Got back from a recent trip and gave the trailer a once over. When I got to the tires, my attitude started to change. I bought the boat and trailer new in March 2005. Its now about a year later (June 1 2006) and after approximately 4400 miles, my tires are shot! I keep the pressure at 55 lbs cold but the condition of each tire is puzzling. Please take a look at the pictures of my tires, and if anyone has any recommendations to the cause,Id love to hear, so I dont make the same mistake with my new set. In the pictures, the tread seems to be feathered/cupped/worn severely on the outer area of the tread. This is on both tires (left & right).
Don't change tires until you know the cause of the problem. Axle misalignment, (bent, or loose spring shacles) and not having tires balanced can make a pattern like that on both wheels. Test for that. Your tires are not shot. They just look funny. You should get a few more thousand miles from them if you correct the problem's cause.
Looks like axle misalignment to me. This causes the trailer to dog-leg to one side and scrub the tires on one edge, as it is being dragged sideways down the road. I see this on the semi-trailers that I pull, all the time.
Axle misalignment. . . How does one check for that? Possibly measure from a set point on each side of the axle (left & right) to the tongue center? Let's say it truly is a misaligned axle, wouldn't the wear be on the same side of each tire i.e. the left or right side of both tires? Mine have this wear on the outside of each tire.
I guess they would have to be toed in (front of tires closer than the rear) to wear on the outside of both tires.
I doubt your trailer has any provision to adust, like a car does, so just check for bent/damaged components on the axles and plates.
You should also check your wheel bearings for slop, which could let the wheel ride toed in too ----fix this quick as loose bearings will fail !!
You could actually meausure the toe-in with a tape measure accurately enough for this purpose btw..I used to do this on my VWs back in the day before lasers..
I suggest having another vehicle follow you while you drive at various speeds along your usual route. The following vehicle's passenger can look at the tires to see if they are wobbling or bouncing etc.. Maybe a video camera with a zoom lense and built in stabilization held by the passenger could recoed the tire activity. If the road has multiple lanes, the follower can be next to your trailer axle.
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Another simple check is to lift the trailer weight off of the each tire one at a time and see if the tire can wobble on the axle. Then maybe lift the weight off the entire axle and see if the axle can wobble on the trailer.
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If you end up having to swap the axle (which I doubt is needed) then take this opportunity to go with a torsion axle. Torsion axles use flexing rubber inside the axle instead of leaf springs. The advantages are softer less bouncy ride to preserve the boat and less stuff to rust to preserve the trailer.
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It is possible that the tire sidewall(s) have damage or fatigue failure and the tires themselves are causing the problem. I had this on a set of Isuzu Trooper tires that lasted 90K miles and still the tread looked good, but there was a wear pattern and vibrations that could not be aligned out, it was the sidwalls. The tires off the vehicle would not roll straight when rolled by hand.
Some good advice here. Thanks. I think this weekend Ill do the drive test (watch the wheels as its being pulled down the highway, as I bring it to my house from the lake), then put a couple of straight edges on the wheels to check for possible toe problem, then jack each wheel off the ground and check for bearing issues. Ill share my results.
Heres a question that spawned from Catigales first response: How many miles are some of you getting out of your tires?
Most people don't put nearly the miles on the trailers that you and I have; I think the complaint would be more common if they did.
This wear pattern can be caused by "fishtailing", excessive toe in, and an overloaded trailer.
The feathering is a characteristic of a heavily lugged tread design. Before I added my second axle, I had two different tread designs on opposite sides of the trailer; I believe a Titan and a Carlisle. The one with the more pronounced lugs wore like the one in your pictures, the other one simply rounded off like the front tires on most cars.
If the entire axle is out of alignment with the trailer but otherwise straight, the trailer won't track straight down the road but it should not cause this type damage. I suppose severe misalignment might cause it, but it would only be present on one side, not both. You can check this by measuring from a common point, say the ball mount, to the front edge of each tire with a tape measure.
Too much toe in will certainly cause this type damage, but it's pretty easy to build trailer axles properly, and extermal damage from hitting stuff is likely to cause toe out, not toe in. You should be able to check it by measuring the distance between the sidewalls of the tires fore and aft with a tape measure. Moderate toe in is actually beneficial in that it helps the trailer to track straight, while excessive toe in sufficient to cause the kind of damage you're seeing should be pretty obvious.
I suppose it could be caused by loose spring shackles which would allow the alxe to noodle around randomly under the trailer, but I believe this is pretty unlikely. It should be be pretty easy to check for.
