Bad tire wear--scrubbing or worse?

[Telemark46]

We have a 2014 Keystone Passport Ultralite and we're currently in Nova Scotia, ca 3,000 miles from home. I had the bearings repacked and found out the tires are wearing worse than I had realized, mostly on the inside. There's a little excess wear on the outside edge, suggesting they were underinflated. Our trailer has "spread" axles (spaced widely) and I have heard that scrubbing is worse in turns with those. However, I have not heard that scrubbing causes such uneven wear. Any thoughts on that?

The other cause I have heard of for excessive inside wear is bent axles, a most unpleasant thought. The tires are just over two years old with about 25,000 miles on them. The miles include a trip to Alaska and a trip to the Maritime Provinces including Newfoundland. Both those trips included plenty of bad roads of all descriptions! I tried to slow down appropriately, but sometimes the bad stuff snuck up on me, like coming down a 17% grade and finding a section of pavement missing, with a very bad transition! Although I didn't break the frame or such, I wonder if I could have overloaded the axles, reversing the intended arc. I hope that's not the cause. Thanks in advance for your helpful (I'm sure) suggestions.

Either way, I will be buying tires, moving from LR C to LR D (and weighing advice about inflation, max or not) and perhaps from 205/75R14 to 215s. The inside edge is to the right in each photo.

 

[CharlesinGA]

While they are not perfect, 25K miles is a lot on trailer tires. Few people are that lucky. Get a new set and carry on, and when you get home, you can get the axles looked at.

Charles

 

[Rene T]

I would find a scale as soon as you can and get it weighed. Weigh just the front while disconnected from the tow vehicle and another reading with just the rear wheels on the scale. I would do it before you put on new tires. If they are bent, you could have bent them just the other day so bad that new tires would wear out right away.
When traveling like you have, it’s easy to over load the trailer wanting to pack everything you want and may need.
Looking at the axles and tires from the rear, do you still have a bow on top of the axles? and are the top of the tires tipped in compared to the bottom

 

[SpencerPJ]

25k miles, be happy IMO. C to D, I did that, really happy with the stronger sidewalls, I feel I get less flex with the wiggle and the wind. PSI, really should not change, it is based on overall weight. There are charts that show the psi to weight. For me, I bumped mine up a bit, but according to the max load stamped on my wheel, it was not recommended that I went with the max sidewall tire pressure.

 

[Martian]

Can you get Goodyear Endurance tires up there?

 

[Babe2201]

25K on trailer tires is not bad so not sure if anything is actually wrong. Going from a C to a D gives you 280 more pounds for tire and not usually that much more money so that is a good idea. Going to the 215 would depend on your clearance. That would only add less than 200 pounds per tire on that and usually quite a bit higher in price.

 

[Mountain high]

I run Goodyear Endurance 215 75R14 Load Range D tires on our 1978 Vanson boat trailer. Putting on a heavier Load Range tire transfers more road shock to the suspension. Our 1978 boat has always been too heavy for the single axle trailer and so the tires wear out on the inside edge.

 

[Onyrlef]

I'm probably going to be arrested by the RV police, but I'd rotate those puppies and and carry on. I would however weigh the rig to determine if it's an axle camber issue ( too much weight causing axle rocker), which induces negative wheel camber and wearing on the inside edges of the tires.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

There's a couple there that aren't wearing perfectly evenly but they're all worn down pretty well. What I'd be pondering at this point is what "perfect" would be worth to me - take it in somewhere and have it repaired/adjusted and try again, or just throw on another set of skins and go camping. I'm in a similar boat with my class A. The steer tires have a bit more wear on one edge vs the other but they'll still age out before they wear out, it's not worth the trouble of an alignment to me. Your observation is perfectly valid, just have to balance the cost/benefit/peace of mind/what if's that surround it.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Mountain high]

I see that one tire is down to the minimum tread wear marker. If it's that way in 3 places around the same tread groove, then it's as bald as me.

 

[Rene T]

I'm probably going to be arrested by the RV police, but I'd rotate those puppies and and carry on.

