Tires wearing on outside

[owenssailor]

The tires on my trailer are showing heavy wear on the outside of the tires. This is worst on the right hand side.

The tires are 205/75 14 Marathons. They have been kept at 50 PSI. The trailer was made Mar 2011. I don't know the tire date. There are no signs of sidewall cracking.

The axles are Dexter.

Does this indicate bent axles?

I need new tires for sure.

Thanks
Peter

[RJsfishin]

http://www.procarcare.com/includes/content/resourcecenter/encyclopedia/ch25/25readtirewear.html

There are many on this forum that don't have a clue.

[mikestock]

I had a problem like this years ago. Found a local guy who did alignment on tandem trailer axles. He actually had a setup with jacks to bend the axles to true them. Made axles parallel and perpendicular to the hitch.

I watched as he appeared to know his stuff. Showed me his alignment readings as he progressed. Appeared to do the trick.

[Ron3rd]

cyntdon2010 wrote:
should be 65 PSI. your tire are underinflated.

TOSS them out, don't risk a blow out.

I disagree. I had those same size Marathons on my old trailer and max psi was 50 psi. This is a 14" tire.

[patperry2766]

Kuhmo Radial 857

If your looking to replace tires down the road, alot of people will suggest Maxxis, but you might want to consider these as well. I put these on last summer and I could tell an immediate improvement. No other 14" tire has the load capacity of these and they're 99 mph speed rated.

[owenssailor]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Looking at the tires again this morning I see that the wear is not even around the tire. Some parts of the tire has tread that is fine. Just the way the trailer is sitting now the worn tread is up and visible. If the tires were turned 90 degrees the heavy wear would not be visible.

So I'm suspecting failure of the tires since being out of camber or alignment should cause wear all the way around the tire.

Still need to get it checked and decide on which tires to get from what is available.

[time2roll]

Raymon wrote:
Interesting. How was it determined that the belt had shifted or broken? I am just curious

Ray

Maybe it is harder to see in a picture but the tire is fairly out of round. The tread is variably out of shape across the surface. About 3/4 up on the left you can see the tread actually ripping apart. Also 100 miles prior the tire to the rear lost the entire tread coming down I5 though Los Angeles. Still held air.

It is a Denman Express ST205/75R15-D about four years old.

[brulaz]

Had a similar wear pattern with my old trailer. Trailmanor replaced the axle with a higher rated one under warranty.

[Chris_Bryant]

It is actually normal for trailer tires to wear the outside more than the inside- due to the tall aspect of the trailer and crowned roads. Most axle alignment problems cause cupping, rather than straight wear.

[RJsfishin]

Read his lips, he said both tires are doing it.
That means the "toe in" is toed in too much, which means "bent axle.
The tire showing the least wear is loaded the heaviest, giving it a little more traction, meaning a little less scrubbing than the other.

If it was "camber" causing the problem, the camber would have to be really bad meaning a really bad bent axle.
At any rate, fix the trailer before tearing up a new pair of tires !

[Raymon]

smkettner wrote:
Here is one of mine with an internal belt shifted or broken. Initially I though the alignment was out.



Actually the alignment was out a bit but did not cause the wear issue.

Interesting. How was it determined that the belt had shifted or broken? I am just curious

Ray

[64thunderbolt]

Good luck. PM sent

[owenssailor]

64thunderbolt wrote:
you are correct forgot you said outside. but it seems the camber is out if like I said if both ends of the axle are wearing like this

It does look like the camber is out. The right side is the worst especially on the front tire. Tomorrow I'll try to find a shop in Tucson that can check trailer axle allignment.

[64thunderbolt]

you are correct forgot you said outside. but it seems the camber is out if like I said if both ends of the axle are wearing like this

[owenssailor]

64thunderbolt wrote:
Has the trailer been overloaded? Looks as if the camber is way out if they are wearing like this on either end of the axle.

The trailer has been weighed and is well under the GVWR. Also speed has bee kept to around 62 MPH tops.

The wear is on the outside edge of the tire. I think that any overload would cause the tire to be tilted out at the bottom, not in.
Thanks
Peter