You have omitted a lot of important information. As an example, for most years of the TM product, TM equipped the trailer with 14 inch Goodyear Marathon ST tires, load range C. When owners went to 15 inch tires, Marathons were among the choices. You didn't tell us what tires you upgraded to, but the Goodyear website says the following about Marathons.
. . . Goodyear Marathon
. . . . . 215/75R14 C 50 psi 1870 lb 26.1 inches dia, width 8.5
. . . . . 225/75R15 D 65 psi 2535 lb 28.3 inches dia, width 8.7
So if you somehow got a Load range D tire with 1870 pounds capacity, that was no upgrade. The 225 is the smallest Marathon in load range D. It has a much greater carrying capacity, which is why it was great as an upgrade. However, it also has a much larger diameter, and hence radius, which is what matters. This appears to be the problem you are having - the extra 1+ inch of radius ate up your clearance..
Good year no longer makes Marathons - they have been supplanted by the Endurance line, which has different specs and options. Did you move to Endurance tires? If so, which ones?
After you made the change to 15-inch tires, did you ever have a tire failure? Tires don't always fail as a violent blowout. If a strip of the tread came loose (and perhaps detached entirely and flew off), it would cause the kind of damage to the arch of the fender well liner. In addition, you say that the tire contacted the fender well where it meets the floor of the trailer. For an intact tire, this is almost impossible, since it would require the tire to move horizontally - which it really can't - and there is a lot of horizontal clearance. In other words, if a tire moves up and down enough, it will contact the wheel well liner above it. But I don't know how it could move forward and back enough to contact the liner where it meets the floor.
Assuming you did not have a tire failure, another possibility is that you hit a piece of road debris such as an "alligator" at some point. It could have been carried up into the wheel well area and done damage.
As for the axle, did TM make the change in down angle as early as 2007? I know my 2006 did not have the change.
Do you know which axle you actually have? Did you read the tag on the axle, and decode it on the Dexter web site? That would confirm the starting angle.
Yes, Dexter recommends 3" clearance above the tire. We discussed that here on the Forum. After I made the change to 15" tires, I did not have quite that much clearance, but I had more than 1 1/2 inches.
Finally, you say "I am leaning towards having to install a lift kit which ironically Trailmanor supplies to get extra clearance rather than change out the axle to the 45 degree down axle by dexter to gain clearance." First you say they did make the change to the axle. Then you say they didn't, so that they could sell a few lift kits. I'm confused. Are you suggesting that TM should retrofit an axle installed in 2005 with a new one?
So this is the kind of information we need. Can you fill us in? And by the way, TM has been making and selling trailers since 1990 or earlier.They have a lot of experience in building them, and a lot of user experience behind them. You might want to soft-pedal the design-flaw accusation until the issue gets sorted out.
Bill
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