Enclosed trailer inside tire wear

[Turblue]

Bought this 09 charmac enclosed trailer…tires have wore even since new, but started wearing the insides off. So I put a new set on think the tires were done, but the new ones are burning off on the inside…I assume the axles are bent?
2 - 3500lbs torque flex on a 23’ trailer. Anyone have insight? Load the trailer up and jack the Center of the axles to bend back?

 

[Mike270412]

Leave that job to the professionals. Take it to a trailer shop and get a proper alignment done.

 

[papajake]

take the tires off get a bud to help take 2 flat bars about 20 inches hold against the outside of each hub take tape measure the top of hub using the flat bar then measure the bottom always use the same spot on the hub the unsprung top measure should be no less than 3/16 of a inch more than the bottom if bottom is larger bent axle they can be bent back but need press and heat looking at the pic they are out of wack

 

[Turblue]

Leave that job to the professionals. Take it to a trailer shop and get a proper alignment done.

Yeah I’m guessing that’s for the better.

 

[JMCX]

Probably the rubber inside the tube that gives the spring effect is fubar, not the tube bent.

 

[papajake]

we just had a customer come in after taking his boat trailer to the pros and had the leaf springs changed then he brought to us because the tires were wearing bad bent the axle because the person that installed the springs forgot to add hangers straps and bolted it to the frame solid front and back in all the years of working on trailers myself and the shop foreman never seen that we first thought they had installed slipper springs NOT

 

[Turblue]

Probably the rubber inside the tube that gives the spring effect is fubar, not the tube bent.

I was wondering how long that would last, and if that’s the case.

 

[zal]

Up here, they charge approx $60 per axle. But at least you don’t have to take the axles off.
It will be either negative camber or toe out.
You can measure the camber as per directions from PJ. But you still have to measure toe in/out.
Hopefully it’s the axle and not the spindle.

 

[1200]

Kinda typical for those shitty axles seen a lot of tire wear with that setup . Myself new axles with leafs or just sell it and buy better trailer

 

[papajake]

You measured the toe in by the same measure but hold the bars level at 3 and 9 also put a string on the centre of the hitch on the front measure from it to the front axle dust cap on both sides it will determine if your axles are square to the frame it’s very easy we do at least 2 every week hope this information is a little helpful might save you some money then you can explain it to the trailer place what needs done

 

[Tchetek]

Leave that job to the professionals. Take it to a trailer shop and get a proper alignment done.

I don’t recommend city spring.

they turned my one bald tire into 4. And I had the same experience with a heaven truck I took there.

 

[Tchetek]

Kinda typical for those shitty axles seen a lot of tire wear with that setup . Myself new axles with leafs or just sell it and buy better trailer

This is what I would do also.

 

[Turblue]

Whats the typical life span of these axles?

 

[Teth-Air]

I had good luck recurving my holiday trailer axles but they were leaf spring. Took a big chain and bolt the chain around the axle ends, just outside the springs. Leave enough slack in the chain to put a 10 + ton bottle jack in the center and jack between the chain and the center of the axle. I did have a 16" piece of angle iron to spread the force over the center section of the axle. You need to go pretty far so it does not spring back all the way. My tires were all wearing on the insides but now nice and even. Your axles look flat in the photo when they should have a curve up in the center to give the tires a bit of camber. Do this at your own risk and if it you are ready to change the axles anyway if things don't work out.

 

[zal]

Whats the typical life span of these axles?

View attachment 245746View attachment 245748

A long time. As long as the bearings get serviced and don’t eat your spindle, the only time the torsion axles wear out is when the rubber chits the bed.
If you’re worried about the torsion arm being horizontal, the manufacturer may have ordered them that way to keep the trailer low to the ground. They do come in different angles and some are actually indexable.

 

[MP Kid]

I had good luck recurving my holiday trailer axles but they were leaf spring. Took a big chain and bolt the chain around the axle ends, just outside the springs. Leave enough slack in the chain to put a 10 + ton bottle jack in the center and jack between the chain and the center of the axle. I did have a 16" piece of angle iron to spread the force over the center section of the axle. You need to go pretty far so it does not spring back all the way. My tires were all wearing on the insides but now nice and even. Your axles look flat in the photo when they should have a curve up in the center to give the tires a bit of camber. Do this at your own risk and if it you are ready to change the axles anyway if things don't work out.

You are correct for a leaf spring type axle, but these are torflex (sp?). The axle tubes should be straight, the adjustments are made directly to the spindle on the end of the axle. Very difficult for someone to do at home in the garage. I’d agree with earlier posts though, not all axle shops are equal.

 

[Turblue]

I could see one axle being bent but both the same have the same where on the tires…both sides. Almost like it’s been over loaded or something.

 

[Travco28]

I had that problem on my boat trailer . Took it too Standen's Spring in Calgary . the spindle was slightly bent , they straightened it and now tire wear is normal . It was only a couple hundred dollar bill .

 

[blubbles]

Take it into Standens and get them to do an alignment. Very common to have bent axles now, they keep putting the smallest possible axles in trailers to save costs and they dont stand up to the abuse of rough roads etc. Standens were telling me that they often get brand new trailers in with bent axles, dealers get rammy rammy when pushing them around with tractors up and down curbs and can bend them before they even get off the lot. Brought a few trailers here and have never seen weird wear.

Like Travco said, its a smaller bill than you expect, cheaper to fix it than just keep putting tires on it. Honestly I will probably bring it in every time I put new tires on a trailer, nice to know it will wear evenly and i'm not just throwing money away.