[kempert]

Bill -

Sorry to hear about your tire problems. Despite the problems, I hope you at least got to enjoy the absolutely beautiful scenery in the Four Corners area. I also hope you got a chance to spend some time at Arches.

Now I'm really in a quandry on what to do with my TM tires. I'm still using my factory installed Marathons and plan to replace them within 2 weeks before I head out again. They are about 5.5 years old being made "4801" and have no signs of being in need of replacement after around 25,000 miles of travel. They have good tread depth and I cannot find a single sign of cracking and they have been outside (uncovered) their entire life.

I keep them parked on wood or plastic for extended periods. I had all 3 balanced when they were new and have rotated the curb side tire with the spare once. I monitor the psi regularly and very, very rarely go over 65 mph. As a matter of fact, I've spent most of my towing under 60 mph.

I now have my repair guy (his father worked on vehicles for my father and grandfather) working on finding what he thinks is the best tire. He is checking with his tire supplier for me. I'll let you know what we find.

I'm wondering if the older GYMs are better than the new ones. There might be some fact in the union strike affecting the quality of their product. Hopefully, those of us who use this site can solve this problem ourselves.