Tire/Axle Question

campermama wrote:

JBarca wrote:

campermama wrote:
My travel trailer has Dexter tandem axles. I noticed both tires on the front axle have slight cupping on the outside of the tires.
My fresh water tank is just behind that front axle and over the rear axle.
My question is could having more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle be causing this?
I don't travel with a full tank but I do have 1/3 - 2/3 filled sometimes since I only boondock.

Everything on or around the axle looks fine otherwise.

The added weight of fresh water normally does not create outside tire wear, but axle or wheel alignment can. A pure weight overload more often points to inside tire wear due to loss of correct wheel camber assuming nothing else is messed up.

It would help to know a few things to better understand your tire wear. Here are a few items.

1. How old is the camper?
2. How many approx. miles are on the tires with the wear you now have since the tires were new? (if you know, or how many miles have you put on if you bought the camper used?)

3. Does the camper have leaf spring axles or a torsion axles?

4. Can you post some pics of the thread wear across the face of the tire in clear focus and lighting on all 4 tires? And which pic goes with which wheel location for front or rear tire and left or right tire. And yes, the rear tires help add to the story even if the wear is not as gross amount like the front.

Tire wear (assuming the the tires have not being rotated since new) help tell a story on wheel alignment.

Trailer running gear alignment issues comes from many places. Starting with the hangers welded on wrong on day 1 from the factory, axles being made wrong, worn suspension parts, loose wheel bearings, overloading of the axles, and wheel alignment damage from hitting curbs, pot holes or any other kind of bump at speed to name a few of the common issues.

Sadly, tire wear on campers is common when the wheel alignment is out of tolerance. And it happens somewhat frequently. When the wheels are in proper alignment and the axles not in overload, you will get even wear on the tire face for the life of the tire, other then minor normal outside tire turning wear which is not cupping. When they are out of alignment, the tires scrub the road wearing wrong rather then roll straight ahead.

Hope this helps,

John

PS. There are ways to correct the problems, but it helps first to know what the issue may be to tell you what to correct short of a quick answer, just take it to a RV dealer and let them deal with it. Not all RV dealers can handle trailer axle alignment, the shop needs to know and have the equipment for measuring all aspects of wheel alignment and later correcting the root cause of what is wrong.

I am not talking about it being overweight. I'm saying ALL the weight of the fresh water tank is on the REAR axle. So I am wondering if the FRONT axle with the cupping tire wear, doesn't have enough weight on it??

The trailer is a 2020, I bought it new. Tires are goodyear endurance, probably have about 10k miles on them. Trailer has leaf springs.Just noticed the cupping after the last 2k trip in which I carried more fresh water than usual. The "issue" is only on the front axle tires. Rear axle tires are fine! I'll try to get pictures today.

Annd HERE is what Dexter says..

Page 77..


Click For Full-Size Image.

Cupping can come from an out of balance issue or wheel bearing adjustment issue according to Dexter axles manual.

I have seen tires just suddenly start wearing unevenly for no reason at all as they get some miles on them.

This spring had rear set of tires on my TT start wearing the outside edges quickly (about 300 miles into a 2K mile round trip was down to the wear bars), never had that happen before, loaded the same way as past so no change there, same tow vehicle with same setup no change there.. Only can assume that the tires were just simply done and needed replaced. The replacements have nearly 1K miles on them and look OK..

Had a tire that broke a belt on my other trailer a few yrs back, caused a bulge in the tread area, tire was only 2 yrs old and less than 2K miles on it.

My tire shop tells me once they start wearing odd, nothing can slow it down or fix it other than replacing..