Feds: Goodyear knew of defective RV tires as early as 2002
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Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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Yes, I remember reading that, good article.
Long story short, Goodyear marketed tires rated for lighter and slower moving delivery vehicles like UPS trucks for the RV market. Heavier vehicles that drove at highway speeds which shouldn't have been using light duty rubber.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
Prison! People go to prison for few joints in some places.
Goodyear also sold those G-159s to school bus and transit bus fleets(that weren’t leasing “mileage” tires that Goodyear and Firestone made just for buses). However, a school/transit bus usually doesn’t go faster than 55-65 on the highway, those buses see stop & go and city/suburban operation.
During the Firestone debacle, I saw the local Laidlaw branch and one of the major transit fleets go to Michelin for tires.
In Japan, you’re expected to apologize, take a bow, resign and forfeit a golden parachute. Maybe spend some time in the Tokyo pokey.
The CEO of Bridgestone and his deputy installed to oversee the US operations both resigned and disappeared during the Firestone-Ford debacle.
OK, a couple of things:
First, is that in the truck market, it's the buyer who specifies what tires are put on the vehicle - EXCEPT for vehicles not purposely built for customers. In those cases, it's the vehicle manufacturer who decides what tires go on.
In this case, the chassis was a bus chassis, which is usually used for intercity bus service. That is start and stop type of service, which the tires were designed for. The problem was that RV converters bought those chassis's and didn't change the tires out for something more suitable for RV service.
Ergo, I don't see how Goodyear was involved in the decision as to what tires were applied.
Second, how is the chassis manufacturer or the RV converter not liable? Maybe they are, but they settled earlier to avoid the bad PR.
Clearly Goodyear could have done a better job of handling this, but I just don't see this as a "defect". It's a "poor job of selecting tires" type of thing.
First, is that in the truck market, it's the buyer who specifies what tires are put on the vehicle - EXCEPT for vehicles not purposely built for customers. In those cases, it's the vehicle manufacturer who decides what tires go on.
In this case, the chassis was a bus chassis, which is usually used for intercity bus service. That is start and stop type of service, which the tires were designed for. The problem was that RV converters bought those chassis's and didn't change the tires out for something more suitable for RV service.
Ergo, I don't see how Goodyear was involved in the decision as to what tires were applied.
Second, how is the chassis manufacturer or the RV converter not liable? Maybe they are, but they settled earlier to avoid the bad PR.
Clearly Goodyear could have done a better job of handling this, but I just don't see this as a "defect". It's a "poor job of selecting tires" type of thing.
I read elsewhere that the RV converters who used these tires are out of business.
Apparently the Fed's finally twisted their arm, and Goodyear will replace/refund all G159 tires in that size
https://jalopnik.com/goodyear-finally-recalled-the-worst-tire-made-in-histor-1849028093/amp
Is it really the worst tire in history?
Because I remember the Firestone 500/721/Wilderness ATX being pretty awful
https://jalopnik.com/goodyear-finally-recalled-the-worst-tire-made-in-histor-1849028093/amp
Is it really the worst tire in history?
Because I remember the Firestone 500/721/Wilderness ATX being pretty awful
I don’t get this.
I’m not a Goodyear fan, but how are they responsible for misuse of a tire provided to a chassis manufacturer who then supplied the incomplete vehicle to an RV manufacturer who completed it and sold it. The RV manufacturer was responsible for making sure the completed vehicle was safe.
I assume these were spartan or freightliner chassis.
I’d also bet the RV manufacturers are not out of business but now part of one of the conglomerations.
Looks to me like lawyers and feds going after the deepest /easiest pockets.
Also, to be frank they are 20 years old they should all have been out of service many many years ago.
I’m not a Goodyear fan, but how are they responsible for misuse of a tire provided to a chassis manufacturer who then supplied the incomplete vehicle to an RV manufacturer who completed it and sold it. The RV manufacturer was responsible for making sure the completed vehicle was safe.
I assume these were spartan or freightliner chassis.
I’d also bet the RV manufacturers are not out of business but now part of one of the conglomerations.
Looks to me like lawyers and feds going after the deepest /easiest pockets.
Also, to be frank they are 20 years old they should all have been out of service many many years ago.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Goodyear would have known these chassis were being used for RVs though, and being a tire company, they should know whether they were acceptable or not.
Did Goodyear install the tires on the vehicles?
If Goodyear knew they were being used in an inappropriate fashion, did they alert NHTSA or whoever the appropriate oversight body?
I know, contradictory. So while Goodyear may not have specified the tires or installed them, if they knew they were being used for an "on-road" application where they were not suitable and didn't at the very least notify the vehicle manufacturer and STOP sales, they own some of the liability here.
It's the old "what did you know and when did you know it" issue.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Agreed. When ABC Motorhome Manufacturing Co. buys tires, maybe they’re going to be used on motorhomes.
How is Goodyear supposed to know that tires they ship to chassis manufacturer S or F are ultimately going to be installed on RV manufacturer FRs Class A?
A crystal ball, of course.
Does ABC Motorhome buy tires? I thought they bought a bare chassis from someone, and that chassis already had tires on it.
The Uniroyal tiger paw is the worst tire ever made imo.
wemay
Site Donor 2023
Don't all tires come with ratings meant for the type of vehicle they should be used on (speed, weight, psi, Summer, Off road etc) ? Isn't the owner of the equipment supposed to make sure the tire meets these, unless bought with the tires on the equipment when new like a new car.
Not here to point fingers but this sounds kinda like the Ford/Firestone fiasco only they aren't changing the tire pressure. If Goodyear isn't marketing these tires for the RV manufacturers then why were they installing them at all? Tires have speed and load ratings and sounds like when installed on these RV's they were well over the limit. I know installers like Costco and others will only install tires that are the oem size and speed/load ratings that the vehicle is rated for.
Honestly I feel like the lawsuit should be split between Goodyear and the RV manufacturers who were the ones actually installing the wrong type of tires.
Honestly I feel like the lawsuit should be split between Goodyear and the RV manufacturers who were the ones actually installing the wrong type of tires.
