Trailer - Tire Wear Help

[Rick-Wy.]

Yesterday, I looked at my buddies boat trailer. Single axle, 17 foot average fiberglass boat. Trailer is a couple of years old, and with probably 5-8k miles on it.

On the left hand side the trailer tire showed radical wear. Wear was on the outside of the tire, but on each side of the tear and for only about 1 to 1.5" on each side. (leaving a almost new tire section for 3-4 inches in the center)

Tire was wore down past the tread. If this was only on one side of the tire, I would have thought an alignment problem, but both sides?

The right side tire showed similiar wear condidtions on the edges but probably only 25% of the wear that I saw on the left hand side.

What is the problem.

Spindle, axle, bearings?

Rick

[Bottomfeeder]

We had this discussion about a month ago and I learned from this board that this problem can be caused by a bent axel or an alignment problem. My tires were wearing in a similar way on my single axel 17' fiberglass boat so I took my boat & trailer to a local alignment shop. They found that I was 1/5" out of camber (whatever that means) and they fixed the problem. I also had them check & repack wheel bearings. Now I am ready to go fishing.

Good Luck
Bottomfeeder

[Rick-Wy.]

Went back thru the posts. (When I wrote the message my computer at home is so slowwwww that I did not do a search)

The key to this issue is the wear on both sides.

On Mar 4 a poster by the name of Tim P with alignment experience indicated that both sides with wear could only be vibration.

The wear on both sides is what I was not sure about.

[Dodge1]

I had the exact same problem and it was an out of alignment/bent axle. I ended up taking it to a "commercial trailer" shop, after many/many calls to boat dealers and alignment shops, and they aligned it for $70. If you take it to a regular alignment shop they won't have a clue how to fix it. The best source for the proper alignment shop is to look in the yellow pages under commercial trailers.

This problem was covered by several posts in the last year. If your very observant you can stand above your tires and notice their out of alignment 'tilted in at the bottom'.

Dodge