Uneven Tire Wear

[nast70]

I'm going to throw this out and see what suggestions come back.

I have a '09 Four Winns 18' stern drive on a factory matched trailer. When trailering the tires toe out quite dramatically.

The axle seems to bow down when loaded. Any suggestions to stiffen the axle? She's about 3700lbs loaded (don't remeber what the axle rating is, just got the idea to ask here) with 15" trailer tires.

Anyone have similar experiance with any other trailer?

 

[kbrunlees]

What is the possibility that the wheels have hit a curb and bent. We had this issue on a salem travel trailer. blew through a tire in less than 1000 k. you can't fix them once they are bent ( or you are not supposed to) we ended up getting new axles cuz our were bent so bad.

 

[nast70]

With some of the launches in this province how could you not bend an axle! (lost two licence plates that way!) That might be the cause.

 

[magnet]

I'm going to throw this out and see what suggestions come back.

I have a '09 Four Winns 18' stern drive on a factory matched trailer. When trailering the tires toe out quite dramatically.

The axle seems to bow down when loaded. Any suggestions to stiffen the axle? She's about 3700lbs loaded (don't remeber what the axle rating is, just got the idea to ask here) with 15" trailer tires.
Anyone have similar experiance with any other trailer?

i would bet you are overweight and the only way to fix is new trailer.
the trailer is factory matched to the boat but probably, i am only assuming this but makes sense to me as the four winns are entry level boats, the trailer is matched to the boats empty weight minus gear, fuel, oil, props, add on accesories like wake towers, ski poles etc. you could try upgrading axle only but my guess is that that will only hide the real problem for a bit and once the trailer fails it is bye bye boat.
i remember years ago my uncle had a inboard boat i think it was a 20 ft with a 350 olds in it, factory matched calkins trailer, really sould have been a tandem you did not want to have to trailer far with that one lol.
good luck with it.

 

[zal]

Axles are supposed to have 1/8" toe in and 1/8" camber in (top is longer). That way when their is a load and starts going down the road, the wheels "straighten up." As for fixing them, yes you can get the axles straighten. You can also straighten one side if one side is bent. Take it to a suspension shop and they should be able to straighten them. By the way, the "bow" is supposed to be up.

 

[Polarblu]

its 1/16th of and inch, toe in. best way to check is take and scribe a mark on the tire while its spinning and measure. We still use this method on commercial trucks even with all the lasers.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Sounds like you A. either need to get your axle(s) re-arced OR B. replace the axle.

 

[zal]

So between 1/16" to 1/8". We usually have the tires off and measure the hub surface. 1 000 000 ways of doing it as long as you get the same outcome.