IMHO, I can’t see how rotating the tires will help. If they are all wearing on the inside edge, if you rotate them, the wear will still be on the inside and continue to wear.

 

[uchu]

I'd say 25K mi, or 40K km for us Canucks, is a very good run for trailer tires...

 

[Skookum]

Looks like you've got some pretty good weather checking in that tread, small cracks - or maybe it's just the picture? Those tires say "replace" to me all day long.

I agree with the others that it looks like a camber issue. First thing I'd check is the weight compared to the axle rating.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Agree with the others - the inner edge wear is minimal and 25k miles is a reasonable life for a trailer tire. Inner edge wear suggests the axles are a heavily loaded or maybe even overloaded. The weight is causing a bit of sag in the axle and causes the wheels to tilt inward at the top (negative camber). Trailer suspensions like this are crude at best and perfect camber occurs only at some arbitrary axle weight.

If you dismount the tires from the wheels and reverse them so that the inner edge becomes the outer, you can even out the wear. But at the level of wear shown in the photos, I doubt that is worth the expense.

 

[Mountain high]

Here's our boat trailer's new 215 75R14 Goodyear Endurance tires in Aug. 2020. The trailer came originally with 13 inch diameter wheels versus 14 inch. Had to replace the wheel wells to fit the larger size.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Congratulations on actually wearing out your trailer tires. I have never done that in over 40 years of trailering, they've always aged out.
I think you'll be good to go another 20k miles with a set of new tires.

 

[Telemark46]

Can you get Goodyear Endurance tires up there?

I confess I went with what was available at the tire place that repacked the bearings. They are Ds, but I stuck with the 205s. I plan to keep an eye on them for terribly uneven wear, then have the axles looked at when we get home. After 10,000 miles for fall colors in '21, 9500 miles to Alaska in '22, and an estimated 14,000 miles for this trip, we likely will be doing shorter trips to the Southwest and the Rockies in the foreseeable future, so I don't expect to be wearing out tires. (Those mileages include side trips, towing was ca. 80% of that I think.)

I would find a scale as soon as you can and get it weighed. Weigh just the front while disconnected from the tow vehicle and another reading with just the rear wheels on the scale. I would do it before you put on new tires. If they are bent, you could have bent them just the other day so bad that new tires would wear out right away.
When traveling like you have, it’s easy to over load the trailer wanting to pack everything you want and may need.
Looking at the axles and tires from the rear, do you still have a bow on top of the axles? and are the top of the tires tipped in compared to the bottom

I can't know when it happened, but I think it more likely on the Alaska trip, with some horrendous roads. Okay, there are many bad ones in the Maritimes, but not of the same nature. I will try to look for the arc tomorrow and guess at the camber (no level). I came down with Covid today and I was in no shape to do anything when we arrived at the park.

 

[Telemark46]

I see that one tire is down to the minimum tread wear marker. If it's that way in 3 places around the same tread groove, then it's as bald as me.

Now I know what those bumps on my head are!!!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I wouldn't upgrade to a higher tire load range unless a scaled weight indicated the current tires are operating at or very near their max load capacity (as shown on the tire sidewall). Even then, a slightly larger tire size might be a better solution if there is room in the wheel well.

Note that the higher load range merely allows a higher inflation pressure to be used. The tires don't actually carry more load until you increase the psi.

 

[Telemark46]

I wouldn't upgrade to a higher tire load range unless a scaled weight indicated the current tires are operating at or very near their max load capacity (as shown on the tire sidewall). Even then, a slightly larger tire size might be a better solution if there is room in the wheel well.

Note that the higher load range merely allows a higher inflation pressure to be used. The tires don't actually carry more load until you increase the psi.

After cutting two OEM tires In the Yukon on my previous truck, I replaced the P-rated tires with Es. I was happy about that every time I hit an unavoidable pothole or construction dropoff, but worried about the trailer tires. I feel better about having the Ds now. The TP is a conundrum, with some advice to run at max, some to run at the same pressure as for the Cs (50 vs 65). The idea that 65 will get a bit better MPGs is attractive and it will keep some wear off of the inside of the tread until I can get the axle "straightened" out.