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Old 05-18-2018, 12:00 PM   #1
keyholeelf
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Tire wear.

I've noticed this odd tire wear on my camper. What could be causing it? The front passenger tire has me concerned. the rest are added for comparison. These are the original tires with only a few thousand miles on them.

Thanks in advance.
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Old 05-18-2018, 12:16 PM   #2
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Tire wear patterns...
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Old 05-18-2018, 12:21 PM   #3
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Bent axle? Had a Cougar 318 SAB 5er that did the exact same thing with one tire. Get underneath and measure the rims side to side at the front and rear of the rims. Bet you will find that axle is bent on the side of the worn tire. Just a thought.
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Old 05-18-2018, 12:26 PM   #4
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If those are the original "china junk" tires used on most units, I'd be getting myself to the nearest tire shop to see if they an fix the obvious problem (camber?) and replace the entire set with a better quality tire. Several threads here about quality replacement tires.
Might want to consider investing in a TPMS as well.
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Old 05-18-2018, 12:35 PM   #5
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Alignment needed before replacing the tire.
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Old 05-18-2018, 12:38 PM   #6
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It could also be a "toe in" misalignment. This would be easy to check. Take a piece of wood pr some other form of straight edge and rest it on the sides of both wheels on that side. The straight edge should touch the front and rear sides of both wheels.
Before you do this, tow the trailer in a straight line for a few feet so that the axles don't have any side loading from turning.
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Old 05-18-2018, 03:13 PM   #7
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I see the trailer has the Correct Trac system. Even with that, it would be difficult for the adjustment to 'tweak' the axle hard enough to create excessive toe-in wear like that on just one side. It would also be strange for the axle to be bent in a direction to create enough 'positive' camber to create that wear. Unless the heavily loaded axle was jacked at the wrong point.
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Old 05-19-2018, 02:39 AM   #8
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A terrifically large pothole at speed could be the culprit.align first then new tires for sure.
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Old 05-19-2018, 06:41 AM   #9
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A couple of observations:

First, the opposite tire on the same axle doesn't appear to be wearing, so it's not axle alignment, but wheel alignment. The axle will either need to be repaired or replaced. Discuss the problem with a trailer maintenance business, not with the typical RV sales and service business. My guess is that it'll be cheaper to buy and install a new axle rather than repair the existing axle. If you upgrade to a larger axle, you need to replace both, so think about what you really want to do.

The tire is wearing rapidly, (a few thousand miles) and that tire is going to need replacement. Possibly, if you want to keep the OEM tires, if the spare is the same size/ply rating/condition, you can swap it to the ground and use the worn tire as a spare. If you do this, I'd still budget replacement tires in the next camping season, even if you decide to use them for the rest of this year.

Finally, most axles are warrantied for 2 or 3 years, so depending on the age of your trailer, if there is no physical damage or accident related damage, you may be able to get the axle manufacturer involved in a warranty exchange or warranty repair. It would, in my opinion, be difficult to talk them into accepting damage as a warranty item, but certainly worth a try if the trailer is new enough.
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Old 12-01-2020, 10:02 AM   #10
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Follow up.

I wanted to let everybody know where I'm at on this tire problem.

Taking some advice on here I got the correct track alignment manual from the interweb and measured the alignment 3 different times. Each time the measurements came out as they should..

Not knowing what else to do I called my local dealer. The service tech said since the wear is only on one tire then it's probably a bent spindle. Which he said is not unusual. Bad alignment means there should be 2 tires wearing badly, on each end of the axle.

The only way to replace this part is to buy the entire axle assembly including springs, hubs, and brakes. You can not buy just the bar, or even an axle without springs. Why doesn't lippert sale reasonable spare parts?

578.95 for axle
7-10 business days for production
255 for shipping to a business with a dock.
58.38 taxes
total 892.33

Luckily I got it shipped to where I work, if shipped to my house they would have charged me a 75 dollar lift gate fee.

The replacement was easy. Only 6 bolts, 4 were on a bracket where it was easier to remove the brackets than the bolts. The main problem was the weight of it, around 230 pounds. It wore us out.

So now I have a straight spindle, and I have measured all 4 tires for tread depth. I will let everyone know if this resolved the problem.
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Old 12-01-2020, 12:51 PM   #11
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Good to hear.... sounds like you've got it fixed and ready to rock..
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Old 12-02-2020, 12:51 PM   #12
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Read page #20 in the reference.

https://keystone-rv-dealer-app.cdn.p...ers-manual.pdf
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Old 12-02-2020, 01:08 PM   #13
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My last 5th wheel had the drivers side front tire wear considerably in just a couple thousand miles. The factory told me to take it in for an alignment which cured the wear on that tire position & found that the passenger side rear was also slightly out of alignment. I paid $125 per axle for the alignment that was reimbursed by the manufacturer. Afterwards for the next 50-60k miles all 4 tires wore evenly at which time they were due replacement.
With all that said, it is possible that an alignment can correct the wear of one tire at a much cheaper cost & less work than an axle replacement.
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Old 12-02-2020, 03:33 PM   #14
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As a long time Auto tech and having done a myriad of front end alignments in my time, I didn't think you could align, (short of bending) a straight axle... other than caster, and that requires shims under the spring to rock the axle forward or back.. but didn't think it was wise to bend that type of axle to attempt to adjust camber which would wear a tire edge... caster won't cause tire wear per se... or am I missing something special about these axles? can they shim in or out the spindles? because that would be the only way I could see them doing an "alignment"...
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Old 12-02-2020, 05:30 PM   #15
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From what I have read, I think they do bend them to realign them. Not as sofisticated as cars, but supposedly it helps.
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Old 12-02-2020, 05:50 PM   #16
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The yellow octagon plate is correct track it works on a cam. I would go to the opposite side axel to look if it’s placed in the same position .
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Old 12-02-2020, 07:26 PM   #17
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The Camber is preset at axle factory plant by setting a pre determined amount
of bend ..

Usually pretty reliable provided the axle isn’t overloaded, no potholes, etc are hit and suspension components are routinely inspected for wear and greased properly

For my money I prefer the Dexter over Lippert setup any day... And.. you can order a base new axle from Dexter for about $265 for 7K axle.
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Old 12-02-2020, 07:50 PM   #18
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There were no shims, all the alignment was done by bending the axles using chains & high powered pneumatic jacks. I will say the procedure looked very dangerous & scary.
The owner/manager said they align numerous RVs & he suggested to Lippert to recalculate the specs of the axles to account for loading the RVs but was told by Lippert they'd run their shop & for him to run his.
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Old 12-02-2020, 08:35 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by travelin texans View Post
There were no shims, all the alignment was done by bending the axles using chains & high powered pneumatic jacks. I will say the procedure looked very dangerous & scary.
The owner/manager said they align numerous RVs & he suggested to Lippert to recalculate the specs of the axles to account for loading the RVs but was told by Lippert they'd run their shop & for him to run his.
Correct track is alignment with off set octagon plate there should be 4 plates on each axel with Correct track . If it’s alignment I would think it could be alighted with the the cam plates . Correct track has nothing to do with camber.
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Old 12-09-2020, 12:45 PM   #20
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too much camber looks like
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