Second Bad Tire!

[David Mellon]

Well, last weekend I pulled out of my side yard and something felt...funny. An original tire had a bulge in its sidewall. So I spent the next hour replacing a tire before heading to Dana Point Harbor. Last July, heading to Santa Barbara I had a tire delaminate. I hate these tires and will get two Goodyears and save the Carlisle ones for spares only. Since I still have the single axle trailer I just can't see keeping bad tires on it. Let's face it, I've owned four of them and two went bad, one after less than 400 miles of use.

[Catigale]

Yikes - thats nasty. Is that second photo delamination or do you think you hit something in the road?

I have the original Titans, one of which has sidewall cracking, but good tread and handling so far - KOW..they hold pressure all season without topping up too.


2002 of course.

[kmclemore]

Yikes - thats nasty. Is that second photo delamination or do you think you hit something in the road?

I have the original Titans, one of which has sidewall cracking, but good tread and handling so far - KOW..they hold pressure all season without topping up too.


2002 of course.

Ditto, albiet 1998 X in my case. I want to replace the tires, but I have *no* idea which tires are the best ones to choose!

[K9Kampers]

I have not had any experience with Carlisle but, at the Open Roads forum, RV.Net, I recall seeing a lot of posts about the bad performance and experiences of Carlisle tires on a variety of travel trailers.

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

I have the original Titans, one of which has sidewall cracking, but good tread and handling so far - KOW..they hold pressure all season without topping up too.
2002 of course.

my Titans looked beautiful. great tread, held air, no bulges.
then last summer (tires were then 4 years old) i took a long trip on a hot day. it was a Sunday. 90 miles from my house i had a blow-out.
i broke my jack and had to call AAA. they put my spare on and i was one my way. had to go another 90 miles.
by the time i arrived to my destination, the "other" Titan was delaminating.

needless to say, i am done with Titans. i put the Goodyear Marathon's on for now but am seriously considering adding an axel for $1,000+/- via Champion Trailers on-line.



Bob T.
"DāBob"
'02X w/ '04 90-TLDI (14" x 11 pitch)
Dinghy Motor: '06 2.5-Suzuki

[Rich Walton]

Bobby,

I did the 2 axel conversion from champion it went well, stright foward. I do have the old axel with drums and springs if you want it. I am in the bay area.

[baldbaby2000]

The Carlisle tires that came with my boat were junk as far as any serious trailering goes. I posted my experience earlier: LINK


(Link edited by moderator to reduce length - KBM)

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

Bobby,
I did the 2 axel conversion from champion it went well, stright foward. I do have the old axel with drums and springs if you want it. I am in the bay area.

i am under the impression that the "add-an-axle" conversion requires utilizing your existing axle and just adding their axle dual springs, and fenders.
did you not do it that way?
sounds like you purchased a two axle package and started at square one, huh?

Bob T.
"DāBob"
'02X w/ '04 90-TLDI (14" x 11 pitch)
Dinghy Motor: '06 2.5-Suzuki

[Rich Walton]

Bobby,

You can add a second axel 2 ways, one way is to buy a second axel and all the hardware (springs, new hangers, shakles) and have a shop weld it on. or you can do a bolt on kit basicly it is a frame peice that has the hangers welded on and then hot dipped in galv. I chose this way so i could do all the work myself. I toatly redid my trailer it is much better than the stock trailer. The whole process took me a month of weekens (all prep and new paint) I would recomend this to anyone who tows with a border line car. PM me with your phone number and i will tell you all about it. I type to slow for me to write it all up.

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

Rich,
i PM'd you.

[David Mellon]

Yup Catigale I'm sure, it delaminated. There was no sign of impact, the guys at Big-O said delamination and there were signs of it on the far side of the tire. Side note: The guys at Big-O stayed open after hours, put four guys on my trailer and changed to my spare in ten minutes....for FREE. I send my fleet to Big-O now, good service gets rewarded. What does "KOW" mean?

[kmclemore]

KOW = knock(ing) on wood


So... in the concensus opinion.... are the Goodyear Marathons the best bet for a single axle trailer?

Oh, and BTW, here's an interesting product bulletin on Goodyear Marathons... it seems a 'maximum pressure' is not always a true 'maximum'.

[Moe]

We had a 4-year old Tempo radial start delaminating at the Ohio state line bringing our 26X home, so I pulled over and installed the never used spare. From that point to Dayton, I drove 60 mph. Right at the city limit, the tread totally came off the spare and trashed the heavy MacGregor trailer fender. It could've done some serious damage to the boat, but missed it. It was a Sunday, so I couldn't get another tire, and put the delaminating tire back on and limped home at 15-20 mph. I replaced all three tires with Goodyear Marathons, like on our Airstream.

Now, Airstreamers and other RVers are reporting serious delamination problems with the Marathons. And some of these are with new tires! Some owners are switching to Maxim (sp?) tires, some to their truck tires.

The tires on our C-18 trailer are now 8 years old but made it from Annapolis to Dayton. I was set to use Marathons on it, but now I don't know what to use.

[in fairness to the Tempo tires, they'd sat in the sun 4 years in Las Vegas, but showed no signs of dryness or cracking. And admittedly, I drove 75-85 mph most of the way home, since it was nearly 1800 miles from SLC to Dayton and I wanted to do it in 2 days]

[Frank C]

Yeah, what he said. Caveat though .... only two comments above are by owners of the 26M. After the first year of M production, our factory spy (Matt Roving) must have convinced Roger to upsize the trailer tires to 15-inchers. There's a giant capacity difference btw 14s and 15s.
So ... I'm not sure how many 26M owners even have a significant trailer tire issue??

My 26X trailer came with 14-inch D-rated Titans (1,870 lbs each), which left me with less than 200 lbs capacity over my net axle wt. I chose 15-inch C-rated Marathons last summer (2,150 lbs each), but I too recall owner complaints about Goodyear too, especially in their earlier production years. I'm not sure what I'd choose next, but my Marathons clearly inspire more confidence than the Titans. Maybe ignorance is bliss!

I am still distinctly opposed to the redundant-redundancies of adding an axle to this rig. It adds weight, reduces maneuverabilty and chops springing rebound in half (twice the springing that's needed, by weight). OTOH, a second axle is clearly a simple way to double your tire count, tire patch and tire capacity (albeit, costly) ... pick yer poison & be happy!

Doing over again, I'd just upgrade to 15-inch tires on a single axle, and choose the higher "D" rated Marathons (2,500 lbs. each).

Meanwhile, heat (synonomous with rig weight) is your enemy. As someone already noted above, since upsizing my tires to 15-inchers, they never get any warmer than my truck tires ... previously, the 14-inch Titans were hot enough to make you remove your hand.

[Bawgy]

Well said Frank . I would also add that towing 600 miles at 75-85 mph cost you 2000 miles of your vehichle .Luckily your vehichle has a longer life span than the expected span of the trailer . One must use equipment with in the expected range and not the maximum capacity .