Forum Discussion

blacktop's avatar
blacktop
Explorer
Jul 16, 2015

tires wearing unevenly

This last trip, we had to replace the tires on the back-most axle due to uneven wear, mostly on the inside, and right to the metal core. I'm thinking that it may be caused by poor alignment. The other axle is wearing evenly.
Is there more than one adjustment for the alignment for an axle? The local mechanic says he can only do one.
  • allen8106 wrote:
    I just had mine aligned a few weeks ago before a long trip to Arizona. The guy at the axle shop told me they can only do castor and camber. They recommend that if you are going to buy new tires anytime soon to do it before the alignment. He also told me some guys have the alignment checked/adjusted every 1-3 years as a regular part of their maintenance. He said you never know when a curb of a tight turn came tweak an alignment.


    IMHO I would stay as far away from that shop as I could.
  • There is no adjustment on a trailer axle -caster, camber, toe-in like a vehicle. A frame shop can bend the axle, to improve the camber so the top of the wheel is out more than the bottom positive camber. when loaded the weight will help the tire wear more evenly.

    And bend the axle for toe-in so the wheels are straight to the frame
  • Don't go to a mechanic, take it to a good frame & axle shop with TT experience. For a couple hundred $$ or so, they will do a thorough inspection and can turn up numerous things you wouldn't even have thought of. BTDT once before and sure glad we did.
  • I just had mine aligned a few weeks ago before a long trip to Arizona. The guy at the axle shop told me they can only do castor and camber. They recommend that if you are going to buy new tires anytime soon to do it before the alignment. He also told me some guys have the alignment checked/adjusted every 1-3 years as a regular part of their maintenance. He said you never know when a curb of a tight turn came tweak an alignment.
  • What kind of mechanic?

    Our TT came to use with horrible wear to the inside of just one tire (out of 4). We had it aligned at a big rig shop and we've towed over 4K miles since then with normal wear.
  • Do you have a picture of your rig hooked up we can see? Sounds like a little heavy in the back, or riding high on the hitch.
  • Climb under your RV with a flashlight and inspect the suspension system carefully.

    Hangers, equalizers, springs and spring ends. Do the springs all appear to have the same camber? Are any of the leaves cracked?

    The bushings in most RV suspension systems are plastic, and can wear out in one year of towing.

    If you need to replace suspension parts, consider a wet bolt system that allows you to grease the wear points.
  • Inside wear on tires....both sides

    Overloading
    Bent axle .....should have upward bow in axle tube when unloaded
    Alignment

    Trailer shop can check alignment/bent axle issues (not an rv repair/parts store----truck/trailer shop)
  • What @colliehauler said. If the trailer is not level, it will wear out the tires on one axle only. If it is level, but the axles are misaligned with each other, it will wear all tires.
  • blacktop wrote:
    This last trip, we had to replace the tires on the back-most axle due to uneven wear, mostly on the inside, and right to the metal core. I'm thinking that it may be caused by poor alignment. The other axle is wearing evenly.
    Is there more than one adjustment for the alignment for an axle? The local mechanic says he can only do one.
    Do you tow level? If not you could be overloading the back axle.