Trailer tires wearing on inside, wheels tilted in.

[oly67]

I have a 09 Ranger Reatta 1850, 150 Opti, 9.9 kicker. My trailer tires are always wearing on the inside. You can visually see that the trailer's wheels are angled, with the top of the tires tilted in, bottoms, where the tire meets the road, tilted out. I bought this new and I admit I must have overloaded the boat the first couple of years on trips.

After the first set of tires needed to be replaced, I then checked maximum lbs the trailer was supposed to carry. Can't remember exactly, at the computer here away from my owner's manual, I think it was somewhere around 4500 lbs. Well I then weighed the boat, trailer, etc with a full tank of gas, fishing poles, big musky tackle box, basically filled with the basics to go fishing, nothing else. It was right at the 4500 lb mark.

I know on my earlier trips I also had some 5 gal tanks of gas, luggage, food in the boat, so I was definitely overloading it. It does annoy me that Ranger would not put a heavier trailer, axle, whatever on this boat, but definitely my fault for overloading.

My tire dealer say "Oh, every trailer is like this after awhile", but he likes to sell me new tires every other year. What can be done to my trailer to get the wheels back running straight, if anything? Thanks.

[Shellback]

Put a straight edge on the bottom of your axle. It should show a gap in the center or at the very least, no daylight. If that isn't the case, put the straight edge on the top of the axle. If you see a gap there, the axle has lost it's camber. You could have it recambered, but I'd suggest a heavier axle. Here's axles rated for 5200#'s.
http://www.easternmarine.com/5200-lb...Trailer-Axles/
Keep in mind you may need to beef up the springs and tires too. I used to load my boat with camping equipment, and had that tire wear problem. I upgraded my axle and that corrected the problems.

[Spin]

I'm guessing the wear on the tires isn't because camber, but is because your tires are toed out. Most axle manufactures want the wheels toed in 1/16 on an inch. You can take a tape measure and measure it yourself. There are several different ways on youtube that you can search for.

The way I have always done it is to get a helper and measure from a row of tread from tire to tire, front and back (make sure you use the same tread on the front and back) and figure what the toe is. If the toe is off this is what is wearing your tires and the only way to correct it on an axle is to buy a new one, or to bend it with a chain and portapower/jack (check youtube for that too).

"toe in" will normally wear the outside of the tires and "toe out" will wear the insides.

[Shellback]

Tire wear chart.

[bubba800]

You answered your own question, you're overloaded. If you're consistently 70-75% of max look into a bigger trailer.

[bobk]

A new torsion axle isn't that much money.

[Vette Runner]

Originally Posted by bubba800

You answered your own question, you're overloaded. If you're consistently 70-75% of max look into a bigger trailer.

The last two rigs I have bought BOTH have been on under weight trailers. Meaning that the weight of the rig with normal fuel and gear was heavier than the gross weight rating of the trailer. EVERYONE should weigh their rig. Both my rigs came with a factory trailers, the last one, I weighed it and the company sent a tech to install two new axles and springs. NEVER trust what you haven't checked yourself. It cost little to nothing to weigh it so why not??

[oly67]

I am definitely am going to get heavier axles put in. Do I have to get them from Ranger(and probably pay an arm and a leg) or is it okay to get something generic locally? Thanks.

[REW]

You can get your replacement parts from any source that sells the part that you need.

Be safe

[bobk]

I'd call ranger and get a price at least. I'm guessing you have an ufp axle. I replaced one of mine a few months ago and it wasn't too hateful. Axle and both hubs is what I ordered and it was about a 2 hr job to replace.
1-800-724-7273 have you trailer vin number and they can give the info.