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Posts: 357
Location: Duluth, MN | Is it necessary on a tandem axle trailer? And if so what pattern? Just move fronts to back and back to front? Or like a vehicle?
Thanks
Edited by bdog 3/20/2012 9:22 AM
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Posts: 373
Location: Maine Township, MN | I do it like my truck; criss-cross the fronts to the back and the backs stright up to the front. As long as your tires aren't unidirectional, then you'd have to just move the backs to the front and the fronts to the back.
Edited by nocturnalmotors 3/20/2012 10:27 AM
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Location: 31 | The inside edge on boat trailers almost always wears out before the outside edge does, at least on every boat trailer I have ever owned. Even on dual axle trailers, the rear tires inside edge wears out before the front tire inside edge.
More than once I've stuck my head under the trailer for inspection and couldn't believe how bad that inside edge of the tire was compared to the outside edge. I've actually considered having a tire shop flip the tire around on the wheel because it seems like such a waste, but have always just opted for replacement.
I never rotate them because both sides seem to wear the inside edge out evenly, I did replace only the two rear tires on my dual axle trailer last fall, and plan on basically replacing them two at a time in the future.
Edited by Jerry Newman 3/20/2012 10:29 AM
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Posts: 357
Location: Duluth, MN | Thanks for the info guys |
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Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Couldn't agree more here on how the tires seem to wear on the inside edge more. I often wonder if this is due to how much the trailer can bounce along as you go down the highway with no shock absorber, thus causing the axle to lose allignment (camber) just due to the repetitive bouncing.
I had to replace last year, but did notice one side was worse than the other, so I swapped sides to try and get a little more longevity out of the set (4 years on those I believe). Ended up that the tire that was wearing badly was out of round... so bad to the point you could see it.
Steve |
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Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Yes you do need to rotate them. I didn't and had a set of bald ones and the others had 50%+ of tread on them. I just do front to back. |
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Location: 31 | VMS - 3/20/2012 6:27 PM
Couldn't agree more here on how the tires seem to wear on the inside edge more. I often wonder if this is due to how much the trailer can bounce along as you go down the highway with no shock absorber, thus causing the axle to lose allignment (camber) just due to the repetitive bouncing. Steve
That's probably as good a guess as any as to why that wears on the inside edge. I use to think it was from overloading the boat when I had a single axle trailer, but then noticed the same thing happens on my dual axle trailers... so.
I suppose I look at trailer tires a lot differently than I do my vehicles tires. On my vehicles I prefer to have 4 matching (tread wear too) tires, but not so much on my boat trailer.
As a matter of fact my boat trailer has two radials, and two bias ply tires on it right now because I'm not so convinced that radials are worth the extra money on a trailer (The two radials are original).
Not only that, (I actually have three dual axle trailers, boat, enclosed, open) when you change out all four tires at once it's obviously a larger expense and some tires are better than others and don't necessarily need to be replaced.
FYI, it's also easy to change one tire on a dual axle trailer by pulling the tire next to it onto a block, thereby lifting the one you want to change off the ground without a jack.
Edited by Jerry Newman 3/21/2012 12:08 PM
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Posts: 399
Location: WI | What about getting the axle etc alligned? I checked with an allignment shop that specializes in heavy trucks & trailers and was told $200 approx. to allign the axle. Has anyboby else done this, or just replace the tires more often? |
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Location: 31 | Emptynet - 3/23/2012 3:02 PM
What about getting the axle etc alligned? I checked with an allignment shop that specializes in heavy trucks & trailers and was told $200 approx. to allign the axle. Has anyboby else done this, or just replace the tires more often?
I think the problem is the trailer can be perfectly aligned at rest, but things change as it bounces down the road. On my last boat the problem was so severe that I had a reinforcing gusset installed on my my trailer axle to help. It worked excellent, but the tires still wore down on the inside edge prematurely. |
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