Hopper tire wear problems ?

Thought I would share this info.
Is your Timpte or Wilson hopper 2018 and up eating up tires 3 times a year ?
Inner and outer edges wearing off fast like low inflation problem.
It is not air or the tire. It is them flimsy Hendrickson axles. They flex.
At almost 5k for a set of Chinese tires, 3 times a year is a bunch of cash.
Cure : have them aligned. Then weld thick angle iron on top and bottom of axle . No more flexing .
Will be doing mine if I ever manage to make money again.

 

The angle iron trick worked for mine

 

If the axles flexing are the actual problem why isn’t only the inside of the tires wearing. I can’t think of a scenario where an axle flexing would cause the outside edge to wear. Maybe the Chinese tires are the problem…i have had very mixed results with them in general some last and wear well others wear funny or maybe even but only last 50k miles.
Welding angle iron to the axles sounds like a great way to make dot look harder at your rig. Just a thought

 

As I was told by a guy with plenty of hoppers , it is because of them axles.
He has his trailers aligned and balance bags put in and it does nothing. 3 sets a year.
My 2021 timpte had Bridgstones on it and they did not last long. I thought it was the inflation system not working correctly. I removed it. Kept tires aired up and the edges wore off and ruined them . Inner tread just fine.
Now I have some Chinese tires on. They have deep tread. Put steers on drop axle [ front axle ]. We will see how long they last.

 

Seems like a good thing. Tires are pricey these days. I get tires at cost. Them iron man etc about 6 months ago were about 175 bucks for drives . Now they are more like 350.
I paid 2150 for 4 Chinese trailer tires in Texas a couple , months ago.
My guy here put 4 steers on front trailer axle plus 2 drives on truck for 2600. Not too bad.

 

I have no idea how it eats up outside edge. But they all seem to do it. You would think it might get the outside edge of maybe the inside tire. But it eats em up like low air pressure.
I'm wondering if perhaps it is because if they are flexing then while driving along the bumps in road might be causing them to flex up and down. That would probably account for both edges .

 

Have you had the bushings replaced? That's the main problem that I've seen over the years. If the bushings are worn out then no amount of alignment is going to work. Welding ANYTHING in place that isn't supposed to be welding is asking for more problems IMHO

 

No. It's a 2021. Shouldn't have any bad bushings. It just wears em out. Has to be warping. Otherwise could not eat up inside and outside edges . It would only eat one or the other .

 

Some people bend the axles a little extra to compensate for the flex. Then when loaded, the axle is straight. A tanker company in Carrol IA pre bends all the new trailer axles.

 

I know I'am not compairing apples to apples but that Wilson has had problems with the axle tearing away from the subframe on their spead axle livestock trailers that started in the 2018 models also
Wilson doesn't want to own up to the issue.. but sure is funny that they claim they redesigned the subframe in mid 2020 models