Bad tire wear - tire shop recommended alignment for teardrop

[mrredrocker]

Hi all,
We took our newly acquired 2012 Silver Shadow around the country last summer. In all we covered nearly 10,000 miles driving coast to coast and back through the Southwest. By the time we were on the return loop, it became clear the tires were wearing pretty unevenly (one more than the other but both on the inner edge). We are gearing up for another extended trip so I had the tires replaced at a local tire shop. The attendant immediately said I should have the alignment on my trailer adjusted but he couldn't advise me as to where/who would be able to do that.

Two personal connections I have gave conflicting advice: 1) that trailers can't really be aligned and all trailers wear tires unevenly to some extent and 2) that maybe the hubs need to be tightened.

I have found the Little Guy owner's manual to be pretty useless in the past and today was no exception, only thing under axle info was brake adjustments (my tear doesn't have the power brake option).

Previous tires were bias ply and had sat unused for a few years. I'm 99% sure those were the originals, thus 5-6 years old. The tires were not noticeably worn like in the picture before we left last summer. I'm wondering if just the age of the tires contributed to accelerated wear. I got radial tires today after reading some of the threads here. It still says "trailer use only" on them.

Curious if anyone here had advice on what I could do to correct or at least minimize this uneven wear? Is alignment on a trailer really a thing?

[Pmullen503]

Most trailers have a solid axle and can't be "aligned". If the trailer trails noticeably to one side the whole axle can be realigned to make the trailer trail straight behind.

Loose hubs might explain the wear pattern. Grab the tire and see if you can rock it side to side. Perhaps it's over inflation of the tires. The correct pressure depends on the weight of the trailer. Inflating to the maximum will often wear the center of the tire faster.

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Looks like it could be from over-inflation. Or since it was towards the inner edge on both tires then maybe it was overloaded. Or a combination



You could check your own alignment but this only checks for toe-in/out, and not camber....

http://www.centrevilletrailer.com/how-t ... ingle-axle

[working on it]

• It looks like too much negative camber to me. I had the same excessive tire wear on my carhauler tandem axle trailer, after a very heavy front loader bent my rear axle. I had some, but less wear of the same type, on my TTT's original axle, after I overloaded it (by 75%). I replaced both axles on the carhauler, and later, the TTT's axle, with no-camber 3500lb axles. This is how a badly negative-cambered axle wears out inner treads on tires.

• 

  NEGATIVE CAMBER.png (114.15 KiB) Viewed 2828 times

  smooth, but worn inner treads
• I prefer no-camber axles, because it is a simple matter to check their straightness/camber with an angle ruler, used for framing. Just load your trailer, torque your lug nuts, inflate your tires properly, and just stand the ruler up next to the tire. both the sidewall above and below the center should always touch evenly. You can also easily check the squareness (relative to the frame) of your axle at this time, by running a string from the same point on each tire, to a corresponding point on the frame (in front, or to a point marked on the ground, directly below).

• 

  camber check with angle.JPG (82.45 KiB) Viewed 2828 times

  simple angle square ruler to check camber
• I just looked up the Silver Shadow. It seems that they come with torsion axles, so I'm not sure if they come cambered or not; anyway, the checking procedure to assess your camber should be the same.
• Negative camber (in excess) can be reduced by lightening the load, or by bending the center of the axle tube upwards (in the middle), if possible. Once again, it might be different for a torsion axle, I don't know. A straight replacement might probably be the best fix, in either case.

[mrredrocker]

I suspected overinflation too but tire shop guy insisted that would have been more centered on the tire.

I just found this thread on a Little Guy forum:
http://littleguy.vanillaforums.com/disc ... /tire-wear
Apparently it's a common problem with (Pleasant Valley) Silver Shadows. As I'm not an original owner I doubt I'll have much recourse.
One of the posters says he tightened the wheel hub nut, which I guess I could pursue and several said that replacing the original tires with radial tires seemed to help (as I've done).

[PKCSPT]

My Little Guy had similar tread wear, it's a 2009 no idea how many miles I have dragged it but it would at least a couple thousand. It was suggested I may have a slightly bent axel but it wasn't confirmed . I know it's not overloaded.
I will be curious what you find out on yours.

[CorgiShack]

My torsion axle came from the factory with camber. They bent the center up about a quarter inch before welding the brackets on.If yours is bent upwards much more than this or worse bent forward or back it could be the source of your problem.In 35,000 miles of towing I have had one bad tire[cheap brand] the others I replaced due to age with 50% or better of the tread left.

