Defective Tires: Close up of a flat tire in traffic

Goodyear knew of G159 tire failures for over 20 years

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. knew as early as 1996 that its G159 tires were unfit for use on recreational vehicles and motorhomes, but the company worked to keep the scope and severity of the tire’s problems out of public view, recently released court documents show.

Disastrous Consequences

Goodyear designed and manufactured its G159 275/70R 22.5 tires for use on metro and urban pickup and delivery trucks. Examples include the trucks UPS uses for local deliveries. Instead of limiting the tires for use on those vehicles, Goodyear started marketing them for use on RVs.

That decision had disastrous consequences. When driven regularly at highway speeds, the tire’s internal temperatures can overheat and cause its material to degrade. This can lead to tread separations, tire blowout, and a potentially deadly loss of vehicle control.

Goodyear’s G159 tires have been linked to hundreds of crashes because of this problem. These accidents have resulted in at least nine deaths and dozens of injuries. Alarmingly, many of the G159 tires are still in use on RVs driven by unsuspecting motorists to this day, court records obtained by the auto blog Jalopnik indicate.

Goodyear’s own internal documents point to the tire’s deadly flaw. Still, the company continued to market and sell the tires to RV owners with no warning starting in 1996. Goodyear has never conducted any safety recalls for the G159, at least not officially. The company did conduct a “silent recall” to try to fix the problem without attracting attention to it. When customers complained about the tires, they would be replaced. The people affected by the problem remain in the dark.

Concealing Failure

Documents obtained by Jalopnik also show that Goodyear drastically under-reported failures to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA requested the number of G159 failures claims Goodyear received as part of a 2006 inquiry.

Goodyear reported seven injuries from G159 tire failures, though it had received 74 death and injury claims at the time. It also reported to NHTSA that it received only 58 tire failure reports when it was aware of 458 G159 tire failures, Jalopnik reported, citing a letter sent to NHTSA by an investigating law firm.

Goodyear has fiercely worked to keep its G159 records out of public view. For years, the company has claimed the need for confidentiality to keep trade secrets. Recently opened court documents “describe an exhaustive legal campaign from Goodyear that involved obtaining secret settlements that prohibited victims from sharing evidence with anyone—including other victims—which prevented an official finding of a safety risk with the tire from being found,” according to Jalopnik.

On April 4, Superior Court of Arizona Maricopa County Judge John Hannah unsealed several hundred pages of documents concerning Goodyear’s G159 tires. The unsealing came in response to a request from the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington D.C.-based consumer watchdog.

Judge Hannah wrote:

“Goodyear’s need to maintain the confidentiality of the information or materials produced … does not come close to outweighing the public’s need [to access specific information about the G159 tire.] That information—primarily concerning the tire’s design, its testing, the decision to market it for use on motorhomes, and the adjustment data generated by consumer experience with it—should be made public because it relates to and reveals a substantial potential risk to public health or safety.”

Troubling News for RV Owners

RV owners who continue to ride around on G159 tires would likely find the trove of newly released information troubling.

Some records show an expert testifying for Goodyear that, when properly pressurized and operating at 75 mph or more, a tire such as the G159 would generate an internal temperature of 140-150 degrees. Once a tire exceeds 200 degrees, it will start to undergo heat degradation that can lead to deadly tread separations.

Goodyear did not conduct high-speed tests of the G159 until eight months after it had started selling the tires for use on RVs, the court documents reveal. When Goodyear conducted the first two high-speed G159 tests in August 1996, both tires failed in the 75 mph stretch of the test. They developed internal temperatures “well in excess of 250 degrees”— substantially higher than Goodyear’s own 194-degree threshold for tires.

Goodyear never disclosed these test results. Goodyear didn’t disclose the results when RV manufacturers became aware of tire-related crashes and sought information about G159 tire failures. Instead, the company consistently blamed RV owners for the failures. They pointed to such things as improper tire pressure, excessive vehicle loading, and hitting road debris. All the while, the company was covering up the hard evidence.

As Jalopnik observes, such claims suggest that “Goodyear believes the more than 700 property damage and casualty claims it received over the G159 were all due to user error.”

Free Case Evaluation

Since 1979, Beasley Allen has been committed to “helping those who need it most.” Our attorneys have helped thousands of clients get the justice they desperately needed and deserved. You pay us nothing if we do not win for you. Contact us today for a free case evaluation.

For Disclaimers, see our Terms of Use.

Free Case Evaluation Full - Updated

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.