Uneven tire wear

[Grandpa Dude]

I have a 2007 27’ Safari and have consistent tire wear on just one of the 4 tires (right rear)? Any suggestions?
Grandpa Dude

[JMynes]

Bent axle?

[UncleBad]

What type of wear? One side of the tire or the other? In patches? It could be quite a few things and we need a bit more data to help... :-)

[A W Warn]

Originally Posted by Grandpa Dude

I have a 2007 27’ Safari and have consistent tire wear on just one of the 4 tires (right rear)? Any suggestions?
Grandpa Dude

Need to know if you have rotated tires, and only the tire on that right rear still wears differently.
If it is consistently a tire in that one position, even after rotating, it is an alignment or loading problem.

If one tire wears differently as it is rotated to different locations, then it is a tire, or a wheel, or out of balance, or improper inflation, or a combination of the these.

[TG Twinkie]

Could be the brake on that wheel is doing more work. Is the tire wearing evenly? Do you have auto adjusting brakes?

[Ray Eklund]

If it is a flat spot... your brakes are locking up that wheel and will eventually wear through the tread. Tow in some gravel about 5 mph. Use the manual brake and apply a little at a time. If one or more are locking up... you will find it.

[Grandpa Dude]

Wow, thanks for all the responses. In response to UncleBad - The outside treads on this tire and the one before it. The other three tires seems to wear normally. In response to A W Worn - No I haven’t rotated the tires, but this is the second tire in this position to wear b4 the others. In response to Ray Eklund - No it’s not a flat spot. It’s a continuous wear of the outside several treads. Anyone have any experience with the individual tires springs. Could the tension on this one position be too tight?
Grandpa Dude

[azflycaster]

Definitely sounds like an alignment issue to me. There are facilities that can check and fix these problems but it requires special equipment. Airstream should be able to provide you with a list of service locations.

[Silver Otter]

We had awful uneven tire wear on our 1999 Excella Classic 30'. We had the tires re-mounted and balanced, no joy. We took it to Jackson Center and had the alignment corrected. Perfect tire wear after that. It's almost always alignment if it's only one tire, IMHO.

[28totow]

I to have same issue on 2011 Classic 30’. Front curb side tire most outside teed section wears smooth within 7000 miles. All other tires show normal to no wear. I have:
Replaced both axles;
Then replaced front axel again under warranty from Dexter;
Have had axles alignment by two different companies and both came back within tolerance.
Have had each wheel weighed and all 4 are within 100 lbs.
Have had wheel balanced and checked to see if bent-was not.
Have had bearings checked for wear-all ok.
I pull with a Hensley hitch-is set up correctly.
This has been going on for apps. 50k miles and have gone thru a number of tires on this wheel.
Any ideas?

[GCinSC2]

Post a pic showing the tire wear that might offer a clue.

Have you checked tire temps during a trip?

[A W Warn]

Originally Posted by Grandpa Dude

Wow, thanks for all the responses. In response to UncleBad - The outside treads on this tire and the one before it. The other three tires seems to wear normally. In response to A W Worn - No I haven’t rotated the tires, but this is the second tire in this position to wear b4 the others. In response to Ray Eklund - No it’s not a flat spot. It’s a continuous wear of the outside several treads. Anyone have any experience with the individual tires springs. Could the tension on this one position be too tight?
Grandpa Dude

This wear is not related to a spring. Actually there are no springs on your trailer. The axle has internal rubber rods that act as a damper, using the twisting motion of the torsion arm that the wheel is mounted onto to compress the rubber.
(Google "Torflex", there is a good u-tube video)

My guess; it is a bent spindle (alignment issue). You will have to take it to a specialty shop to repair this, not a regular alignment shop, because it involves re-bending the spindle. (those wheels/tires on the curb side take a beating, hopping up onto curbs when turning corners short, then dropping off of curbs)

You can quick check by placing an exactly straight edge (not a 2x4), or pull a taught string across the center of the wheels, touching the surface of the tires, parallel to the ground. The straight edge should touch four of the surfaces of the of two tires. If there one tire surface that does not touch the straight edge, that is proof of misalignment. That gap may be as small as 1/16". (some people use an 8' fluorescent bulb for a straight edge)

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted by 28totow

I to have same issue on 2011 Classic 30’. Front curb side tire most outside teed section wears smooth within 7000 miles. All other tires show normal to no wear. I have:
Replaced both axles;
Then replaced front axel again under warranty from Dexter;
Have had axles alignment by two different companies and both came back within tolerance.
Have had each wheel weighed and all 4 are within 100 lbs.
Have had wheel balanced and checked to see if bent-was not.
Have had bearings checked for wear-all ok.
I pull with a Hensley hitch-is set up correctly.
This has been going on for apps. 50k miles and have gone thru a number of tires on this wheel.
Any ideas?

2 thoughts:

1) Alignment tolerances can be pretty wide, leading folks to think that everything is OK. My experience says that the toe has to be within 1/32nd of an inch (0.06 degrees). Most specs are greater than that.

2) Could you have a brake dragging?

3) (OK, I thought of one more!) Do you make a turn more to one side than the other? Like when backing into a parking spot? That might be causing that tire to be dragged.

[28totow]

Thanks for thoughts CapriRacer. To answer your points:

1). Was told by both shops (one that specializes in RV alignments and the other an RV repair shop that works on Airstreams only) that alignment was less than 1/8” out.
2.)Breaks (electric) were checked and no abnormal wear on any wheel.
3). This is my 2nd AS trailer (first a 28’ Int. and put 140k miles on it) and never had this problem. Can’t say that I pull/turn this one any different.
Thanks for your reply.

[tjdonahoe]

I would rotate the tires every 5000 miles....

[GCinSC2]

Talk about a long shot, here goes.

If you changed wheel positions does the wear go with the wheel that was wearing bad or does a new bad wear pattern start all over at the same spot?

Care to try running the spare in that spot and see if it shows same wear pattern?

And big difference between 1/32 and 1/8. Confidence factor with the 1/8” shop?

[28totow]

Thanks for reply. Have run spare and rotated f to b and wear continues on that front curb wheel position only.

I am confident axles are in alignment. Have never had any wear on opposite tire.