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Posts: 2024
| We've got a single axle trailer for our Crestliner and I was noticing a little uneven wear on the tires the last time I had it out. The inside edge was more worn than the outside edge. Admittedly, I'm pretty bad at remembering to check tire pressure on the trailer (not on my truck though). I'm guessing this is contributing to the problem, but does anyone rotate their own trailer tires and find it helps extend the life of the tire?
The other issue (hopefully minor) was with our 135 Opti ('03). I could feel VERY slight vibrations coming through the hull (felt on my feet). They were rhythmic, not a constant vibration. Our prop's been the victim of a few meetings with Canadian shield rocks and so the blades have a few chips in them. The skeg has a little bit chipped off of the bottom, too. I'm inclined to believe the vibrations are coming from the prop and have nothing to do with the skeg. I'm planning on purchasing another prop anyway, but do you think this will get rid of those minor vibrations? |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya!!
Yes and Yes...
Prop: When you bend and/or chip a prop, the prop will be out of balance, thus when spinning there will be vibration, and the amount of vibration would be dependent on how badly the prop has been dinged.
Skeg: In most cases, a bent or chipped skeg will cause steering torque of some sort.. More issue for you in turning than anything else.
Tires: If they are wearing on the inside edge, I would be wondering if the axles are not perfectly level with the earth. If they are not level, the wear on the inner portion of the tire would lead me to believe the axles are bent up on the outside as compared to the main beam between the axles.
I rotated my tires this past year to help try and extend the life of the tires since I had one tire wearing on the inside and the other was just fine. Switched them out, and found the tire that wore on the inside was actually out of round.
Steve |
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Posts: 5874
| Prop as Steve says.
Axle has cambered in over time. Pretty normal actually. This can be corrected at a frame and axle shop. |
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| Before going to an axle shop, have the wheels balanced... |
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I'm assuming your running a stainless steel prop? Aluminum props don't last long hitting rocks. You very easily could have a bent prop shaft also, I would have that checked out also. If that's bent, you will have a much more expensive problem.
I hit a rock with my Opti three years ago motoring under 10 mph and it bent my shaft, it doesn't take much to tweak that with a stainless steel prop. |
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| It's aluminum. |
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Your prop shaft will be fine then. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | I had the same issue with my tires on my trailer 2 years ago. Original tires that came with the trailer and were pushing 4 years old. Had the axle checked and it was fine. Then I did some digging and found out that my boat WITHOUT a full tank of gas and all of my musky and walleye gear in it was literally at max capacity for the trailer. So, with a full tank and all the extra gear that I could not fit in the bed of the truck --- coolers, 30 packs of beverages for the weekend trip, kids bikes, etc. --- put the trailer past it's max load capacity. Thus putting extra weight on the axle and causing the inside edges of the tires to make majority of the contact with the road. Put new radial tires on and had them balanced. Have not put anything besides fishing gear and a 1/2 tank in the boat and the tires look pretty close to brand new. Always check the pressure. |
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Trailer Tires and Optimax Question