Marathon and 614 - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

captbanjo · 09-12-2015, 01:33 AM

This has been a very helpful thread for me.

I will say that for the second flat tire, we were on I-95 South outside of Boston. It was the holiday weekend and the traffic was very heavy as evening was falling. Several times I told my wife I was going to change the tire because we were waiting so long for the tow service. But every time I looked at the highway and saw the massive traffic coming at me like a swarm of bees, I changed my mind. In the end, I think the right decision was to wait for the tow service.

richfaa · 09-12-2015, 06:00 AM

We do not change out tires car or truck simply because we do not want to. Our choice.

captbanjo · 09-12-2015, 10:18 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

We do not change out tires car or truck simply because we do not want to. Our choice.

And that alone is reason enough I suppose!

Mark N. · 09-12-2015, 12:30 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Phil P

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Mark N.

The decision to replace a tire along side a road is a very serious decision. Many, many lives are lost each year along the highways in this fashion. Even the police, with their flashing strobes that can be seen 10 miles away, are struck regularly along highways. No matter how big and visible you might think you are, you are still a target for a 75mph daydreaming, distracted, sleepy driver. Maybe you've done it yourself for the past 50 years, but maybe also that next truck heading down the road at you is being steered by someone that is too busy texting his wife to be bothered by paying attention.
Think very carefully before you decide to do this by yourself.

And maybe you could be struck by lighting, a train, a motor cycle ETC.

If you live in fear of doing for yourself then what good is living?

Phil P

I guess I'm a born statistician that lives by the rule of "statistical threat" There are about 50 lightning deaths each year in this country. There are about 5,000 vehicle caused pedestrian deaths. (When you are changing a tire and killed, you are factored in as a pedestrian) but, I don't stand out in a lightning storm either for that matter...

hunts800 · 09-12-2015, 01:42 PM

I have posted this before. On my 2010 I had a sidewall tear on a G614 from some stainless steel scissors on Hwy 101 along the Oregon Coast. When the Good Sam service provider arrived, he would not mount my spare since it was the OEM Marathon which came with the trailer and he claimed it was unsafe since it was a different size. Luckily we were in Bandon very near a tire repair facility and they sold me a correct sized Korean tire which got me to Coos Bay where I purchased a new G614. I then kept the cheap Korean tire as the spare. Other than that freakish occurrence I have never had an issue with my G614s on either rig. Incidentally,they gave me $80 trade-in for the Marathon which had never been on the ground.

captbanjo · 09-12-2015, 02:12 PM

I will say in my case, it was a holiday weekend, night was falling and the flat was on the drivers side of the rig. We were parked on a thin strip of breakdown lane of an extremely busy stretch of I95 south just outside of Boston.

Even if I was good at changing tires (and I'm not) it would have been a foolish thing to attempt, as my wife pointed out when I angrily said I'd had enough of waiting and was going to do it myself.

As a sidebar, I filed a complaint with Good Sam. They were terrible; giving the wrong directions to the tow company (the female call-taker ignored the specific information I gave her regarding the location and mile marker) and never checking back with us to find out if help had arrived. My written complaint was filed a week ago and I have not received any reply. Very disappointed...

Phil P · 09-13-2015, 02:22 AM

Hi

I guess I have a little different take on things see as how for years I off and on worked as a road service technician. I even unfortunately worked for U-Hall as a Mobile Repair mechanic called an MRU.

I have changed tires on 18 wheelers, pickups, cars and aircraft large and small. Some on the Interstate with cars and truck wising by and rest stops as well as drive ways and residential streets on the tarmac in Khartoum with temperatures over 100 F.

I figure after working on 5 different continents udder various conditions for 50 years that someone is looking out for me.

Phil P

sambam · 09-13-2015, 02:47 AM

Quote:

quote:[i]Originally posted by captbanjo

...Even if I was good at changing tires (and I'm not) it would have been a foolish thing to attempt, as my wife pointed out when I angrily said I'd had enough of waiting and was going to do it myself.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, Wayne. I can change a tire, but I stink at the guitar!

