Weird tire wear

So where do you go to have the alignment checked on a Dexter axle on a travel trailer?

Are there RV dealers competent to do this or ... ?

And no, no race tracks, counter clockwise or other wise

EDIT: John Wahlstein has taken his Elkmont on a similar trip, except his tires were at 65psi.
Hopefully he'll chime in with his tire wear story, or lack of it.

[ShrimpBurrito]

FWIW, I just took some measurements on my tires. I just bought them in Grand Junction, CO in mid-June (~3 months ago) due to blowouts enroute on a transcontinental trip. From there, we traveled to the east coast, and then back home to Los Angeles, driving an additional ~6,000 miles over the course of about 6 weeks. Much of that was interstate, and the TM weighed about 4,100 lbs on that trip. For maybe 2,000 of those miles, tire pressure was 80 psi. That is the max pressure for the tire, at which is has a load capacity of 2830 pounds. Not a good idea....everything in the TM shakes....but I was paranoid about more blowouts. For the rest of the trip, they were 70 psi, and since we've been back, I now run them at 65 psi.

There are 4 tread grooves on each of my tires, and I just measured each one of them on both tires using a tire tread depth gauge. I have no idea what the depth was when I bought them, but I can tell you that every one of the grooves on both tires is 10/32". Thus, both tires appear to be wearing evenly, both across each tire individually as well as in comparison to each other.

I'm not sure if that data is worth anything, but I was curious myself so I thought I'd share.

Dave

I would assume almost anyone with an alignment rack should be able to check it.
Go make a dry run to your local tire chain store and simply ask them to see what they say before lugging the TM to them.
An important point here is that they probably won't be able to do anything about correcting it. They will merely either rule it out, or confirm something is bent.

[mjlaupp]

Originally Posted by brulaz

So where do you go to have the alignment checked on a Dexter axle on a travel trailer?...

Try this:
http://www.dexteraxle.com/find_a_distributor

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by brulaz

So where do you go to have the alignment checked on a Dexter axle on a travel trailer?

Are there RV dealers competent to do this or ... ?

And no, no race tracks, counter clockwise or other wise

EDIT: John Wahlstein has taken his Elkmont on a similar trip, except his tires were at 65psi.
Hopefully he'll chime in with his tire wear story, or lack of it.

You can check for toe-in by measuring the distance from the front of one tire to the front of the other tire and compare that to this measurement from the rear of the tires. They should be the same distance.

For camber, you can use a simple carpenters level or dropping a plumb-line next to each tire (on level ground). You could also use a 24" carpenters square (on straight, level ground).





The key is knowing that the surface that the trailer is sitting on is level......

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by brulaz

So where do you go to have the alignment checked on a Dexter axle on a travel trailer?

Are there RV dealers competent to do this or ... ?

And no, no race tracks, counter clockwise or other wise

EDIT: John Wahlstein has taken his Elkmont on a similar trip, except his tires were at 65psi.
Hopefully he'll chime in with his tire wear story, or lack of it.

I've never looked closely at this before, but is it even possible to adjust the alignment of a trailer axle? These pictures from the Dexter site show pretty solid connections from the spindles all the way to the trailer frame:

http://dexteraxle.com/i/u/1080235/f/...0-3500_lbs.pdf

I don't think an individual wheel can be adjusted, but the entire axle could have slipped out of alignment if a large pot hole was hit with one wheel and the frame clamp was not tight. Probably more prone to this with a lift kit. If this was the case, I would expect uneven wear on the other side of the other tire.

[Bill]

I hate to bring this up, but ... Both TM and Dexter Axle warn owners never to jack up the TM by putting the jack under the axle. Reason? The axle will bend, and may take a permanent set. This would cause wear on the outside of the tire at the bent end. I think this is the "camber" that wmtire mentioned.

Several years ago, as part of my switch to 15" tires, my local tire jockey started to jack up the TM by putting the floor jack under the axle. Fortunately I caught him. The jack must be under the frame.

Brulaz - anything?

Bill

I always jack it up using the corner leveling jacks. Nothing on the axle. And I bought it new so ...

Can't get at the trailer right now, but next week I'll use a carpenter's level to check for a bent axle, but I'm not sure what that will tell me. Even if bent, the torsion link could be offset so the tire camber is ok.

So will also call around some local tire/alignment shops to see if I can get the camber checked. Can't think of anyplace level enough for me to do it. I know there's one shop that routinely has trailers and rv's in it's lot ...

And if the camber is off, there's no adjustment that I know of except whole axle replacement?

[ShrimpBurrito]

Originally Posted by Bill

Several years ago, as part of my switch to 15" tires, my local tire jockey started to jack up the TM by putting the floor jack under the axle. Fortunately I caught him.

This same exact thing has happened to me. It's the norm to jack up the axle, so you really need to watch the tech. Even if you tell the guy at the counter, and he writes it on the work order, the tech actually doing the work likely won't follow through unless you are standing over his shoulder.

Dave