Bad tire wear, dual axle trailer

[jethro]

Been travelling a lot with my boat this summer and recently noticed one of my tires is wearing really bad on the inside of the tire only. It's this trailer:

It's the driver side, rear axle tire, and I didn't notice it because it's only wearing on the inside edge of the tread. Wish I took a picture of the tire yesterday but it's really bald on the inside 2" of the tire. The rest of the tread looks pretty good. Anyway, I jacked up the trailer and checked the hub, it seems smooth and there is no play. What would cause the tire to wear like that? Pretty sure the tire pressures were good, but my gauge is not the best. If anything the pressure may have been a bit high. Does this mean my axle is bent? Wouldn't it be odd for my rear axle to be bent and not the front? It's a big huge torsion axle and it looks fine but who knows. Maybe it was poorly balanced?

Also, in looking for replacement tires, I notice there are two common load capacities for my size tires of 175/80/13, 6 ply load range C (1360lbs) and 8 ply load range D (1610lbs). I am only looking at radial tires. I'm guessing that my boat, motor and trailer weighs in around 4700 lbs, so technically I think I could go with either. Do I want to buy the higher weight range anyway? Or will I experience better performance with the load range C?

 

[eshaw]

I'd go with the heavier rated tires myself, just for insurance since they have more plies but I'm no expert by any means. It may be that you're experiencing tire "scrub". Is it a smooth wear or kind of choppy looking? When you turn your trailing tire tends to slide since your front one is the pivot point. The other sides tend to trail along in a bigger arc and will wear better. Just an idea.

 

[sportsman]

Hook your trailer to your tow vehicle, find a smooth level parking spot, walk behind the trailer about 25 feet or so, and sight between the front and rear tires to see if the worn tire (rear) is in line with the front tire, both vertically and laterally. Check both sides. Measure the distance between both tires on both sides, see if they are the same. Visually check everything you can. It takes only a small amount of alignment difference to wear a tire. How old is the trailer? Check the u-bolts, the rear axle could have come loose. From the picture, it looks as if the rear axle has negative camber. But that could just be an optical illusion. Just my opinion though.

 

[LDUBS]

I searched etrailer.com's Q&A section for "inside tire wear torsion axle" There were about 900 responses. I only read a few:

"A tire that is wearing more on the inside of the tread usually means that the axle is either overloaded or the tire is toed out at the bottom which could be the result of something being bent, like the spindle, or out of alignment."

"Or it could mean that the axle has been flipped over (so the bow in the axle that is supposed to be pointed up would be pointed down) and this can cause the same issue. It also decreases the axle capacity."

One suggestion is to take it to an alignment shop that can work trailers.

 

[jethro]

Yep, I think it's going to have to get looked at by an alignment shop. The axle can not be flipped over because it's a big torsion axle that has a bend in it, like this:

 

[LDUBS]

And, I would be surprised if the issue was overloading of the axle. Alignment seems like a most probable issue.

Anyway, I hope it is something simple. Keep us posted.

 

[KMixson]

I would also guess an alignment issue. If tire pressures were low it would most likely wear the inside and outside of the tire. If pressures were too high it would most likely wear the center part of the tire. Negative camber angles could wear the inside but I wouldn't bet on that in your situation. Being a trailer axle there would be no caster angle so that is out of the equation. Toe in/out would be where I would suspect the problem to be.

 

[jethro]

Toe in/out would be where I would suspect the problem to be.

But wouldn't both tires on that axle be affected if that were the case? It's only the driver side. It's definitely not overloaded, I think the GVWR of the trailer is 7000lbs. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[KMixson]

Toe in/out would be where I would suspect the problem to be.

But wouldn't both tires on that axle be affected if that were the case? It's only the driver side. It's definitely not overloaded, I think the GVWR of the trailer is 7000lbs. I'll keep everyone posted.

If you have bent parts it could cause one side to be out of tolerance while the other side is in tolerance.

 

[jethro]

So I should post an update, I think I may have ruined that tire due to a combination of things. One, I may have thrown a balance weight. I noticed when I drove with that tire last that there was a lot of vibration. When I installed the new tire I didn't notice much vibration at all. Also I drove a bit slower, it seems my trailer doesn't like 70mph but 65 is ok because there is vibration when I go 70. And also, I was not diligent keeping up with my tire pressures and they were 15 lbs too low all around. I'm sure that made things worse. Regardless, I changed the tire, made sure all the pressures were good and drove 65 for my trip to Lake Champlain last weekend and the tire looks good even with a few hundred miles of highway driving. Thank goodness the axle isn't bent because the replacement I priced out was $1300.