Fishtailing is caused by inadequate tongue weight. If it is moderate and your tow vehicle strong enough, you may not notice it much even though it's there. Get out on the highway in light traffic. Bring it up to speed on a straight stretch, then pull the wheel to one side, then back straight while watching the trailer in the rear view mirror, and count the osciillations before it returns to straight. My hunch is you'll see at least two or three. Before I added the second axle and when towing with a more modest vehicle (Explorer then, Expedition now) despite maximum weight transfer forward, my trailer was always on the verge of instability. A couple of times it got real in a fairly spectacular and unnerving fashion. I suspect this is the case with many of those with big motors on the stern and boats loaded for cruising.
To correct moderate fishtailing, you can try moving more weight to the bow of the boat, leaving the fuel tanks empty, etcetera. If you've already done that and moving weight doesn't correct it, I don't believe you have much choice but to either learn to live with it, move the existing axle rearward or add an axle to correct it.
Finally, if the trailer is overloaded, normal cornering can cause this sort of damage. As you go around corners, even long sweepers, weight transfers to the outside tire and that one absorbs a larger share of the cornering forces. The boat has a high center of gravity to begin with, and on a trailer loaded near of even over its maximum capacity, the trailer will roll more to the outside, transferring even more of the cornering forces to the outside wheel, and you guessed it, excessive tire wear on the outside. This could happen even with uprated tires, if the axle capacity isn't increased with heavier springs, etcetera, at the same time. Get a bigger axle or add one.
IMO a tire which otherwise appears sound, no cracks, dry rot, or the like, isn't "worn out" unitil the tread is gone. By my defnition your tires still have a lot of life left in them. If the feathered edge bothers you and you can figure out what's causing it so it doesn't recur, you should be able to take the tires to a shop which can grind them round and still have plenty of tread left. Personally, I think you'd be wasting a lot of miles.
I still have, I believe, one of the original tires on my trailer with, I estimate, around 12,000 miles on it. Hard to say what that means in total, as only about 5,000 miles were on the original single axle; the rest after I added the second axle. Also, theere's still quite a bit of tread left. Even if you were to discount the addtitional 7,000 on the second axle by a substantial amount, though, it's obvious they ought to be good for way more than 5,000 mi,
To start with, yes, it sounds like fishtailing could be a major contributor. I do travel with a loaded boat. I keep the filled coolers, clothes bags, extra anchor, rode & chain in the back of my truck, but usually my fuel tanks on the boat are full. When road ready my tongue weight is 305 lbs. I assumed that much weight was sufficient. Again, this is with approximately 170 lbs of fuel in the tanks. After a lane change, or a swerve to avoid something in the road, the trailer does sway a couple of times before it settles behind me. Add to that the crosswinds I usually encounter while heading down the highway and Im sure its swaying. With my truck, I really dont notice it much, hence I overlooked the trailer sway.
So. . . If everything mechanical on the trailer checks out this weekend, Im gonna have to chalk it up to fishtailing. I guess I could drain (or remove the fuel tanks for quick test) and see if that doesnt reduce or hopefully eliminate the sway. . . that would be a very inexpensive fix.
Im not trying to avoid the dual axle modification, in fact its on my list. I definitely like the extra security with 4 tires on the trailer. I got spoiled with my race car trailer. Ill do some checking and testing this weekend and share my results.
Not that adding weight is really the best solution, but you might put some of that stuff you carry in your truck in the bow of the boat, or in a box on the tounge...
I think the rule of thumb is for the tongue weight to be 10% of the trailer weight. I bet your trailer weighs alot more than 3050lbs...
The fuel lockers are well-aft of the axle, making their weight especially problematic, even when the tongue wt. is reasonable. Just guessing that my co-moderator might describe it as a "moment' effect.
Since I have all six-gallon tanks, it's easy to move the full ones to the forward cockpit sole. If you close the tank vents, it's even better to move them down into the cabin ... it eliminated my fishtailing.
After that test I just try to avoid towing with any significant fuel aboard. Now that buying fuel at Costco can possibly save 50 cents a gallon, I guess for a long cruise I might try filling up early and towing with them moved forward.
Ive seen tires wear the same way when shocks are bad on vehicles, and wheel balancing is needed.
My Carlisle tires flex a lot when trailering my Mac X, obviously due to the 2200 lbs, plus engine, and Admiral's stuff, etc. Watching the tires in the rear-view mirror is a habit since I once saw my starboard side alum. wheel passing me up last Summer after a loud "thud"...
Sorry, I thought that the only picture of the left tire showed the wear on the inside. If indeed the wear is on the outside of both tires, then the cause is probably overloading a light axle, or a bent axle, causing toe-in.
