"I think I only have another 5,000 miles left before these tires need to be replaced," says Barns (not his real name pending a lawsuit). "To me, something that costs $2,500 to replace, along the magnitude of these tires, should be able to last another 50,000 - 75,000 miles. I would understand if they were just $50 tires but as long as you take care and maintain them, tires like these should last a lot longer. I maintain them well: the wheels are always covered in the summer, I keep them clean and use Armorol treatment to keep the rubber supple. In other words, I'm doing everything I can and actively move my rig once a month to rotate the tires so that they don't get flat spots."Just with my knowledge of tires, I think they can potentially fail. They are starting to get cracks in the sidewalls and, although I am not seeing any delamination of the tread yet, it wouldn't surprise me if they fail sooner than later.
I sent an email to Goodyear saying 'Hey, I have been informed there might be a recall on these tires and I should contact you to arrange replacement or some compensation to correct the problem.' They just ignored me. I did some research and it is quite amazing how many different tire models Goodyear has recalled over the years.
It is pretty typical of a company like this to treat their consumers this way. A few years back I had a similar situation with BF Goodrich. The belting from inside the tires came apart and destroyed the tires and the wheels. In order to get them to own up to the problem, I had to pursue them legally. Once they were slapped with a lawsuit, they settled out of court...
You don't know what to buy anymore. To be honest, most of the public are ignorant about tires and these companies play off that - they hope that we will just buy new ones. If they want to come forward and take care of a portion of the expense so I can get new tires, I'll be satisfied. But I'm certainly not going to be paying out of my own pocket for the full amount, and if a tire fails and causes damage, I will definitely be pursuing them legally, should that time arise. I hope they step up before something like this happens. They should issue a nation-wide recall before people are injured or even killed."
Currently, the G159 is still on the market, even though Goodyear and some RV manufacturers have begun limited, "silent" recalls and tire replacement programs. It is estimated that thousands of RVs across the US have G159 tires.