HELP! Diagnose bad wear on trailer tires
 

I trailered the boat an hour away and noticed some heavy wear on the trailer tires. I've got a triple axle aluminum trailer, towing a 28 apache - 8,000-9,000 lbs, the later being full of gas and ready to drop in. Its got surge brakes; disk brakes on the front axle.

Specifically the middle tire's are having bad wear. The port side is having excessive wear on the inside of the tires......like almost an inch now. The starboard tire is having excessive wear on the outside of the tires. I was lucky to of gotten home without a blow out. I doubt they will hold for another trip.

Could the middle axle be off center?

Where was the trailer parked? Soft ground? We had the same issues with an aluminum trailer one time. Weight on the bunks was causing the center of the square tube axle to drop, which in turn was causing inside wear issues on the trailer. Attwoods ordered us a new axle with brakes already installed for a few hundred bucks.

Ahhhhh chit, don't tell me I need a new axle:mad:

It has sat for almost a year with no motors (nose heavy), I made two one hour trips like that. Although, I'm still kind of confused what your talking about. "center of the square tube axle"?????? Are you saying the weight being off could of bent the axle?

Give me a call 817-437-2516, tell me were to look, what to look for, etc.

I have one tire out of 4 wearing on the outside???

have you checked the bearings? its easier with the boat off, but if its not no big deal. either try using a floor jack to unweight each tire, or drive the trailer one axle at a time onto a block to lift the other tires off the ground. then grab the tire at 12 and 6 oclock. then try wiggling the tire in and out. if you feel any movement the bearings are loose. the wear on the inside of the tires is usually from loose bearings, and the other side with the wear in the middle would be from the loose side causing the trailer to track a bit off. dont forget to have the correct pressure in your tires as well.

Sorry, I musta been tired when I posted that.. What I was trying to say was that the axle had bowed down in the center causing the frame rails (aluminum trailer) and wheels to bow in, which in turn caused abnormal wear on the inside of the tires. There was about an inch of drop in the center of the axle. We had the trailer sitting on soft ground and had sank in a few inches.

Im not saying this is YOUR problem but thats what we were told. A new axle was surprisingly cheap. We were able to swap it out in about 2 hours. Just some u-bolts and brake lines. Good luck.

THANKS!! I will try the bearings first.

If you have inner and outer wear you have a simple aligment problem - not saying easy to fix but alignment none the less...

Your outer wear side is generally further ahead of your inner wear side.

You need to measure (doesn't matter loaded or not) from the center of the trailer hitch to a common point on the outsides of both sides of the axle. Usally someting like a welded mount where a bolt goes through or a seam where the spindles are welded in. With the tires on it is very difficult to measure from hitch to axle centers. Depending on whether you have torsion or springs with equalizers thre are different fixes.

Take your measurements and if you want you can call my cell to discuss your findings 732-718-2711.

Will do, thanks!

Shouldn't the axles be bowed up ???????????? not down ????

Does not sound right !:eek::party-smiley-004: