All 4 tires are wearing on the sides. with all wheels rotating in the same direction, 3 are wearing on one side while the 4th is wearing on the opposite side. It is a visible case of you can obviously tell its a scuffing type of wear. Right now the trailer is at getaway rv for them to fix our fridge as it runs on 110 only. We have a 5 year warranty so it's going to be covered. I also asked them to look into what is causing the tires to scuff on the sides. I also told them if that is not covered under warranty then I would take it to pacific axle and spring. I even joked with them about they know axles but you know fridges kind of thing. They asked about repacking the bearings and I told them it's never been done. They tell me they need to be repacked every 4000 miles. Is there any truth to repacking every 4k. I would say NO. I also raised the wheels off the ground to check for movement and found none. I also told them I know how to repack bearings as I have a boat with bearing buddies. So do the bearings need to be repacked every 4000 miles, what could cause scuffing on the sides. Do you think this will be warrantied. What about the tire costs. I don't like the idea of replacing the tires every few years. I tow it maybe 400 miles twice a year and I guess the trailer has maybe 3500 miles on it.

Typical service writer BS in IMHO. I was told the other day by a service writer that the vibration my Dmax has might be cause by my mud flaps or my step rails. :RI "check" my bearings about every 7 years or so. I just checked them about two weeks ago. They were fine and I smeared a little grease in them and called it good. I put about 3 to 5K a year on my trailer so what? A little over 20 to 25 thousand miles and I have never found them to be bad. Most of the time I just pull the hub off take a peak, adjust the brakes and put it back together.I know you will find people on this forum that insist to do it every year. IMHO they would make great service writers. :BIf the outside tire wear is opposite of the inside tire wear I would suspect the axel out of square.If both are wearing on the outside I suspect a bent axel. I also suspect your dealer will try to weasel out of any warrantee work. :MGood luck.

When I was a service manager we had a small fleet of trucks and trailers. DOT required us to do a yearly safety inspection and keep a log of maintenance. We did maintenance every 3 months, we would pull off one wheel and check the bearings and brakes. Some salesmen would put 15,000 miles on a trailer in 3 months but we almost never repacked the bearing after only 3 months and sometimes the trailer would go a year.. They were mostly only 6 and 8 ton trailers but they had Dexter axles the same as many RV have.

Turtle n Peeps hit the nail on the head about the weaseling deal. :R

Ok, I reread my post and realized I maligned and grouped a bunch of service writers in one lump.This is not the thing to do and I apologize for doing this. I intended no offence to all the good service writers and managers of the world like I'm sure K Charles is. I'm also sure there are thousands of great service writers in the world.I just had a bad week with a service writers and my truck and have had bad luck meeting the good ones out there. :)Sooooooo, to all you good service writers out there, I apologize and I did not mean to offend. Keep up the good work!To all you bad service writers out there you know who you are and you suck! LOL

Hey Turtle....okay with me, as think so similar...yes not an absolute that theyare all bad or incompetent...but of all the decades dealing with service writersfrom pretty much all the badges...have only met *ONE* guy who was worth his saltHe quickly became a manager and then disappeared. Asked and they said he openedup his own shop.

ALL wheels wearing on one side with scuffing | Good Sam Community

JIMNLIN
Explorer III
Jul 14, 2013
My current 5th wheel RV trailer aliegn I had in '08 was 475 bucks but that included new pins and bushings and only right side stub front axle had to much toe in which showed on the tires wear pattern.

It takes some heavy equipment to bend RV size axles on up to semi size trailer axles back to specs.
Turtle_n_Peeps
Explorer
Jul 13, 2013
Edzzed wrote:
So it was all about toe in and out. One wheel had .1 on the camber. the rest were zero degrees camber. The alignment shop set all wheels at .4 deg camber. On the front axle toe was -5/32 and -1/32 They set both to +1/32. On the rear axle, toe was -1/16 and -1/32, They also set them to +1/32. Seems the warranty people feel -5/32 is an acceptable tolerance and won't cover it. One question for those who have had all the wheels re-aligned is what did it cost. They seem to think 440.00 is reasonable while I think it's over priced when you can get an alignment on a car done much cheaper.

When you align wheels on a car you just bust two bolts loose and adjust it.

