once overloaded and would go on 3-5 mile trips to home depot or to the recycle center. He had them on his old 17' 4 winns F&S trailer too and had nothing but grief with them there as well. In both cases Marathons cured the issue.
Here is a pic of the type of stuff that happened to him, this tire was ~2 months old, driven on maybe 30 miles and never had more then 500# loaded onto the trailer it was on. This tire was rated for 1870#. It failed for no good reason in an instant catastrophic failure.
Chris F.
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Checked today for the price on Marathons, $162 where I live. Chris F.
Berry Lindley
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Teri, your Marathons are $126 special order at Sams.
TOMMY RICH
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Got Carlisles on mine now and no probs after 5 years...need to be replaced.
Eric Aasen
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Underinflated tires have more rolling resistance and have dramatically increased heat build-up. It is the single most common reason for tire blow-outs. I blew out the right tire on my Nitro trailer (Marathon) and when I checked the left tire it was only at 40 PSI. Marathons are good tires but they need to be kept at the recommended inflation. As for the speed rating, that is true, they they are only rated to 65. In CA the speed limit while towing is 55 so I never go over 60 but if you are traveling 70-75 MPH with trailer tires, they will heat up significantly but as long as they are inflated correctly, I doubt running them faster would hurt them.
NoCAL
NoCAL
