Carlisle vs. Goodyear Marathon

MonacoMike

MonacoMike

Well-Known Member
Sep 15, 2009
14,721
Indiana lakes and Lake Michigan
Boat Info
2000 Cruisers 3870
8.2 Mercs
Engines
85 Sea Ray Monaco 197
260hp Alpha 1
Looking at tires for my tri-axle boat trailer. The tires are 225-75-15. Radials only. The Carlisle's are $85/tire and the Marathon's are $118/tire.
What are your good or bad experiences? What do you think of the price difference? Both tires are made in China. Thanks! MM
 
RUN from the Carlisle's and NEVER look back. Spend some time on the Four Winns board (FW puts those on their factory trailers) and you will see why. They may be the worst trailer tire out there. I blew 3 well maintained tires in 2 years after buying my old boat new.
 
Blow both of mine in one weekend. Tires were 4 years old with no weather check and tread like new. Blow the center right out of both of them.
 
I sell both the Carlisle and Goodyear trailer tires and have had good experiences with them both. I typically see problems arise when the trailer is overloaded which causes premature failure. I have only personally used Goodyear tires on previous trailers and have never had an issue - I'll stick with what I know to be a quality product and not try to save a few dollars. Whatever you decide to do make sure they are the correct load rating for your application.

Has anyone ever used the Maxxis tires?
 
I have a tremendous amount of experience with trailer tires, and run in a crowd where everybody tows a lot.

None of us will use Carlisle or Marathon. We've blown more of them than we can count. And I'm talking tires kept well covered, properly inflated, speed requirements followed, etc.

I know some that are running Maxxis and have been happy. Most of us have switched to light truck bias ply tires.

I'll never willingly buy a Marathon or Carlisle again.
 
I have had both Carlisle and Marathon also. I've never had a problem with the Marathons, but I did have one blowout with a Carlisle.

Many years ago, a local tire dealer recommended 4 Tow-Master radials for me. They were on my old boat trailer for 10 years, and looked new when I sold the boat. I was always amazed that the sidewalls never showed any cracking. They were always kept outside and never covered.
 
Switched this year to Marathons after two blowouts on one year old Carlisles on my 2009 Venture Trailer. I have heard that Marathons were made in China for a few years and there were a lot of service problems during that time. It's my understanding that Goodyear is making them in the US again with much better results.
 
I just got three new Marathons, and all were made in the US. My previous three were made in Canada and were on the boat when I bought it new. Of those three, two had manufacturing defects that showed themselves well before any tread wear or sidewall cracking were present. One had a bubble in it when the tire was 3 years old. Had it replaced for free from Discount (bought the lifetime warranty). The second had a nail in the sidewall (also replaced for free), and the third had a large chunk of tread missing from the center at 5.5 years old.

Luckily, I noticed all of these problems at the house, and not on the highway in the middle of nowhere. I originally thought that the tires would hold up better than this, but since they were all replaced for free, I can't really complain too much. Hopefully now that I've got three tires that were made in the US, they will last for the rest of the time I own this boat.
 
Bad thing about the Carlisles is that they gave no waring. Driving down the road, felt a few vibrations and bang. Right through the ceter of the tread. I now run light duty 6 ply side wall pickup radials with no issues to day.
 
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