Annaoinga · 09-15-2015, 02:41 AM

We just went through the same thing - the Marathon tire blew as we were starting our trip last month. Good Sam's roadside assistance was going to take almost 2 hrs to get to us. My husband went and bought a lug wrench (who knew the RV didn't come with one???) and changed it himself. (Thanks to the 6 pt jacks it wasn't too bad). Luckily it was on the passenger side. I'm not sure I would want to try it on the driver's side. We swapped out to G614s and kept the Marathon for the spare. Goodyear is supposed to be sending us a partial return on the bad tires. I also had spoken to the the month before this happened about swapping the tires out so I wouldn't have to worry about this.... No the said the Marathons were PERFECT for my Monty and no concerns.... RIGHT! Keystone also gave me the same lines - our engineers determined the right tires for these RVs and they aren't concerned....

Anyway, glad no one was hurt and you have the right tires now. Luckily we were hurt and there was very minor damage.

Safe travels,

captbanjo · 09-21-2015, 10:59 AM

Updating here.

Just ordered four G 614s from the site I listed. They totaled $1197.29 with shipping to RI.

Goodyear has contacted me (though they were slow...over a week) and indicated I need to supply estimates, receipt copies, etc. Not sure how much they'll compensate me for the damage and repair and replacement. We'll see.

PatrickLY · 10-12-2015, 12:31 PM

I want to replace my Marathon tires and have been looking into options. Hearing about the G614 tires I was impressed - and then disappointed to find that they have been discontinued. Does anyone know for sure about the Goodyear G614's.

What about Sailun tires??

captbanjo · 10-12-2015, 12:43 PM

I am surprised to hear that; I ordered the G614s from the site that I posted here. They came two days later and have since been installed on my Montana. I have also installed the Tire Minder booster. We have yet to take it out on the road to test the tires and the Tire Minder but with a little weather luck we will do that within the next week or two.

captbanjo · 11-03-2015, 05:52 AM

I thought I would give an update on the G16 upgrade.

It appears that Goodyear will compensate me for some portion of the damaged and replaced tires. Thanks to whoever clued me in here regarding contacting good year! I am still in the process of working on the claim so I don't know how much they will reimburse me for. Insurance is taking care of the damage to the rig.

As for the performance of the G 16 tires, I am impressed! We took our rig to New Hampshire from Rhode Island. The overall feel and stability seemed improved to both my wife and me. But the thing that really knocked me out was that we went from 11.5 average diesel usage to 13.6!

The Marathons have been laid to rest, which is where they belong. I am actually sending one back to Goodyear for examination. The second blown tire evaporated so I could not send that one.

My advice to anybody has read these columns and warnings is take heed and make the changes soon as possible!

Ragtacker · 11-03-2015, 03:50 PM

Do these Marathons actually say Marathon on the sidewalls? You guys are getting me concerned so I checked my tires today and nowhere does it say Marathon, it does say regroovable and unisteel radial or something like that. Thanks for any advice

hybridhauler · 07-23-2016, 01:15 PM

Captbanjo,
In what fashion did you contact Goodyear? Did you use their customer service or some other means?

rmthelen · 07-23-2016, 02:10 PM

If your tires have regroovable on the sidewall, chances are they are G614's

mlh · 07-23-2016, 03:14 PM

The Marathons are not regroovable so they would almost haft to be G614 tires.
Lynwood

captbanjo · 07-23-2016, 04:33 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by hybridhauler

Captbanjo,
In what fashion did you contact Goodyear? Did you use their customer service or some other means?

I used their internet site. I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly I ended up speaking to a customer service representative who told me what I needed to submit to Goodyear.

northwestchill · 07-26-2016, 03:10 AM

I just replaced the Tire Kings on our '15 3610RL with G614s but didn't replace the spare. My tire dealer made no mention of the tire being discontinued. In fact they arrived 3 days after they ordered. Had them inflated to 100# and looking forward to our next outing.

Arizonacouple · 08-02-2016, 02:08 PM

We had a similar story but we blew a montana tire on the 405 just 15 miles from LA. Fortunately CHIPS stopped the traffic behind us so we could limp over to the side. We had roadside assistance which is entirely another story but the next morning we had a local tire outfit come to our campsite and switch out all our tires for 614s. This past march we traded in our 3502 for a 305rl high country and one of my requirements was that they switch the montana tires for my newly purchased 614s. We have travelled from the west coast to the east coast on our 614s and I don't think we worried about them time.

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