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Posts: 189
Location: West Bend, WI | Hi guys, I have an Alumacraft Navi 175 on a yacht club trailer(2005). Last year I had to replace both trailer tires. They had a weird tread wear to them. My brother has an 18 ft Princecraft and he mentioned how much harder my boat is to pull. We were thinking that maybe the axle was not square on the trailer. That would explain the odd wear on the tires, I think. How is the best way to check your trailer for this? Is that common for trailers to go out of alignment? Thanks for any help.
Matt |
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Posts: 1405
Location: Detroit River | I would think you could measure from the axel to the back of the trailer on each side. Both sides should have the same measurement. Also have someone drive behind you as you pull your boat to see if the trailer looks like it's not straight. |
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Posts: 299
Location: Not where I want to be! | Take a measurement from the center of each hub to the center of the ball coupling. The measurement should be the same on both sides. That will show the "out of square" issue. If thats good, the axle may be bent. An alignment shop can take care of that. |
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Posts: 1660
Location: central Wisconsin | I align vehicles for a living, including a fair number of trailers. Normally the only way an axle would get out of square is if one of the centering bolts on the leaf break or the tongue gets bent. More likely you have toe issues which means the tires are not running parallel to each other. This can be checked roughly by measuring between the tires front versus back. Should be very close to zero, like within 1/16". I would recommend taking it to a good shop that can accurately diagnose and fix it though. |
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Posts: 441
| My trailor was only two years old, when I started noticing one of my tires was wearing on the outside.
Found out the axle was out of square. by less than an inch. Got it square, and it's all good.
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Posts: 273
| Do you have bias tires or radial? Bias tires will wear unevenly quickly. I have seen bias tires that are complete junk after a couple thousand miles. |
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Posts: 3486
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | hi matt,
Can you describe the tread wear or take a picture of it?
Thanks
Steve |
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Posts: 399
Location: WI | the inside 1/3 of both of my trailer tires have a weird scalloped looking wear pattern. the middle & outside of the tread is fine on both tires. Any thoughts? |
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Posts: 791
Location: Delavan, WI | I agree with Peaches- had a boat about 12 years ago that I bought brand new- the stock trailer bias ply tires wore on the edges all choppy and feather edged within 2-3 yrs- replaced them with radials and ran that boat another 5 years without any issues- check to see if they are bias ply, and if so replace them with radials! |
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Posts: 3486
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
Without seeing the actual pattern, it sounds like the tires are cupped on the inside edge. The wear on the inside indicates the axles are slightly bent upward, making the contact patch of the tire on the inside edge. The cupping could be due to a couple of factors, with suspension alignment being one of them, but in many cases it is an unbalanced tire.
It doesn't take much to change the location of the contact patch by having axles that are not exactly parallel to the ground. A good shop can get them adjusted, then new tires balanced, and I think you will be good to go.
Steve |
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Posts: 5874
| You have negative camber. Happens over time, especially on single axle trailers loaded near or above rated. Take it to a good frame and axle shop. They will
bend the axles to correct camber and toe, and square the axle to the coupler. Then get new radial trailer tires, and get them balanced. I would weight the trailer empty, and with the boat on it to determine if you are within the rating of the trailer.
Edited by Shep 3/25/2013 9:47 AM
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Posts: 189
Location: West Bend, WI | Steve, I changed tires last summer and got rid of the old ones. I should've taken pictures. It was unlike and wear I have ever seen before. This is something I found online that is somewhat similar. In my case, the tire was bald on the inside and outside of the tread. This isn't exactly it but getting closer.
Edited by mrmatt 3/25/2013 4:44 PM
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Posts: 8793
| mrmatt - 3/25/2013 4:39 PM
Steve, I changed tires last summer and got rid of the old ones. I should've taken pictures. It was unlike and wear I have ever seen before. This is something I found online that is somewhat similar. In my case, the tire was bald on the inside and outside of the tread. This isn't exactly it but getting closer.
Matt, if your tires aren't cupped or scalloped and are simply wearing on the edges of the tire, that's most likely a case of improper inflation (i.e. not enough air) Conversly, if the center of the tread is wearing out before the edges, it's a case of too much air. I'm sure you've thought of that, but if you're checking your tire pressure when you stop for gas, you're going to get a higher reading (i.e hot tire vs cold) than you normally would.
