Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

If the belts ain’t showin, keep on goin.

(sarcasm of course!)

 

I have 2 tires on my trailer that are worn badly on the inside edge and need replacing. One or two drives are getting close as well. I've been so darn busy, it's tough to find time to get it done, so I just note it on my DVIR every day in case I get inspected.

 

What causes inside wear?

 

Paying good money to have the trailer tires aligned by the dealership, and having the tires wear worse after the alignment.

 

Generally with inside tire wear it’s axle flex or wheel bearings. There’s a thread about welding a piece of channel to the axle to reduce flex.

 

I must have missed that thread. I went to the Utility dealership 6 months ago because a couple tires were wearing a little odd on the outside edges, and after the alignment they're now wearing much worse on the inside edges. Newer Utility trailers require that some kind of pin be replaced when you do an alignment, so naturally only Utility dealerships can do the work.

 

I have a similar problem with my Utilty dry van. The inside edges are wearing out. It is happening at a slow rate but still annoying for an eye.
A friend of mine has 2 new Utility vans and complains about it too after a year. I checked the bearings and they were good.
I decided to ignore the issue as the original tires lasted 3 years despite all that and the current replacement set should also last as long. In about a year I'll swap this trailer for another brand new anyways.

I think @062 is right about the axle flex.

 

Thanks for the idea.
I'll look into that. I thought about alignment too but the trailer runs straight and the wear rate is too slow.

 

Axle flex and tire wear

 

Inside edge wear of the inside tires is either wheel end adjustment or axle flex, as stated above. The angle iron that MD Alignment recommends will fix the axle flex issue, but they only say to do that when you’ve verified your wear is coming from flex and not loose bearings or under inflated tires.

I would not recommend having a tubular trailer axle bent for “proper” camber like the one poster suggests in the thread linked above.