Tony T.

We are planning a trip this summer to the Texas coast for my daughters wedding. We thought we would just take our 28ft TT to stay in and possibly stay a few days after the wedding making a little vacation out of the trip. The TT is a 2000 year model we had bought new and still has the orginial factory tires on it. I believe they are the Goodyear Marathon trailer tires 205/75/15. The tires look new lot's of tread and I have not noticed any sidewall cracking myself.Just searching some on the net I get some mixed reviews about the Goodyear Marathons seems like to the most bad reviews. We have not had many travel miles with our trailer mostly short trips of 120 miles round trip but the last two years the trailer has not moved due to a car wreck my wife had, she just don't feel like traveling the way we use to. Usually the standard is to trade out the tires every six years for new one's. I hate to do it but would rather be safe than sorry. What would be a good econoimal tire to use because I'm am definitely on a budget now since I'm the only income in our humble household. Another words what brands are some of you running to give me a better selection to choose from and your opinion about switching to that brand.

Tony

BEARHUNTER

I use Towmaster radials on my rv, boat, and utility trailer. No problems with them. I think you are wise to change them out. Look for cracking in the tire tread as well as on the sidewalls when judging tire condition. I bought my rv thinking it had great tire tread life and upon closer inspection all tires were bad because of cracking in the tread area.

The Towmaster is around 80$ per tire.

durasmack

When looking at complaints, it is most common to see people whine about bad tires. If you search around, you will find lots of complaints for all brands of tire.

I believe there was a thread on here some time back about Goodyear standing behind their tires and repaired someones trailer that was damaged by a bad Goodyear Marathon. From my experience, the Marathons seem to hold up decently well, but any time that a tire is seven years old it is likely to show some signs of cracking and if this is the case, it will save you time, trouble and possibly damage to the trailer to get some new tires. If you call around to some of your local big truck tire shops, they can get you some really good deals if they feel like having your business.

On a long trip, I would certainly recommend having some new tires for your trailer. I hate telling someone on a limited budget to spend a big chunk of money like that, but I honestly believe it will be better for you in the long run.

-Trey

Buffalo

You may want to check out the tires you have, now. Check the tread plys. Should be polyester & steel, for the older style Marathons. Those were the ones that had a tendency to blow-up. When they got hot, the polyester & steel would expand. Eventually, they could come apart.

The NEW Marathons have another, outer ply of nylon, also. The nylon does not expand with the heat. It acts like a 'girdle', holding the polyester & steel plys in place. The NEW Marathons are less likely to detonate.

The previously mentioned Towmasters (distributed by Greenball), are actually made on the same assembly line as the Goodyear Marathons. However, they are MUCH cheaper. Try to find the distributor in your local. I verified this information by talking directly to both Greenball & Goodyear. When buying the Goodyear's, you are paying for the advertising & their Blimp.

The 205/75/15's are load range C. I upgraded to the 225/75/15's, LR-D. Much stronger tire & I was able to get them in the low $70.00 range/tire. I've towed my 25' Nash trailer across country twice, now, with no problems. Four of us, in our group have the Nash's & have all switched to the larger tires.

The 225/75/15's are about an inch taller. So, from the center of the wheel to the outer edge of the tire is only about 1/2". See how much room you have between the front & rear tires. If you have a couple of inches, or more, the 275's will most likely fit beautifully.

I can't imagine how you could be dissapointed with the larger tires.

Joe F.(Buffalo)

Tony T.

Thank you all for the reply's so far and Joe for the research between the Towmasters and the Marathons. I was considering strongly about up-sizing the tire before you mentioned it because to me the 205 look very small in size, also I'll do some measuring to make sure a up-grade will work out and yes I would like to find a happy medium price wise and the $70.00 range was pretty much what I hoped for.

Tony

durasmack

Depending on where you are going to get your tires installed, it may be easier for you to take all of the wheels off the trailer and just take them to get tires instead of taking the whole trailer.... certain places have a difficult time dealing with installing them on trailers for some reason and it takes them a lot longer than it would take you to take them all off the trailer for them at home...

Tony T.

Thanks durasmack, you must of been reading my mind, I was planning on re-packing the wheel bearings and that would also be a good time to load them up to swap out the tires for the new one's.

Tony