Hi everyone,

I've never dealt with abnormal wear on a trailer before so I figure I'll seek some opinions. My boat rides on a 2011 Shore Land'r trailer with a 3,500 lb axle. Trailer tire pressure has always been maintained to 50 PSI and the trailer probably has between 3-4,000 miles on it. This season we've noticed drastically increased tire noise coming from the trailer, so I checked it out today. This is what I found:







This was the left side tire. the right side was unevenly worn on both shoulders of the tread which led me to think it was underinflated. But the only way that could happen is if the boat is too heavy for the trailer, as the tires are rated for 50 PSI at maximum capacity.

What am I missing here? Why is my trailer eating tires?

 

Is the wear on the inside of the trailer or out. It almost looks like the camber is out.

 

It's on the inside. The other tire is worn badly on both sides of the tread; the middle looks just fine. But it was never underinflated. Thinking I may need to get this thing on a scale.

 

Strange wear pattern between sides. I would normally think its an aligment or a wheel bearing issue.

Not so sure here as both sides are different.

 

Bearings were one of the first things that we checked. Tight as a drum, no wheel end play, and they've been regularly lubed.

 

On the boat...any chance one side overweight?

 

It's pretty unlikely; the fuel tank and engine are both dead center in the boat. I'm thinking about dragging it to a truck scale tomorrow.

 

Had exact same pattern on rear duals on large diesel motor home of ours several years back. Only variable I could ever find is running 65+ mph did it every time. Eventually sold coach, never discovered answer.

 

Looks like it may have a bent axle stub. Since most people run their trailer wheel bearings loose, the wheel will **** under a bit and wear like that. I run my bearings like the front wheel bearings on my truck since I do mostly highway towing, and when I have an axle problem it'll wear the tire like that but all the way across.
How does the trailer track?

 

Tracks straight as an arrow.

 

Here is a link for trailer tire wear it will make it clear as mud https://www.google.com/search?q=trai...%3B1275%3B1650

I'm guessing it may be towed out causing the feathering, the tire has a aggressive tread on the last rib so it would make the feathering more pronounced, but the wear on the other tire sounds like overload or under inflation so it may be more than one problem. After you weight it you will know more.

Denny

 

Look closely, do you see any seperation in the tread, look close now. I have had this on my 5er, took off the tire, took it to Discount Tire. They aired it up 5 psi over rated and showed me seperation in the tread. The first indicaiton is the more oval shape of the tread and not flat, as if a belt had broken but yet not. Just thinking out loud here.

 

I just replaced one of my 4 year old 17.5 load range H Sumitomo tires, it had every kind of strange wear patterns you could think of. The one give away that it had broken belts was it was about a 1/4 out of round, nothing that $300 couldn't cure.

Denny

 

Interesting. I looked pretty closely and never saw any separation. I've also never seen a bias ply tire that didn't have that oval tread shape. I don't know...if it weren't for the funky wear on the other side I would be inclined to think it was just a tire issue.

Wow Denny, what kind of rig does that go on? LR H is what class 8 trucks use.

 

They are on our 03 Hitchhiker Premier 2 axle trailer, the axles have (the last time I weighted) 12700 lbs loaded and ready to go. It came with GY 614 G rated tires but after having the treads come off and tearing up the trailer I changed wheels and tires to 17.5 H, the last set of GY G tires lasted 2.5 years . I think I damaged the tire I replaced when we were in New Brunswick & Nova Scotia, we were on some roads that we shouldn't of been on with that heavy a trailer.

Denny