 

[kofkorn]

One other thing to check is to make sure your trailer is level when it is hooked up to your vehicle. If the hitch ball is too high, it throws more load on the rear axle, and could cause excessive load and wear.

Good luck!

 

[LDUBS]

One other thing to check is to make sure your trailer is level when it is hooked up to your vehicle. If the hitch ball is too high, it throws more load on the rear axle, and could cause excessive load and wear.

Good luck!

Huh, never thought of that. Thanks.

 

[jethro]

One other thing to check is to make sure your trailer is level when it is hooked up to your vehicle. If the hitch ball is too high, it throws more load on the rear axle, and could cause excessive load and wear.

Good luck!

Yes, I took it to a paved, perfectly flat parking lot and spent some time with a tape measure. My setup is perfectly level with a zero rise hitch which is what I have been using.

 

[turbotodd]

Trailer tires in general are garbage nowadays. Every single one of them. Absolute junk.

Goodyear Marathons are the least junk out of all of them but I think they quit making them here in the USA and now are producing the "Endurance" trailer tires that replace the Marathons. 2nd is Maxxis, M8008 I believe.

MOST trailer tires (with the ST rating) are only rated for 62 mph max sustained speed. Some have a higher rating but you have to look for it.

Radials wear better, pull better, and have less rolling resistance.

Out here we see TON'S of people and places selling trailer tires on wheels. None of them are balanced. The common sizes are usually less than $75, rim & tire complete. I've used a few sets on my bigger trailer. JUNK. All bias ply. Got 200 miles out of this last set. ST225/75D15 load range E. Towing right at 7000 lbs. 200 miles is ridiculous considering that the $350 (plus tax) is hard earned money. That 200 miles was ONE pull to Missouri and back. They were never hot the couple times I stopped & checked 'em but you could literally see them wearing.

One thing worth mentioning is brakes. If you have brakes on the trailer, make sure you don't have them dragging.

On tandem axles, the tires scrub in turns. So if you're making a lot of left turns, the rear left tire will wear it's inner edge faster than the other 3, and it also depends on how the axles (and tires) are loaded. You may be level but if you have more load on the front tires, yes it's gonna scrub the rears more during turning-and it's observable visually as you're turning.

IMO, if you have the room and your trailer can make use, go to 16" and run LT truck tires with a load range of D or E. Most of us racers pulling trailers have done this and extended tire life 10 fold, and they are safer to boot-as they have a higher speed rating. I can't do it as I have 5 lug 3500 lb axles and nobody makes 5 lug Ford pattern 16" trailer wheels that I have found. So I have to generally replace tires about once every 2 years-or sometimes sooner if they give me a reason to (blowout, nail hole, etc)-and is sucks because tires aren't cheap!

 

[WALI4VR]

Turbotodd,
If you are going thru tires as bad as you state SOMETHING is wrong or damaged on your rig.

'98 Lund Explorer w/ 50hp Merc 4c (Yamaha) carburetored NO torque motor

 

[turbotodd]

Turbotodd,
If you are going thru tires as bad as you state SOMETHING is wrong or damaged on your rig.

Replaced them recently and put Maxxis M8008's on the trailer. Pulled to the Motorplex from around Little Rock, 781 miles give or take (round trip), these look like they're still new. Can't tell there's any wear at all on them. I've seen this many many times...boat, utility, enclosed trailers all of them. There is some real junk out there. Even had this similar issue out of a set of BFG KO's on my truck....got 13,000 miles out of them. BFG (owned by Michelin) was no help. They basically said that there's no treadwear warranty on them. Needless to say, I didn't buy another set. I bought a set of Yokohama's which currently have 61,000 on them and I think there's still another 10-12k left before it's time to replace. No other changes, not even tire pressures.

That is why I mentioned it.

One can check alignment at home, easily. Pull trailer to a flat open parking lot. When you get into the lot, straighten the rig up while driving forward, need to go about 100' or so. Stop. Now grab a nice straight piece of pipe or whatever (I use a piece of square tubing) and lay it across the middle (or above the middle if the center cap is in the way) of front & rear tires. If there's a toe issue, you'll see a gap. String can also be used but I just use the tubing because it's what I have. You can also check the camber with a plumb bob, or like I use, a nice straight 2x4 with a shelf bracket screwed to it. A little camber is fine, up to about 1°. Any more than that and it's gonna wear the tires. Caster is built into the axle and for the most part is nonadjustable.