One thing that's going to make replacement tricky is that my axles were made by Axis, who apparently were bought by Al-Ko and then Dexter in the subsequent years, so there isn't a 1:1 replacement part available. My axles also seem to have a different bracket design from the Torflex axles I've been able to find, so although it looks pretty easy to bolt on new ones I'm not clear on whether I'll be able to find any that fit the existing mount, or if a Torflex one would work. I'm going to do some calling around tomorrow to see what my options are.
Gary RV_Wizard said:
I see multiple concerns here:
1. A "sagging suspension" could mean a bad torsion bar or a bent axle, but either of those suggest the trailer is or has been overloaded. If so, replacing it is the immediate fix but eliminating the cause is equally important. A trip to the scales is recommended.
Yeah, that thought had occurred to me as well. I don't feel like I carry that much in the trailer and I almost never tow with water in the tanks, but I've never actually scaled it. Guess it's time to do so.
The other thing that may have been a factor is that I hit a very bad railroad crossing on the last trip. I didn't notice that it was rubbing right after that, but then I was focused on the hubs on this trip and not the tires. :-\
2. The tire that has been rubbing may need replacement as well. Even if not worn through, it may have suffered heat damage that weakened it internally. Also, the shoulder is the weakest area of the tire due to the joint between sidewall and tread. Excessive wear there can be critical.
Absolutely. I'm actually going to replace both tires because they're about due anyway. I had planned to keep them through this year and then replace them next year, but this has moved up the timetable.
3. A rubbing tire won't make the air pressure go down unless it actually causes a tire failure (blowout). If anything, the psi goes up due to increased heat. It seems likely the TPMS was reporting either a normal few psi difference due to ambient temperature change or that it simply showed the difference between a cold tire and one that was recently driven upon.
I'm a little confused by what happened here. It's stopped losing pressure over the past couple of days, but it definitely dropped about 6-8 PSI below what it was. The other tire is still reading 52 cold like it should be, but the bad one is down to 44 PSI. I guess it doesn't really matter though since I'm replacing them anyway.
4. If those are ST type tires, they are most probably rated for 65 mph max. It has nothing to do with old vs new tire technology - it's the type of tire construction. LT and P type tires are normally rated for at least 77 mph, but the usual for ST is 65 only. And those ratings assume a tire properly inflated for the load it is carrying. Even a bit too soft and a failure is highly likely, especially as speed increases.
Yeah, I never tow over 65 and I have a TPMS on at all times to make sure the tires stay up to pressure. With a single axle trailer I don't feel any need to mess around with the tires.