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Posts: 189
Location: West Bend, WI | Yep, I am doing that. Always check tire pressure. They guy that replaced the tires noticed the wear also. He told me it was from turning on pavement while going slow, like at a landing. Not sure about that... |
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Posts: 189
Location: West Bend, WI | I just did a search on scalloped tires. I did not know that term before. My tires were scalloped, but in the middle. I am doing my best to describe it, sorry. Thanks all. |
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Posts: 8793
| Matt, that could also just be a case of bad tires. If you run them too high or too low and they overheat, the stuctural integrity of the tire can get compromised. In the case of radial tires, belts can shift or start to seperate. In extreme situations, the tire will actually come apart. As for the "turning on pavement" idea? Well, that's possible, but you'd have to drive around in circles an awful lot! |
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Posts: 189
Location: West Bend, WI | Thanks for the help! |
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Posts: 66
Location: North Central, Indiana | I just put new tires on and the old ones sorta looked like the picture above. The tire dealer said the chords had separated in the tires causing that kinda of wear |
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Posts: 379
Location: Thief River Falls MN | Does it have brakes? I had a tire wear on the inside once and it turn out the cylinder was stuck slightly out and the resistance caused uneven wear on that side... |
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Location: Des Moines IA | My tires did that exact same thing. I took it in to my axle guy, he squared the axle, and replaced one of the hubs as it was not perpendicular to the axle. Put new tires on it, took it back to check alignment, haven't had a problem since. I did put Goodyear marathons on it as well. |
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Posts: 3486
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
Unless you are running a tandem axle, turning with a single axle would not cause that kind of wear.
That picture is a tire that I would say is out of balance...bumping up and down the road and probably a tad side to side, which would cause the wear in the picture. Combine that with The negative camber (thanks shep...couldn't remember which camber it was) and you have a recipe for bad tire wear. The out of balance situation causes the bouncing, and the negative camber causes the wear at an angle. As the tire bounces, the contact patch changes from the edge to the center, thus the diagonal wear.
Alignment and balance and you should be good.
Steve |
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Posts: 540
| I agree with the last post here by VMS completely. That should take care of it perfectly! |
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Posts: 456
Location: Kansas City BBQ Capitol of the world | It was good to see this post here and other people have experienced the weird tire wear. Same thing here with the outside tread looking like it's been shaved off. So your saying the culprit is tire inflation? I was thinking that Lowe used the cheapest tires available on their trailers. I don't know but I know I don't like it and I'm not crazy about needing to buy a new set of tires every year. I'll check the pressure with the new ones a little more and if you have any other ideas let me know.
Thanks,
Ron
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Posts: 456
Location: Kansas City BBQ Capitol of the world | Re-reading the thread I saw someone mentioned balancing. That makes sense as I never had the tires balanced. I just drove it off the dealers lot and thought it was good.
I'll try that with the new set.
Thanks,
Ron |
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Posts: 319
Location: Tomahawk,Wis | I had a brand new G-3 and I was wearing out the tires fast uneven wear.
Went back to the dealer turns out the factory put to light of an axle on the trailer..
Went to the next size up and that took care of the tire wear..
Wally |
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Posts: 456
Location: Kansas City BBQ Capitol of the world | One thing I looked at is the tire rating. Looking at my tire size they have:
Load Rating C that has a maximum load of 1,360 lbs at 50 psi and
Load Rating D that has a maximum load of 1,610 lbs at 65 psi.
With all my gear and full of gas maybe I exceeded the load rating and I have the C's. You think that might cause that wear issue if I was over 1,360 lbs? Just throwing it out there.
Ron
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Posts: 273
| Each tire is rated for the max load. It would be 1360 x 2 or 2720 lbs total. |
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Posts: 456
Location: Kansas City BBQ Capitol of the world | Your right. That probably eliminates that idea then.
Ron
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Posts: 540
| In my experience I know alot of tire shops wont even balance trailer tires unless you tell them to do it. |
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Posts: 8793
| rjhyland - 3/26/2013 5:47 PM
It was good to see this post here and other people have experienced the weird tire wear. Same thing here with the outside tread looking like it's been shaved off. So your saying the culprit is tire inflation? I was thinking that Lowe used the cheapest tires available on their trailers. I don't know but I know I don't like it and I'm not crazy about needing to buy a new set of tires every year. I'll check the pressure with the new ones a little more and if you have any other ideas let me know.
Thanks,
Ron
Ron, if your issue was underinflation, you'd be showing even wear on both sides of the tire, or even wear in the center of the tire in the case of overinflation.
This is definitely an alignment issue, based on the picture. If I remember correctly, negative camber will cause the tire to wear on the inside, positive camber will cause wear on the outside. Essentially, your tires aren't flat on the ground when you are going down the road. (My experience is all automotive, but I suspect trailers are the same)
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Posts: 456
Location: Kansas City BBQ Capitol of the world | Thanks esox. I'll take a look at that and give it a try.
Ron |
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Posts: 706
Location: Richland Center, WI. | I had the same type of wear on the tires last year. Found out it was a toe in problem. Took the trailer to a shop (boat loaded on trailer). After a couple measurements it was found that the right tire, as viewed from behind the trailer was tipped in 1" with the left tire being tipped in 3/4". Shop tweaked the axle a little and I have not had a problem since. This rig was purchased new in 2005 and this is now my third set of tires. Figured the first set were cheap tires. Put on the second set and never gave them a thought until just before a trip "up north". Figured I better get it figured out and it looks like I did. No abnormal tire wear and it seems to go down the road a little easier too.
Ken |
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Posts: 833
| Under inflation and loose lug nuts caused that "scalloped" wear pattern on my rig. I was an ignoramous on stuff like that, but learned my lesson... Since replacing and paying more attention to these two things I haven't had the issue again. |
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