GOODYEAR G949 RSA 235/86R16 - Montana Owners Club

moutard2 · 06-27-2011, 12:33 PM

I've agonized enough over my new 3750FL's Marathon tires and have finally accepted what you've all been saying all along in numerous threads, that the Marathon's are ticking timebombs and that any chinese manufactured tire is a huge gamble. I've replaced them with the made in USA Goodyear G949RSA which have steel belts and steel reinforced sidewalls AND have the highway rib tread. I haven't seen much about these tires here but they appear to be superior in every way to just about any similar size tire available. The very, very surprising thing was the price ... $757.12 installed for 4 (235/85R16) with nitrogen out the door. Very tough to beat that and now I can roll down I-5 and across I-10 with peace of mind and a reasonable measure of safety. Get an update at Quartsite in January!

pbahlin · 06-27-2011, 03:03 PM

I've got G614s and when I got them I hadn't heard of the G949. Could you explain the major difference between them? The price you got is about half of what I paid for G614s.

I hate when that happens.

By the way. You made the right decision. Someday you'll be flyin' along at 65 or so and you'll be thinking about those old bombs and how you'd be sweating bullets if you still had them on. I know I've had that feeling. I replaced my bombs before my first tow. Actually that's wrong, my first tow was to the Goodyear shop.

Update: Forgot about the exchange rate now. Maybe it wasn't half after all, eh?

mhs4771 · 06-27-2011, 03:33 PM

I don't want to rain on anyones parade but Google them, they're no where near the G614s, they are an E rated tire, max inflation 80 PSI, 3042 Lbs Load Rating. Overall specs look pretty much like the Marathons with just a different tread pattern. Hopefully they're better quality than the ChinaBombs.

moutard2 · 06-27-2011, 04:32 PM

Actually the G614 and the G949 look similar and nothing like the Marathon. The 3 tires are all similar in many of the specs. However, one noticeable difference is in the tire weight. The Marathon weighs a mere 34lbs. whereas the G949 weighs 55lbs. and the G614 weighs 58lbs. That indicates to me that there's more meat and thus more strength. The G614 is described as a Unisteel tire. The G949 is described as having dual steel belts and a steel reinforced sidewall and reinforced shoulders. Both the G614 and G949 have "advanced compounds and construction" and a "premium casing". The Marathon is an E rated tire at 3420lbs. load and the G949 is and E at 3042 and the G614 is a G rated tire at 3750 lbs. I'm not sure about the Marathon to G949 comparison that you make. I just don't see it. I've read on this site about frequent Marathon failures. I've read about several G614 failures. I'm going to test the G949's and I feel pretty confident that they're going to exceed my expectations.

moutard2 · 06-27-2011, 04:43 PM

http://www.goodyear.com/cfmx/web/tru...rodline=160025 is the site for the G949

http://www.goodyear.com/rv/products/g614rst.html is the site for the G614
and
http://www.goodyear.com/rv/products/marathon.html is the site for the Marathon

Art-n-Marge · 06-27-2011, 04:45 PM

Did you look at the DOT code and verify where they were manufactured?

The first two characters after the DOT is the code for the location. Post the code and I'll look up where they were built. The last for characters are the week/year of manufacture. You will either see an 8 character code or look on the other side and there should be a much larger set of characters for the code. The very first two are the manufacturer location and the last four are the date code. If anyone is curious what the other characters mean I'd have to look up what the rest of it means but I don't think it's as important.

Whatever the case, the G949 & Marathons would only be for 6,000 lb axles. 7,000 lb axles need at least 3,500 lbs and neither of them would work.

Check your newer model Montys. They are mostly over 15,000 lbs GTWR and a good chance they have 7,000 lbs axles. With 6,000 lbs axles this means 3,000 lbs MUST be carried by the pin and that's difficult to do.

moutard2 · 06-27-2011, 05:06 PM

My 3750FL has 7000lb. axles and came stock with the Marathons. The trailer shipped at 12,285lbs. and Keystone states that it has a 3455lb. carrying capacity. That being the case why would they put marathons on as stock tires? The rest of the world seems to be installing LT E rated tires and having very good success with them.

NCFischers · 06-28-2011, 12:36 AM

Art,
My pin weight is just under 3000#. These trailers carry a lot of pin weight.

