Tire Choice? Maxxis or Marathon's?

[acadianbob]

My buddy (who just got the new Ecoboost F150. . . ) will take delivery of his new Surveyor 264 in a couple of weeks. We did see it today at the dealer lot. It has Power King TowMax brand tires on it. 4810 date code so that is good. NOWHERE could I find any indication (on the tire) that it was made in China. NOt disputing where it is made; just interesting that I couldn't find it anywhere on the sidewall . . . .

[MtnGuy]

Bob, many times the tires are installed with the DOT code on the backside of the wheel.

[MacDaddy]

Actually the manufacture location on my new ones is on the outer seal. When it is installed on the wheel you cannot see the made in china!

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

Actually the manufacture location on my new ones is on the outer seal. When it is installed on the wheel you cannot see the made in china!

That is odd... Hard to get a seal with melted lettering where the seal is supposed to go. Are you sure?

[MacDaddy]

Just below the bead on the outer portion. Very hard to describe. If it's not blocked by the rim it will be very close. Haven't installed them yet.

[MtnGuy]

A couple of pictures of what the DOT code looks like: Tire Tech Information - Determining the Age of a Tire

[dretired]

Are Duro tires any good ??

[kablair]

Buying some Marathons right now. Sitting in the goodyear store on the side of I-10.

Just had my state inspection and was heading to San Antonio. Tires looked good and the pressure was within 5 psi of the trailer sticker. About an hour out, the back right tire blew out. The slide serms okay so we'll keep going once i get rid of these lousy factory tires.

There is not an American tire to be had anywhere. 4 different dealers had none in our size and the Goodyear dealer only had these Made in China Marathons. He understood my concern as he's had a similar situation and is running the same tire.

In his case, he had a 5 er for about 2 years. He did his usual check before leaving. When making a quick pit stop about 20 miles out he noticed a blister on the tread. When he checked all the tires, he found 2 more with similar delaminations. It can happen fast.

We're in a 2010 Silverback.

I was surprised to not feel the tire blow at all. I guess we could have missed it if we weren't paying attention to the mirrors

[RetirededTX]

I'm putting new axles on my 2006 Rockwood 8280SS and am upgrading to 16" wheels so I needed 235/80R16's. Researched to death, and finally decided on Marathon's due to price over the Maxxis. Ordered through local Discount Tire (San Antonio, TX) and was informed that no Marathons in that size were available, either from their warehouses, or through the GY distributor, "On Backorder". I question as to what's going on w/GY??

So this afternoon I'm going to go get 5 Maxxis mounted on my new wheels. I'm one of the many that had problems with Carlisle around 2004 and because of that I refuse to use them. In fact when I bought the Rockwood, the first week I had it I sold the Carlisle and bought new wheels and tires to up the safety margin.

Best of luck on your decision.

[kablair]

Riverside GY (40ish miles west of Houston) has a limited supply of the 235/80R16's. Everyone else has been backordered for many weeks.

They were very good people! Highly recommend.

[crocus]

RetiredEd, I think you'll be happy with the Maxxis tires.
May I ask why you are changing axles?

[RetirededTX]

Originally Posted by crocus

RetiredEd, I think you'll be happy with the Maxxis tires.

Originally Posted by crocus

May I ask why you are changing axles?

Two years ago during trip to Mt Rushmore had major problems, Murphy followed us the whole trip. On the way up there (1,600 mi to MR) noticed wear on outer edge of front starboard tire. Rotated tires and continued on. By the time we got back to San Antonio the outer edge of the second tire was down to smooth rubber. AlKo said so-sad-too-bad cause warrantee long gone. Looked like camber problem on starboard side. So front axle needed replacement (SW-Trailer said could straighten, but no guarantee, and expected that it would bend back again). My take is that the swing arm is pulling away from the axle housing 1/8-1/4" and allowing bend.
Part of problems on that trip included losing both bearings on port rear wheel, tore up spindle etc. etc... I packed all 4 wheels before start of trip so didn't expect this. Did field fix, used gland nut to chase out threads, files and emery cloth to polish spindle until new bearing would go on, and oh did I mention 3 hours to get races out of hub and off of spindle. We made the 1,600 miles home without problems.
Rockwood came with 3,500# axles, and wheels and tires rated for 7K total. As noted before I got rid of the wheels and tires. Put the trailer on the scales first trip out and got 7,860# total on the tandem set. I'm one of those that carries full water tank (We've been stuck in the desert before). My feeling is that axles are underrated and need some reserve same as wheels and tires so...
Dexter TorFlex 4-6K #11 axles, with 5,200# rating ea, running 16" 6 bolt. Until I get it all installed and loaded I don't know what the weight's going to be. I'd guess that with my XYL's bringing half the house it will be a little over 8K for this summer’s trip.
I'm going outside now to set up alignment on the new rear axle, it's only 86deg at 9:30.

Steve.

[crocus]

Nice response from AL-KO, NOT!
I wonder if the rubber "spings" inside that axle end just wore out? I never could understand how they wouldn't wear and put the tires out of alignment.
Of course we have no choice if we want a particular camper, we get what they provide.
We have 4000 lb axles, which I also consider a bit light. I doubt that we're overloaded, but there isn't much spare capacity.
I imagine one day we will be upgrading as well.
Good luck with the alignment!