Was rigging rods and setting the boat up to head to Flamingo when I got a peak of the tire under the fender. Approximately 2000-3000 miles on the trailer, towing a 14ft skiff. Removed it and checked the hub, spun freely with no play so that seems ok. Other tire still looks new, thinking axle alignment?
If the alignment is off, how would I go about fixing that, its a torsion axle bolted to the frame. Is that something I could do or would I need to reach out to Float-On.
Appreciate it!
Wow, but pretty even. Will take getting on the ground , but you can get a string and stretch it from the CENTER of the hitch back to the same spot on the end of each axle somewhere and compare. This will get you close.
How does the other tire look?
And stating the obvious here, and not to kick you while you are down, but that tire is pretty far gone. Good that you caught it now before something bad happened, but that thing has been gone for a while and could have been caught earlier. I double check my tires before every trip.
But if the axle is crooked, that tire is being dragged across at an angle, causing what you see. If your axle is mounted straight the spindle could angled. But start with the string as @Sublime mentioned above.
Hopefully Float On will come through for you to resolve it.
And since you have to replace the tire, I highly recommend ditching trailer tires and go with a light duty truck tire. They have a higher speed and load rating which means they handle heat better and way more durable.
Other tire is good looks barely worn and I agree, I should’ve caught it much earlier. Had a bad habit of just glancing at the edge tread from above and to the side due to the fender and complacency from assuming it’s probably good since it’s just over a year old. Lesson learned, but I guess first thing is to check the axle alignment and go from there.
If the axle is off, wouldn’t it wear both tires? Or would the trailer not track properly?
If one tire wears out before the other, it would point to a spindle issue, at least in my mind.
I just took some rough measurements with a straight edge across the tire and the frame. The good side was maybe an 1/8-1/4 difference while this side was almost 3/4 between front and rear measurement.
Would that indicate a spindle issue, from the naked eye it doesn’t look bent but the tire is definitely toe’d inward
Is the good side toed in or out?
Toed out could be the axle slightly out of square, one side toed in, the other out.
Can you measure from the center of the tire to center of the other tire? Front and back side of the tires…this might give you some idea of whether the spindle is bent or not.
I’m an idiot, just realized my spare hub is a tire,hub,spindle assembly so I’ll swap that over tomorrow and see if the measurements look better.
But to answer your questions both sides are toe’d in I believe by design. Just the right side has what seems to be an excessive amount. Maybe I tapped a curb or hit a good pothole and bent it. I’ll find out tomorrow, hopefully that’s it, easy enough to swap out and get another ordered.
Once you change tires and hubs, remeasure. If things are the same, I’d say you have a spindle problem.
edit…just reread your post. Yes, change everything and remeasure. If you still have the toe-in problem, you may have an ale issue. Hopefully you’ve got the solution!
It wore pretty even, I would just replace both tires and make sure you are running them at the recommended inflation pressure. A lot of tire issues are due to improper pressure. Also, if you are running load C tires up them to load D.
Yes.
It’s quite possible the spindle is bent or the rubber is worn on the torsion bands. If you want some more accurate measurements, Attach a level to both of the hub faces and measure across both ends then compare. You can do with the wheel/tires mounted but it wouldn’t be 100% accurate, but close enough.
You’d want em toed in, smaller measurement at the front, at about 1/16-1/8 of an inch less than the measurement at the rear.
Measuring to the frame will give an idea of what’s going on though.
And, don’t forget to have the new tires balanced.
ive seen cheap trailer tires wear badly no matter the alignment. i tend to think uts a spindle issue. if it interfered with fishing i would slap another tire or 2 on and watch it. i wouldn’t loose a day on the water over it.
deal with it during on a too windy time.
I swapped the spindle and I’ll just keep a better eye on it. If this tire wears out in 6 months I’ll reach out to float on and go from there
The tire was not evenly worn - the outer tread is thinner than the inside tread. Here is a straightened picture with a straight square around the tire.
I believe you have one of the following things going on…..
Here is a good site that shows how to do measurements to identify each potential issue.
Since the outside of the tire is worn down more than the inside, I believe this tire is closer to the front of the trailer - i.e., closer to your truck. It is being pulled at an angle, not evenly, causing the outside to wear down.
Did you measure the axle with a string from the hitch?
Do you have a torsion or leaf springs?
@coconutgroves That’s a pretty good article, good information there.
That article is helpful, but I have not measured the axle with a string yet. Haven’t had a chance to pull the boat out of the garage, it’s a tight fit in the garage.
And it’s a torsion axle bolted to the frame, so if it’s out of whack I’m not sure how to go about fixing it.