[drhill]

That sure is fast tire wear. I have about 25,000 km on mine and I would have to get a tire depth gauge to see what the wear is as it is not visually noticeable.

mr red rocker - as for tightening up the hub nut, be very careful. I suspect that is one of the most common causes of bearing failure. There needs to be a tiny bit of play in the bearings. The proper procedure is to torque them, I can't remember the torque but it is pretty low, just enough to be sure there is no play. Then, back off the nut and re-tighten it with your fingers. Then back off the nut to the next cotter pin hole. Grabbing the edges of the tire and shaking it you should feel a tiny bit of play. If there is not that play, then the bearings have a pre-load and driving will heat up the bearings causing more load causing more heat causing more load causing . . . . You see the problem.

Sorry about the detail, but over tightening bearings leaves a lot of trailers at the side of the road. A properly adjusted and lubricated bearing should last for many many years.

[daklein]

It can be corrected. And it's not really that hard. The tire look like either toe out or negative camber.

Here's what I did on a tandem axle trailer: https://intothetransporter.blogspot.com ... nment.html

After doing this we have put 20000 on it with no abnormal wear and tires still more than half tread.



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[absolutsnwbrdr]

It can be corrected. And it's not really that hard. The tire look like either toe out or negative camber.

Here's what I did on a tandem axle trailer: https://intothetransporter.blogspot.com ... nment.html

After doing this we have put 20000 on it with no abnormal wear and tires still more than half tread.



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Tandem vs single axles are different animals. And I believe the SS have a torsion axle, which cannot be adjusted for toe. You do not want to just crank on a torsion axle with hoist and chain.

[Jiminsav]

looks to me like it's over loaded. or the axle isn't strong enough for the trailer..if you put a 1000 pound load on a 800 pound rated axle, it'll do that.

[Nobody]

You may not have the same problem at all but a couple of years ago we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway & when we returned home I noticed excessive wear on the tires of the TD. We probably didn't drive more'n 1K miles, maybe not that much on the entire trip so I was quite surprised & dismayed by the evident wear. Upon close examination of the undercarriage of my TD I discovered this...

I built my TD in 2006, on the HF 1800# trailer, with the standard 12" HF tires. Ran those tires in excess of 12K miles & replaced them with the Wal Mart 'specials' that came already mounted on white spoke wheels. Only replaced them because as Roly said, tread ribs # 2 & 4 began to wear excessively (IMO). I blame that on inflation. With more'n 25K miles on the TD, I'm now on my second set of Wal Mart tires/wheels. 1st set of the Wal Mart tires were wearing well & giving good service (expected more'n 20K miles from them) 'til one of the spring/axle 'U' bolts slipped a little & caused mis-alignment of the wheels/tires/axle to the direction of tow, resulting in very excessive wear on outside tread ribs of one tire, & inside tread ribs of the other. I corrected the mis-alignment, put on the new tires/wheels, & after another 4K miles they show no discernible wear.

[tony.latham]

You may not have the same problem at all but a couple of years ago we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway & when we returned home I noticed excessive wear on the tires of the TD. We probably didn't drive more'n 1K miles, maybe not that much on the entire trip so I was quite surprised & dismayed by the evident wear. Upon close examination of the undercarriage of my TD I discovered this...

I built my TD in 2006, on the HF 1800# trailer, with the standard 12" HF tires. Ran those tires in excess of 12K miles & replaced them with the Wal Mart 'specials' that came already mounted on white spoke wheels. Only replaced them because as Roly said, tread ribs # 2 & 4 began to wear excessively (IMO). I blame that on inflation. With more'n 25K miles on the TD, I'm now on my second set of Wal Mart tires/wheels. 1st set of the Wal Mart tires were wearing well & giving good service (expected more'n 20K miles from them) 'til one of the spring/axle 'U' bolts slipped a little & caused mis-alignment of the wheels/tires/axle to the direction of tow, resulting in very excessive wear on outside tread ribs of one tire, & inside tread ribs of the other. I corrected the mis-alignment, put on the new tires/wheels, & after another 4K miles they show no discernible wear.

Harvey:

Your post struck me as a great title for a new book, Listen When Nobody Speaks.


Tony

[Nobody]

Thanks Tony. I've made quite a few posts in the past 10yrs & hope I've helped someone. I only ever post suggestions/observations when I think my experience(s) may help someone, or when specific questions are asked. I think some of my ideas/beliefs may 'turn off' some members but most of 'em come from a lifetime (77yrs) of camping & various RV use/observations...

[tony.latham]

Thanks Tony. I've made quite a few posts in the past 10yrs & hope I've helped someone. I only ever post suggestions/observations when I think my experience(s) may help someone, or when specific questions are asked. I think some of my ideas/beliefs may 'turn off' some members but most of 'em come from a lifetime (77yrs) of camping & various RV use/observations...

I think some of your sense comes from the days you wore that heavy belt.

Tony