Marathon Rebuttle

[denandannie]

I know I don't have to read the daily dose of Marathon bashing posts, but am I the only one that is just about to "throw up" by the constant stream of whining and complaining about "the" tire?

Granted, they may not be the best tire for our rigs, but, there must be thousands of these tires on Keystones. Certainly, not everyone is experiencing failures. Not everyone has the luxury of replacing their tires. For those of you who are adamant that we should, I would gladly except any monetary donations towards a new set of tires.

Here's a noval idea: lets back off on the whining about the Marathons. At least for a few days. There actually may be more important topics to discuss. We've beat this dead horse to death.

ya gotta give me credit for creating hot topics. Some love me and some hate me.

[Artemus Gordon]

I could not agree more. The bashing may be deserved, but it's taken over every RV discussion. Seems to me there should be a recall or some class action taking place if all the reports are completely true! Am I missing something?

[CORattler]

and yet, here is another thread about them...

[patbarton]

I hate to read the posts, too, especially since I have a set of Marathons on my Mountie!

[Clemson1881]

I believe I understand your frustrations. I had the same feelings. I had just bought an expensive new rig and was reading post after post on here and other forums about how the Marathons were unsafe ticking time bombs. Remove brand new Good Year tires and pay big money to replace them right off the bat? That's crazy is what I thought and it is. I use my rig lightly (for a couple of weekends and vacations), and put less than 2000 miles per year on it. So I decided to watch the tires closely, maintain 80 PSI cold, and try to limit tight turns/twisting on the tires. With less than 5000 miles on them two failed. So yeah I replaced them. Now for anyone that chooses to run the Marathons I sincerely hope you never have one problem. But the reason the posts are overwhelming about these tires is simple. The fail rate is very high, and people are trying to help other people by avoiding accidents and/or big damage to others' rigs. I don't believe anyone intends to upset folks who still have Marathons at all. I for one thank members for sharing their problems and alerting me to be watching the tires so closely. If it had not been for tons of posts about the tires I would have been inclined to take the threat lightly. And as I said to start I understand your frustration. Been there.

[Bill-N-Donna]

If I don’t want to read about a topic or thread that has been posted; I simply skip it!

[Bruce Lenhardt]

X2 What Bill-N-Donna said.

[Trailer Trash 2]

Ditto on not reading or posting on whatever the topic may be about.
my personal reasons why they get posted are when your RV gets damaged for what ever reason, tires, frame , sewer tanks, a person see's time in the shop for repair, which none of us want to do, along with money out of pocket, especally for the full timers it hits them the hardest. with that said I'm outa here.

Don

[Artemus Gordon]

Ok so with this extraordinary failure rate, everyone should be filing reports with DOT and going after manufacturer, demanding a recall. Tell me where to sign up! Seriously, I am not seeing feedback on what action people are taking. I am simply not accepting its on me to replace, what "appear to be perfectly good tires", based simply on rants on the Internet. I just put 7000 miles on mine in a month. Had them inspected last Friday, can't find a single, legitimate reason, to go after the manufacturer. I am contacting Keystone tomorrow, and get their opinion and official position on this matter, and ask? What they are doing about it. It's not, I don't believe everyone, but the discussions sound like an epidemic, a National Highway Safety concern! But everyone seems to just say "wow I dodged a bullet"!

[DQDick]

If you google Marathons on the Good Sam or Escapee's forum you'll find a similar number of posts and pictures. One thing to remember is that folks who don't have problems don't post so you will only see posts from the ones who do. The other side of the coin is that I called Goodyear when my Marathons were about six months old and told them " You know and I know these tires don't belong on a rig as heavy as mine. Can we make a deal to get them off or do you want to wait until the damage claim" They made me a great deal to change to the G614's, 5 mounted and balanced for $800. That put me in a financial bind at the time since I expected them to blow me off. Since their willingness to deal scared me worse than the threads I'd been reading I scraped up the money and took the deal. It's just another choice one has to make. You'll tell me I'm pulling my rig with too small a truck. I don't believe that and so I'm keeping my truck.

[1retired06]

X2 greg and tracy

[TLightning]

I don't think anybody is bashing anything. People are explaining problems they are having with tires. As noted above, if you are not interested in a thread, don't read it.

[richfaa]

There is no documentation to prove that the Marathon tires are unsafe. There is no class action because there is no documentation. There are no NSTB reclalls because there is no documentation other than forms and if you believed forums to be valid documentation you would not have a lipperts frame or a Keystone product.

IMO the marathons are not enough tire for the weight of these Montana's and from what we see on the road in our travels the user bears the fault of tire failure in many cases... Speeding, Over load, proper inflation, etc.

If we did a lot of TPK or interstate travel I would have better a tire.I would have a TMPS system. If you read other forums G614's fail on a regular basses on heavier campers.

We had marathons on three of our previous lighter, low use Rv's.....Not a problem.

[Art-n-Marge]

I still have my Marathons. What I've learned about them through the MOC is to watch them like a hawk and ensure as an owner I eliminate any abuse. Will this work? Maybe, maybe not. We aren't going often or far any more and will take care of any problems accordingly because all this reading has taught me to be very conscious and prepared. It is what it is.

I guess the problem with me is that I don't make it a habit to report every time mishap and thought that maybe the tire place I got them replaced would assist with keeping track of "problematic" tires. I just know Marathons and their often recommended replacement the G614 are both Goodyear tires.

I also do think that creating a topic to not discuss another topic is the same thing as when someone complains about a movie and then interest in the movie rises because of it. I doubt this topic is gonna stop any discussions about Marathons, but nice try.

[grampachet]

I have 13,923 miles on my Marathons. The only trouble I have had is when I ran over a road hazard (truck mud flap) at 298 miles and put holes in the tread area in both tires on drivers side. Sears plugged and patched them successfully. Now after 13,000 plus miles on the repair and never a problem I am one of the a few who have no complaints. I bought the TST system and maintain constant awareness of pressure and temp of tires. Just returned from a 3400 mile trip to Disneyland. Is there anyone else who is brave enough to mention their success with Marathons?

[HOOK]

Because I have had 4 of the greatly discussed Marathons fail and because of posts on this site was able to catch each before they blew, and because I owned tow trucks and saw many very serious accidents caused by blown tires, I ask humbly, please continue to to post things that might prevent a catastrophe. Larry

[helmick]

Lots of topics on the fourm I do not read, so far nobody makes me. Pick what you want to read and stay away from the ones that don't interset you.

[TerryClaudia]

I have to admit after buying our Monty in December and joining this forum it has made me very nervous about our trip coming up this weekend. We can't justify buying new tires since we just purchased it. On the other hand if some thing does go wrong and we get damage to our new rig I will be heartbroken. I just wish we had joined the forum before we bought it so I could have had different tires put on it. It burns me up to think that there are so many unsatisfied customers. Those of us that are constantly worrying because of these unsafe tires! Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Claudia & Terry

[Flymutt]

I would like to make a statement about Marathon tires...but I'm not gonna!

[RJI47]

DQDICK, would you mind sharing with us who you contacted at GY, or how you went about getting the contact info? I visited 2 GY dealers yesterday, and neither of them knew anything about problems with marathons, and even said they were quite expensive... $178 each I'd be interested in making the same phone call you did, even though I have had no problems with my Marathons at all. I would just like to know what GY would have to say.