Ed,
Up till now I have had nothing but Goodyear Marathons since the mid 80's,
with Goodyear bias ply LT tires before that. I have had good luck with them,
but for various reasons the Marathons were always replaced after about 3
years. I pulled the current tires of the trailer yesterday. They are 4 years
old. While they have plenty of tread and no signs of dry rot, the tread has
worn "funky". The tread is not at all flat across the tread surface but it
bulges out in two strips all the way around the tire, sort of like this
)
)
With the right side being the side that contacts the road. That and each of
the sidewalls buldge out in 5 or 6 areas. They do not exude any sort of
confidence. Even without the bad press that Marathons have gotten I would
not put these things back on my trailer. They have ALWAYS been properly
inflated, ALWAYS ran cool, have never been overloaded or otherwise abused.
The only "abuse" they have seen is that we ocassionally go faster than 65.
Normally we travel 60 to 65. That said, I was considering sticking with the
Marathons, just wanted to check out the options.
A buddy who is a manager at a truck repair shop came over this afternoon to
replace the suspension bushings. (leaf spring suspension) It went quickly
and was no big deal. Ya just need the right tools and a smidgen of
patience...oh, and a brain to think with, that helps as well. After this I
can honestly say I DO NOT RECOMMEND Mutual Wheel Company in Davenport IA.
They only did a partial replacement of the bushings last year and did not
bother to mention that they did not do all six even though I specifically
asked them to. Good grief I bought the parts and supplied them. Perhaps they
did not think that I would count how many were left over. Only after asking
them did they admit that they did not want to even try the last two
bushings. It took my buddy and I only 2 hours to do them and we had fewer
tools than they did at our disposal.
I the trailer has new bushings. I will be getting new shocks and tires very
shortly. My buddy is going to look into tires as well. I will let you know
what I end up with.
Scott
> Scott,
> Just my 2 cents on tires. I have run nothing but Goodyear Marathons on
> all of my trailers over the years and never had a problem. I got 7 years
> out of the ones on the 68 before the cracking started, the tread depth
> was never a problem. They have never gotten too hot even going to Salem
> in the Columbia River Gorge at 110 degrees at 70 MPH. So all in all I
> like them and will put another set on the 88 when it is ready to hit the
> road next spring. I guess in short, I like them and I think if you
> inflate them, inspect them and make sure your dealer puts on a "new" set
> you should get many years out of them. Also I thought about replacement
> on the road, you know I don't carry a spare, Goodyears are easy to find
> when you need one.
>
> Good luck, I'm off to find the leak in the living room of the 68!
> Ed