1 Tire Worn on the inside-

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Capt.Tony

Capt.Tony

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
Posts
58
Hello Pros..  Ok  1 year old 5th wheel, prepping to take off cross country after a long layoff after Hurricane Irma......  Checking tires and pressure and i find 1 tire on the rear  axel passenger side , that is almost worn thru.  seriously, i have no idea how i didnt have a blowout.  Any ideas as to cause.  Brand New , this is after 1 , albeit, long 6000 mi, trip.  Remedy ?    Thanks for your input.
 
Worn evenly across the tread, or worn along one edge?  The later usually indicates a bent axle, with the wheel riding on one edge or the other. A bad wheel bearing is also a possibility, but usually the tire wobbles rather than riding on one side most of the time.  A picture of the worn tire tread would be helpful.
 
A tire worn on the inside edge is usually caused by an alignment problem, probably caused by hitting a pothole or bump at speed.  On an almost new trailer, it might not have been done by you, it might have happened while the trailer was being delivered to the dealer. Of course, a year later that would be hard to prove.

Believe it or not, the cure is to bend the axle back into alignment.  This is commonly done and any tire shop that's set up to do truck or trailer alignments can do it for you.
 
I had to have my 5'r aligned 2 years ago. The wheels were way out of alignment causing wear on the sides of the tread. I found a place in Lakeland FL called Tampa Springs.  They primarily work on trucks but also do alignments of trailer wheels.  They actually go in and bend the axles to achieve alignment. Took about 2 hours.  Ask around and I'm sure you'll find someone locally. Once I got home to NH and I checked for a friend and found 2 shops within 30 miles of me who did alignments.

Being worn as you say it is, you may be able to see how bad it is out of alignment just by sighting down the side of the front tire.
 
I had the same problem with my FW, when I had it, it was a year old.  The dealer replaced the axle. It was bent.
 
Gary, its worn only on the inside of the tread around the perimeter of the tire only. The outside 75 %. Is normal.    I took an 8? straight edge and held across the face of the 2 tires and the front portion of the 2x doesnt touch at all , in fact there is approx 2? gap.    Thats a lot of bending.
 
Capt.Tony said:
Gary, its worn only on the inside of the tread around the perimeter of the tire only. The outside 75 %. Is normal.    I took an 8? straight edge and held across the face of the 2 tires and the front portion of the 2x doesnt touch at all , in fact there is approx 2? gap.    Thats a lot of bending.
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That's a lot of misalignment. You need to have a alignment done or the axle replaced soon. Your going to eat up tires real fast.
 
Sadly, that's an all-too-common problem. The RV manufacturer often sizes the axle to the bare minimum needed to handle the weight it carries, so potholes and RR tracks soon overstress it.  The suspension compresses fully under the load and the bump gets transferred to the axle itself, bending it.

This can also happen to the rear axle if the trailer is in a nose-up attitude. That places a higher proportion of the weight on the rear axle, rather than the ideal 50/50 split on the tandem axles.  That may overload the rear axle and bending is one of the possible results. More often, though, that issue shows up an unusual but even wear on both rear axle tires.
 
With that much bend, I would replace the axle rather than trying to bend it back.  They are fairly cheap and easy to replace.  The other axle, wheel bearings and suspension components need to be checked as well.
 
I replaced the tire today and have an appt at Florida Spring and axle service in the morning. Keeping my fingers crossed and a positive attitude that they?ll resolve it quickly, efficiently and inexpensively. ?. ThankYou to all that expressed an opinion.  Will give an update as to the resolution.
 
To those that responded i have just returned from my appt at Fl Spring and axle. They removed the axle and straightened it out. It had a 1.125?  toe out bend in it.  3 hours and 380$ later i,m good to go!  Did it work? I have no idea.  Felt smooth and stable on I-75. But it felt that way with the bend in it .  I guess only time and tires will tell. Anyway, i feel better knowing the bend is no more. Or is it?  Thanks T
 
They and similar shops bend heavy truck solid axles all the time - it's the way they get aligned. I've had a motorhome solid axle bent  to fix a camber problem.  Whether yours will stay straight is a different matter.  If it was a freak accident that bent it, you may be good forever. If it is max load or overload that pushed it beyond its capabilities, then you will have problems again after awhile.
 
Capt.Tony said:
To those that responded i have just returned from my appt at Fl Spring and axle. They removed the axle and straightened it out. It had a 1.125?  toe out bend in it.  3 hours and 380$ later i,m good to go!  Did it work? I have no idea.  Felt smooth and stable on I-75. But it felt that way with the bend in it .  I guess only time and tires will tell. Anyway, i feel better knowing the bend is no more. Or is it?  Thanks T
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I'm surprised they removed it. When I had mine done, the had the fixtures/strongback which they mounted on the axles and using a jack we're able to apply the right forces to bend the axle back into alignment. Did they check the other one.
 
To those that responded i have just returned from my appt at Fl Spring and axel. They removed the axel and straightened it out. It had a 1.125?  toe out bend in it.  3 hours and 380$ later i,m good to go!  Did it work? I have no idea.  Felt smooth and stable on I-75. But it felt that way with the bend in it .  I guess only time and tires will tell. Anyway, i feel better knowing the bend is no more. Or is it?  Thanks T
 
Yes they absolutely did check the front axle. It was ok.  I was also surprised they removed it and asked the mechanic about it. His response was that there is a right way and a wrong way. Carry on.
 
Capt.Tony said:
Yes they absolutely did check the front axle. It was ok.  I was also surprised they removed it and asked the mechanic about it. His response was that there is a right way and a wrong way. Carry on.
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Obviously he's clueless. They did mine without removing them.
 
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