Trailer tires wearing weird. New tires?

Danger_Ranger

Danger_Ranger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2008
Location
Star NC
So I noticed today that the inside of my trailer tires are wearing much faster than the rest of the tire. But it's only on the rear axle. Any ideas? Bent spindle, or axle?
 
Could be a camber issue from a bent axle, spindle, or slack in the bearings. It could also be from them scrubbing when you turn and being slightly under inflated.
 
Mine wore funny until I switched to radial tires.
 
Bent axle is the most common problem causing inside wear. The trailer axle beam between the spring perches, when unloaded, should have a slight upward arch to it. If it's flat or bent down when unloaded, you need a new axle.
 
ghost said:
Mine was a bent axle. They over tightened the u bolt on one side.
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Mine is torsion axle and no idea how or when it happened. We rolled out for Moab and both rear tires blew, 1 before out of SC and 1 in GA. Replaced them and rolled on with no more problems, but the new ones had obvious wear on insides after the 4k mile trip.
 
Couldn't hurt...
 
Next question, have any of you guys ever cut off a bent spindle (brake axle if that changes anything) and welded on a new one? If so, how bad was it?
 
LBarr2002 said:
We rolled out for Moab and both rear tires blew, 1 before out of SC and 1 in GA. Replaced them and rolled on with no more problems, but the new ones had obvious wear on insides after the 4k mile trip.
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That sounds like the trailer is nose high. Torsion axles are independent, so aren't capable of balancing load between the front and rear axles. If the nose of the trailer is high, the rear axle carries more of the weight. I'm not sure why they're wearing strangely - it could be a byproduct of deflection. The other possibility is that you just got unlucky and picked up debris in both rear tires (normal for any trailer to lose middle/rear axle tires at a higher rate), but that doesn't explain the uneven wear.
 
shawn said:
That sounds like the trailer is nose high. Torsion axles are independent, so aren't capable of balancing load between the front and rear axles. If the nose of the trailer is high, the rear axle carries more of the weight. I'm not sure why they're wearing strangely - it could be a byproduct of deflection. The other possibility is that you just got unlucky and picked up debris in both rear tires (normal for any trailer to lose middle/rear axle tires at a higher rate), but that doesn't explain the uneven wear.
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Trailer was dead level. I believe it was a combination of the bent spindle (which was confirmed after the trip) and defective tires. The tires were only two years old, but both rears blew (on the bent axle). I had two new Maxxis spares, so they went on the rear. We found a place to get tires and bought two new goodyears. I was swapping the original fronts for the goodyears to have all new tires and a cord poked me from one of the fronts, so they were about to go.

We made the trip with the maxxis on the rear and goodyears on front, maxxis were worn funny when we got home. Replaced axle, put the other two new goodyears on back and maxxis in box for spares.

I'll probably never put 4,000 miles on it again to see how they wear...

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So since 2 of my tires are now bald on the insides, I'm thinking of just getting 4 new ones. The tires on there now are 205/75/15 load range D. I would like to upgrade to load range E, but seems a tire in this size and load range E are a little uncommon. I've found a couple brands on Amazon, the reviews are kinda mixed. Just wondering what you folks recommend or have experience with. Thanks.
 
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