Excellent information, Glenn. However, I know for fact the last three or four Goodyears that failed us were not underinflated since I check them regularly. This one is a good example although I had only one of this problem:
However, I do agree with you that the majority of tire failures on trailers is due to underinflation. while only the first of ours was underinflated to start with, I do think the others picked up a nail or puncture of some kind and went flat. Being on the trailer we do not even notice the flat, no sway, no indication of any kind, so we continue to run down the road until the rim slices that tire to pieces. Those pieces fly and cause damage and the tire ends up looking a lot like my earlier post in this thread. And we assume it's a blowout when it really wasn't. Just my opinion. I'm sorry to say we've been there way too many times, enough that I'm really fed up with the Goodyear tires, especially after the one in the picture above. Also, I've had three Goodyear Marathons replaced under warranty (prorated all but once) because of belt separations. That's not good worksmanship and is one of the reasons I won't buy Goodyear again.
As a side note, I found it very interesting that GM actually had a higher percentage of Firestone rollovers than did Ford but the media did not publicize that simply because GM had a far smaller population using the Firestone tires. That was too bad about the Firestones. I really liked the Steeltex tires we had on one of our trucks.
Glenn, good info. Thanks.