Goodyear makes tires all over the world. We've had Marathon ST's on all of our Jaycos...from Canada, New Zealand and the USA Alabama.
I will never buy the Chinese made Goodyears. All Goodyear says about it is that "Goodyear tires are manufactured all over the world, most of our tires are made in the US, but the tires are also manufactured in Canada, Mexico and Europe. Some of the US facilities are located in Gadsden, AL; Topeka, KS; Danville, VA and Union City, TN."
I actually got a snotty response from some Goodyear "Customer Service" specialist a couple of years ago about the Marathons return to USA briefly then back to China for manufacture...she said that the Chinese factory was a modern facility and the tire built to Goodyears specs.
Yeah...right. Maxxis ("The vast majority of the Maxxis M8008 ST Trailer tires sold in the USA are manufactured at our company owned factory in Thailand.") from now on.
My posts shouldn't be taken for factual data. They are purely fictional, for entertainment purposes and should not be constituted as actually related to scientific, technical, engineering, legal, spiritual or practical advice. Amen.
zinBob wrote: What is the latest information on what Goodyear has done to improve their 15" Marathon tires?
Your question would indicate that there is some new information from Good Year…
Four failed attempts to get information about build quality from Good Year when unanswered and in a phone conversation when I asked what exactly was better about the Marathon the answer was it’s a Good Year built in their new modern facility, but when pressed on specifics on what made them better, they just ended the conversation without even a good by…
I guess if they can’t answer the question, none of us will be able to…
Of the three companies I tried to get information on trailer tires from (GY, Maxxis, and Carlisle) GY was the only one that didn’t even try to be helpful with anything but canned prepared statements, and I never even got to ask about their move to China…
If there is some new information I am unaware of it, and since they don’t answer my e-mails, I guess I won’t hear it from them…
Love my mass produced, entry level, built by Lazy American Workers, Hornet
My self, I will not trust Goodyear Marathon tires. Here is my history.
My Nash 22GQ came with Goodyear 15" D tires. Two of them delaminated chunks of rubber causing minor damage.
The 05 Jayco came with Maxxis tires no problems.
The 07 Jayco came with Goodyear Marathons, 15" D. Since it was a new TT I waited too long to replace the tires. At 560 miles while traveling 55 MPH the left rear tire came apart doing $8,000 damage to the slide out.
Replace the Marathons with Maxxis and had no more trouble.
Bob
2001 2500 Silverado LS 4x4 6.0, 4.10
2007 Jayco Eagle 288RLS
Cocktails for 6, Dinner for 4, Sleeps 2
--------------------
End of dirt road, no signs in sight, sun going down: I am not lost, just getting ready to go camping.
I have had several of the Chinese Goodyears and not one of them went bad. Recently I took one out of the spare position and put another 4500 miles on it.
I was doing an inspection and looking at the date and saw it was 12 years old. I replaced it with another Chinese tire at discount tire. The salesman at Discount said they are encouraging customers with "D" tires to put "E" tires.
By the way it was only one specific Marathon that Goodyear acknowledged trouble with and it was the 225-75-15 D.
Just to let anyone interested know .... Goodyear Tire is no longer in Union City, TN. They closed the plant in 2010 and moved operations to other locations.
I have a friend with a 2006 Jayco bumper pull and he has the D rated 15" Marathons date coded 0906. Marked "Make in China" I told him it was time for new tires!
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