Not so with a trailer. It's a very slow process of bending. It's also very tough to set up with chains and jacks. Much like straightening a frame on a car. $440 sounds reasonable to me.
Edzzed
Explorer
Jul 13, 2013
So it was all about toe in and out. One wheel had .1 on the camber. the rest were zero degrees camber. The alignment shop set all wheels at .4 deg camber. On the front axle toe was -5/32 and -1/32 They set both to +1/32. On the rear axle, toe was -1/16 and -1/32, They also set them to +1/32. Seems the warranty people feel -5/32 is an acceptable tolerance and won't cover it. One question for those who have had all the wheels re-aligned is what did it cost. They seem to think 440.00 is reasonable while I think it's over priced when you can get an alignment on a car done much cheaper.
Carrera_man
Explorer
Jul 09, 2013
I had this problem last year with the enclosed trailer I had. It got worse and worse over time and when I was on a trip to N.C. the spindle broke. I was just barely able to get it to a shop and have the axle completely rebuilt. Even the other side that didn't break was starting to go. The main part of the axles still had its arch, however where the spindles were welded were starting to fail causing negative camber which creates severe inside tire wear. Negative camber is great for most race cars who participate in road racing, not so good for trailers. You really want zero camber on a trailer.
Edzzed
Explorer
Jul 09, 2013
JBarca wrote:
OK the diagram is a good start.

What is the year,make and model of the camper? I'll look it up and see if anything sticks out.
It is a 24ft Sidetrak by Gulfstream. manufacture date of April 2008. The trailer is now at a wheel alignment shop. Had to tow it out there myself. They say they will look at it and call both me and the RV shop as they are handling the claim for the warranty.
goducks10
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
From the OP's pics it looks like inside tire wear. Could be camber (not enough) or undersized axles. If your axles are undersized then just the weight of the TH will cause them to bow down too much. If they are the right size axle then it's possible there isn't enough camber built in from a manufacturing error. Or they are upside down. Too much camber will cause wear on the outer edges, not enough camber will cause wear on the inner edges.

To the OP, when they rebend the axles they use a combination of chains and hydraulic pumps. They have dials set up to read the amount of pressure they are using. They also set up a triangle between the axles and the tongue. I had mine rebent a few years ago and the tech guy added extra camber as the axles were on the softer side. It's done all the time and is the only thing that can be done to fix bent axles. If it's under cambered then the factory needs to get new ones. I wouldn't want the old ones to be bent even though it's common practice. I'd would just want my TH to be built with the right axles.
stetwood
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
Sounds like an alignment, not wheel bearings. Take it to a truck axle alignment shop. If it was the bearings they would be wobbly and would also probably have burnt out already. HOW TO READ TIRE WEAR ON CARS This can be applied to trailers as well.
JBarca
Nomad II
Jul 07, 2013
OK the diagram is a good start.

What is the year,make and model of the camper? I'll look it up and see if anything sticks out.
Edzzed
Explorer
Jul 06, 2013
about the best pic to show where the tires are wearing would be the green paint. Yeah, I'd say bearings are due for a repack. I can do that as i tear my boat trailer axles apart every year to redo them. I'm not too worried about what the problem is, It will be fixed & done under warranty.
Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum limit of 640px maximum width.
JBarca
Nomad II
Jul 06, 2013
Hi Edzzed,

OK pics showed up while I was posting.

Can you please tell us which pic goes where on the camper? It is a whole lot easier to help if we know what pic goes where.

Or better make a diagram, here is mine

I would do the 4 foot level check o the axle tube and tell us which pic goes to which tire. Get all 4 tires.

Also heads up, you might want to run over a truck scale and get a certified weight slip before heading to the truck shop. Split the axles on the scale to get a front and rear axle weight and individual wheel weights. Make sure all the toys and weight are in it adn teh WD hitch is engaged

Like this

Then split the front and rear axle on 2 scales

Then ideally find a scale where you can get individual wheel weights. pull 1/2 on and 1/2 off and split the axles.

Campers are not built even left to right and all 4 wheels can have different weights

One never knows how good or bad you are until the scales tell you. Trust me, every time I go, where the heck did that weight come from??

Good luck

John

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