TIRE WEAR

Mike - I have been surfing the AUSSIE sites alot of late - I have a jewel here with my OFF-ROAD 2008 Starcraft 14RT trailer. I'm wanting to change a few things with how to better use the front deck on it and come up with something like this Aussie model except I will have a 12-foot box. I will just mod the 5x8 deck space for better use of storage of necessary off-road things.


This is what one of the AUSSIE trailers looks like


I of course want to beef up the suspension as well and this is probably what I will eventually end up with...


Finding US sources may be a problem for these things... The pull out metal drawers will probably have to be fabricated...

Just pipe dreams right now...

Roy Ken

MIKE - I did find this from google search for an earlier STARCRAFT wheel system... Maybe the OP has something like this... This doesn't have springs or shocks - amazing... Certainly no alignment adjustments here.





I'm always 'TOO' interested in how some of these things are put together...

Roy Ken

RoyB,

The Aussies build some nice trailers for off-road, that's for sure! I wish someone here would build some like that, but I'm sure they're too expensive for a major market here.

My guess for the OPs trailer is that it is a torsion bar type of axle, instead of a straight axle on leaf springs. I was mostly just being a smart-a$$ with my comment about a non-axle trailer. I figured it's either and independent set-up like the Aussie one you showed or torsion bars. Most likely the torsion bar setup if it doesn't have leaves.

JOEPOPUP - Been looking all over google for photos of your NON AXLE 1997 Starcraft. I guess the GALAXY is a 1224 model.

Any chance I could get a photo of your non-axle setup. Curious how Starcraft did this for the POPUP.

thanks

Roy Ken

AirForceAngler

I have really been wanting to replace my axle with something like this that alot of the AUSSIE OFF-ROAD trailers are currently using... I wasn't aware of NO AXLEs in 1997 for Starcraft POPUPs as well. Might have to look-see what they was doing then..

These independent suspensions wheels are what I was really looking for to help my OFF-ROAD trips with my POPUP.



Roy Ken

I noticed I was wearing the inside of one of my OFF-ROAD POPUP tires after around 10K miles.

This all started for me when I made many trips between Gatlinburg TN and Silver Lake MS which took me down I59 in Northern ALA which was very rough going over the lifted concrete slabs every 8-10 feet. My poor POPUP would be coming off the ground no matter what speed you was running. What happened to me was I lost the wheel weights on one side of my POPUP trailer. I also was not happy with my mounted shocks which were mounted almost at a 45 degree angle to my full axle. After welding in a new bracket the shocks now look like this google photo...


After changing tires, getting better shocks, and making sure my wheels stayed balanced thing improved tire wear wise big time.

I know this doesn't address your problem all that much but I did have excessive wear on the inside of one of my tires due to the above listed experience.

My OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer weighs in around 4200lbs when on the road...

I have at least 40K now on the two new OFF-ROAD tires and all still looks good. No bouncing going down the road either.

Roy Ken

JOEPOPUP wrote:
Hi, I am new to this site. I have scoured the internet looking for help with no luck. Here is my problem. I have a 1979 Starcraft Galaxy pop up.
I put new tires on it and have traveled about 1000 miles on them. After my last trip I noticed that both tires had excessive wear on the inside tread. The rest of the tire is still good it has plenty of tread. The pop up is an axle-less type. Anyone have an idea what caused the wear, and what to do to correct it.

What is an "axle-less" trailer? Doesn't that make a lot of sparks?

My travel trailer has done the same thing since new. Additionally the sidewalls fail on the tires.

I'm going back to the dealer with it in the next week or two and hopefully they can resolve. They have already replaced the tires once.

Excessive inside wear is one of two things;
1. extremely overloaded
2. bent axle

I have the same problem with my Palomino. It has the rubber torsion suspension for each axel. I run through tires in about 5,000 miles. They only wear on the inside. I have taken them to the tire dealer for remounting on the opposite rim which gives twice the life.

The live axels are mounted on the larger axel that contains the rubber torsion bars. It could be that it is not straight. However, I would expect a twisted axel to wear one inside and one outside or to pull funny.

Also I wondered if overloading the PUP might cause the trailer axles to bow slightly making it wear more in the inside. Unfortunately there are just guesses. Also, I just purchase a TT so I am not using my PUP much, but it is too handy to sell.

Sorry I do not know the cause but when you find out please pass it on.