Four tires on newer dump trailer, 3 look as good as new, 1 is shot, what gives?

[bitternut]

I bought a 7 x 12 12000 lb dump trailer that has only 2000-3000 miles of easy country road driving in Western NY. Trailer has never seen salt and I always keep my speed 55 and under-especially when loaded. I always keep my tires at max air pressure ( 80# ) and check them regularly with a laser temperature gauge. The tires and hubs are always within 5 deg F and are checked often.

What could possibly be causing one tire to wear so much faster than the other three? The tire on the right front axle is the bad tire and none of the tires were balanced. Both axles have breaks and all wheels spin fine when jacked up. Brake adjustment seems fine. Seems to me if axle was misaligned each tire on that axle would be worn not just one tire.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[bcp]

Maybe brakes on the worn tire are doing most of the work, for some reason.

Bruce

 

[TMGT]

What does the wear look like? Could be either the one spindle is bent or was welded on wrong.

 

[Diamondpilot]

More than likely you have a bent axle. At my shop when we find bent axles it's 90% of the time the front and it's bent between the spring mount and the hub face.

The usual causes are a pot hole or a curb encounter.

 

[civilian]

Could it be from tire scrubbing? Like when trying to back in your drive from the road and having to turn sharply? I think actually bent an axle doing this when the trailer was way over loaded. That front left tire always looked like is was in on the top and out on the bottom afterwards. But the tire did not show a different wear pattern. In my case, both axles were recently replaced. Jon

 

[bitternut]

Here are some pictures of the trailer tires that might shed some light on the problem with my trailer. The first two pictures are of the bad tire. There are several spots on the tire that are bald as shown in the first picture. The third picture is of the opposite tire on the same axle and the fourth picture is the tire directly behind the bad tire location. The last picture shows what size the tires are.

The brakes have always worked well and have had no issues. The wheel bearings also are fine and adjusted properly. I am the only person that has ever used this trailer and have never hit any curb ( we don't have any where I have traveled with the trailer ) and I have never experienced any large pothole that might have bent anything.

If I have a bent axle as suggested by Diamond Pilot what is the fix for it? Replacing the axle? Sounds expensive!!

 

[bcp]

My guess from the photo is out of balance, or out of round, or worn spring pins/bushings.

I once saw on the freeway a dual axle trailer that had one wheel bouncing like it was running on railroad ties while all the others were smooth rolling.

If you don't have a good view of the tire in the mirror, it might be informative one way or another to take the trailer on the road while an observer in another car watches the tire.

Bruce

 

[Cord]

The linear scratches and flat spot would suggest a brake that is grabbing harder than others. If the trailer is empty you won't hear the tire squeal because it doesn't have enough weight on it. The other thin tire is showing some scrub, probably from turning, possibly from something out of alignment. The two deeper tires are also showing signs of lockup.

Hydraulic or electric brakes? If electric, do you adjust the controller or just leave it on max? To properly adjust, set the gain, and the slide the lever over. The brakes should just barely lock. Adjust the gain as required to get to that point.

 

[bitternut]

I replaced the bad tire with the spare that came with the trailer and relegated the bad tire as the spare. While I had that side of the trailer jacked up I took the tire behind it off and got it balanced with the spare. I will get the other side balanced also before I put the trailer back on the road next week.

The trailer always seemed to roll easy and quiet when empty and gave no indication that I had a problem. Sure hope it is just a bad tire. Others with way more trailer experience than myself suggest balancing the tires so I will be having them all balanced. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[crazyal]

A friend in the tire manufacturing business told me that some tires are just made bad. They have to shave them otherwise you can't get them to balance. Usually they are sold to vehicle manufacturers at a discount. Most people don't think to look closely at what tires come on their new vehicle. If someone does complain of a vibration the dealership just replaces it. While the one bald spot could be from braking it could also be just a poorly made tire. As for alignment I posted this last week in another thread. It's worth doing to see if something is out of whack.

Trailer Axle Alignment and Tire Wear Problems