Goodyear Marathon Tires...........and what you should know

[greentoon]

No one has said anything bad about the Marathon tires, but I had a bad experience with two of them on the same day returning from a fishing trip. I am always careful about maintaining the proper tire pressure, on this day the cord separated on one tire, thought I could limp home but it blew out. Put the spare on and headed home and before I could make it home the same thing happened to the other tire. Carlye (not sure about the spelling) make a six ply trailer tire that cost much less the the Goodyear tires and should a better job. Hope this gives another option to consider.

[crankman]

Bassn, i have used Marathons on my last 2 trailers with no problems ever using 50lb always.

[SCHoss]

Ok I travel 85,000 miles a year on the Average. How many Bass Boats do you think Pass me in a Day on the Interstates Running over 80 Miles per Hour. To run this fast you better get some 10 ply rated Trailer tires. I pull a Cargo trailer for my work . It had Goodyear Marathons on it from the factory. I put 3 sets on and couldn't keep tires on the trailer. Put 10 ply rated Trailer tires and can run 80mph plus all year and will wear out the tread now with no Problems.

[oldfishinfool]

goodyear marthon trailer tire. don't waste your money.check the warranty and you will see what i mean. don't count on your local goodyear dealer to help you any. you will just get a run around.oldfishinfool

[ReelDoc]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Al from Canada &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Running car tires on a bassboat trailer........especially a tandem carrying a large boat WILL be a problem. They are not designed to carry the loads that trailer tires are. It's not marketing hype.

</TD></TR></TABLE>
Al - don't tell that to the good folks at BassCat Boats. They have been putting auto tires on their boat trailers for several years. Take a look at this page - http://www.basscat.com/trailers.html - and check out the tires at the middle of the page. I can't tell for sure, but I think the standard tire is a Cooper auto tire. The two in the center certainly are.

As for running car tires on a tandem trailer, that's where they would work best. As you said, the maximum rated load on car tires is not as high as on trailer tires. Therefore, a 3,500# boat on a single axle trailer would theoretically put 1,750# of load on each tire - discounting the hitch weight. That would exceed the load rating of most passenger car tires. However, on a tandem axle trailer, that load goes down to 875# per tire since there are four of them instead of just two. I'll bet there isn't a 14" or 15" car tire made that isn't rated to carry a LOT more than 875#.

With that said, I have Marathons on my single axle trailer simply because they are the only tires that will fit that also have a high enough load rating to carry my TR-20 and all the crap I haul in it. I usually tow above 65 mph, but I also run them at 60 psi as recommended by Goodyear.

The picture below shows what happens to a Marathon when some dummy lets the air pressure get too low. I was running 60 mph when it shucked the tread. Thankfully I was on a 4-lane road and there was very little traffic. When I checked it, the other tire had 40 psi and I suspect this one had considerably less. Lesson learned!

[ChampRunner204]

I have always used Tow-master tires with C rating and have never had any problems. I also run C rated tires on my truck

[bigbassfisher]

The use of passenger car (P) tires are not recommend for use on trailers because of their construction, the side wall of these tires are more flexable then ST tires, which can lead to increased trailer sway or the loss of control. "Specialty Trailer" (ST) tires are constructed for high speed durability, they have a stiffer side wall that is safer for towing. The constuction of ST tires different then the construction of passenger tires. I recently bought a new set of ST175/80 for my trailer that are Kenda Loadstar brand from a online retailer http://www.RecStuff.com. The Kenda tires come with a 2 year from date of purchase manufactures waranty, there is a 800 # on the sidewall of the tire. I would find a tire with a good manufactures waranty that protects you as the consumer. Also companies that have a good waranty do lot of testing to make sure that there product will preform well. Good luck with your decission but deffently do research regarding putting passenger tires on a trailer, it is not recommend for safety and performace purposes.

[Al from Canada]

Bigbassfisher......you've now made 2 posts on older threads promoting how great this online retailer is. My guess is that you actually work for RecStuff.com and I'd ask that you not post further promoting the company.