CamillaMichael · 06-28-2011, 01:10 AM

Sounds like the G949s cannot carry the weight of most of our Montanas?????????????

bncinwv · 06-28-2011, 02:34 AM

The Marathons are rated for 3420 pounds at 80 psi. The 949's are rated at 3042 at 80 psi. The tires are not comparable but as long as you watch your weights, you should be fine and I must say, a heck of a lot better off than with the Mara-bombs. An approximation of the pin weight on a 3750FL fully loaded at 20% (typical) shows the truck carrying a little over 3100 pounds. These numbers yield that you will lose about 500 pounds of carry capacity if you stay within the limits. The key, as always is weighing your rig to know exactly what you are dealing with.
Bingo

PSFORD99 · 06-28-2011, 06:35 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by moutard2

Actually the G614 and the G949 look similar and nothing like the Marathon. The 3 tires are all similar in many of the specs. However, one noticeable difference is in the tire weight. The Marathon weighs a mere 34lbs. whereas the G949 weighs 55lbs. and the G614 weighs 58lbs. That indicates to me that there's more meat and thus more strength. The G614 is described as a Unisteel tire. The G949 is described as having dual steel belts and a steel reinforced sidewall and reinforced shoulders. Both the G614 and G949 have "advanced compounds and construction" and a "premium casing". The Marathon is an E rated tire at 3420lbs. load and the G949 is and E at 3042 and the G614 is a G rated tire at 3750 lbs. I'm not sure about the Marathon to G949 comparison that you make. I just don't see it. I've read on this site about frequent Marathon failures. I've read about several G614 failures. I'm going to test the G949's and I feel pretty confident that they're going to exceed my expectations.

Several G614 failures, I would like to read about that, could you possibly elaborate on this so others could get more informed on these failures. Thanks

mhs4771 · 06-28-2011, 07:21 AM

There is a thread over on the iRV2 Forum (http://www.irv2.com/forums/) about some G614 failures, but I think they happened several years ago. There were running very heavy rigs 16K to 18K lb range, Mobile Suites and such. They switched to 17.5 wheels and tires (very costly) to fix their problem. I think the number of folks here that are running 614s that we're pretty safe. I've got a year and almost 13K on mine and still holding the same pressure as the day they were put on last summer.
I know I read somewhere about some early problems with the 614s, not sure if maybe they were originally made outside the US or if there was a problem with the original compounds. That's all I know, and I'm no expert so take it for what it's worth (probably not much).
Here's a post from the iRV2 Forum from early 2007:

I found the following on the Escapees HDT forum regarding Goodyear G614 tires....

NEW INFOR ON THE G614s. Goodyear distributer for Oklahoma told me today that if you have G614s made before november, 2006 they are subject to the same problems that older goodyears had and I experienced this past weekend. HOWEVER, the process for making the G614 changed November 1 and they now feel they have the problems solved. The incident of trouble with the G614 apparently has been much less than the problems with the older D rated tires used before the G614 was developed. This distributer feels that the problem is now solved. The issue to which they are referring is tread separation and tire disenigration at speed which causes damage to the fifthwheel.

Regards and safe travels

moutard2 · 06-28-2011, 07:36 AM

There have been a few cases of G614 failures I've read about on the MOC Forum although at this moment I couldn't direct you to any. My memory isn't that good! Google "Goodyear G614 failure" and have a look there. Any tire can fail including I suppose the G949. Many MOC members are running LT tires on their rigs with excellent service so I'd don't accept that the G949 cannot carry the weight of most of our Montanas as mentioned above. Compare the G949 with any of the LT tires being used as I did and you might come to the same conclusion as I did, that being that the G949 are made in a way that makes them superior in construction than most LT235/85R16 tires available today. As bncinwv states above "The key, as always is weighing your rig to know exactly what you are dealing with". Anyway, I'm going to apparently be the guinea pig with them and I'll be happy to report my experiences as the miles pile on.

moutard2 · 06-28-2011, 07:41 AM

Lonnie the tire guru may have some thoughts on these tires although they are a commercial tire and he may not have had any experience with them. Lonnie?

Phil P · 06-28-2011, 11:02 AM

Hi

We got the G614 because the wheel manufacturer recommended them. We now have 25,000 miles on them in 18 months.

There was a post on this forum several months back about some G614 blowouts. Reading the report I see that they had 2 in the same trip and some of the remarks indicated to me that they had been stored on the trailer for an extended time.

Phil P

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