Horrible tire wear on one tire @4k miles

[purplefalcon77]

I have a 2019 19' trailer with only 4k miles on it. I recently discovered while repairing my refrigerator that broke that the front tire on the drivers side is wearing horribly wrong on the inside. All the other 3 tires look great. The lugs are tight, air pressure is correct. All suspension parts look good.

[sparkyradar]

I would suggest having this checked for alignment, or set about checking toe-in yourself (really only needs a tape-measure and some time).

What I think I'm seeing:

1) the one-edge-wear indicates camber. Your tire isn't sitting vertical. It's OK for this to be the case, and even beneficial, but perhaps not necessary in a trailer, and your wear indicates perhaps too much. By itself, camber isn't considered much of a "wear" setting; it's not the root cause of your treadwear but rather it's part of the whole story

2) toe. too much toe-(in, or out) will cause wear. In this case, it looks like it's causing wear only at the contact-patch allowed by the camber. Toe can be measured with a tape-measure if you're so-inclined. I have no idea what appropriate angles might be for a trailer (more familliar with my various trucks and SUVs).

Taken alltogether, I might offer:

-don't simply replace the tire. you have underlying issues that will affect a replacement.
-both toe and camber *could* be affected by loose/worn/busted bearings. Don't overlook this first, realatively easy step.
-I don't think the Torflex axle is really meant to be adjusted; it would probably require a frame-shop with hydraulics and tie-downs to "persuade" it into alignment.
-I wonder if you may have hit a major pot-hole along the way, to cause bending?

Ultimately, I think you should check bearings, then somehow have the alignment checked.

Hope this helps you sort it out,

[splitting_lanes]

When I had a tire that was severely worn at 6k miles, it wound up needing a new axle. My wear pattern was evenly across the one tire, not like yours.

My troubleshooting steps were to contact Escape support, who referred me to Dexter Axle support. Dexter axle had me take measurements with a right angle to verify camber of the wheels. Mine was still under warranty.

Edit: Sparky posted while I was writing, I agree that it could be a toe (out) problem. My problem was camber.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by purplefalcon77

I have a 2019 19' trailer with only 4k miles on it. I recently discovered while repairing my refrigerator that broke that the front tire on the drivers side is wearing horribly wrong on the inside. All the other 3 tires look great. The lugs are tight, air pressure is correct. All suspension parts look good.

Your tire is actually in better shape than ours was at 4k miles. Since we were in Dexters warranty period our axle and tire was replaced under Dexter’s warranty, but not in near your condition. Three thousand miles later our rear axle/tire was replaced under warranty. We’re guessing both axles were made on Hangover Monday. Check with Dexter on how long the warranty period is, but I suspect it’s over. We did replace the other good tires with Marathons (I believe) at 7,000 miles at our cost.

Every good frame shop I contacted said they will not realign Dexter axles because they usually just go back to eating tires sooner more than later. I did find one shop that would realign, but they said the same thing and offered no warranty. Even Dexter warned against realignment.

Dexter axles are a consumable and price of ownership. Their spindle system is poorly made and bends easily. Our Lance had one new Dexter axle when purchased, but the rest of the camper had very little use, so low miles.

When we sold our 5.0 last December it had over 44,000 miles and the tires were worn perfectly, at 40,000 and 37,000 miles, and were replaced, I’m sure others would have run them another 5,000 miles or more, but we choose to error on safety.

Enjoy,

Perry

[HANK]

Have a 21NE. Had a dexter axle replaced under warranty at 6,000 miles, on a 6 month old trailer. Same appearance as yours. It was a defective axle, diagnosed by Dexter via pics, and replaced at their cost. New axle has 15,000 miles on it with no issues.

[Ryanb-72]

Soon after we purchased our 2010 Jayco we had similar wear on both sides of the trailer (It was a single axle). I contacted Dexter about the problem after taking it to the dealer for an alignment and being told they could not align the axle.

Dexter said they would not cover the cost of the dealer to install the axle but would send them the axle at no cost and I would be responsable for the labor charges.

I contacted my dealer and they agreed to receive the axle and let me know when it came in. After it came in I went to the dealer picked it up and installed the axle on the trailer myself. It was not a difficult project and took only a few hours to complete the job.

After installing the new axle I installed new larger wheels and tires (I think the trailer came with 13s). Never replaced a tire on that trailer again and owned it for another 5 or 6 years.

[SageRpod]

In addition to the great advice already provided on this thread, it wouldn't hurt to check the bearings on that wheel. Improperly adjusted bearings will also cause abnormal wear.

[purplefalcon77]

For great advice!

[wackyburggeezer]

One more vote for SageRpod! When I saw that type of wear on one tire of our E19, the problem was that the castle nut had not been installed tightly enough. Correcting this ended our abnormal tire wear.

[Randy in Maine]

Another quick and dirty check is to measure both axles from the front most part of the rim through the axle to the front most part of the rim on the rear axle. Compare with the other side.

Also it would be worth it to take that rim with the tire to a tire shop to see if it has a bent wheel. It has been known to happen.

And repack & inspect the wheel bearings so that you will know that they are done correctly.

[Rockhead]

Also jack up the trailer so you can check n see if you can rock the tire to Ck for the bearing not being tightened enough. When we picked up or 21, we were half way home when I saw wear like this on one of the tires. I jacked it up n sure enough the bearing nut wasn’t tightened enough or had worked loose. Tightened it correctly n no more wear on the tire. Just a thought for a simple quick fix compared to an axle change fingers crossed ��

[elizabetsz]

I have been following this thread. My tire is wearing exactly the same. But it only took 180 miles on the spare to look like your photo. So now I need two new tires, one for the spare.I contacted Dexter Axle and they immediately wrote that they would send me a new axle ( front) to be installed. No labor was included but I will accept the axle. I have a good mechanic to install. I find it interesting that Dexter will claim no warranty issue but responded quickly to yet another Escape owner with an axle issue. I have a 2021 5.0TA.

[Rossue]

I would assume they will pay the labor too. Polite persistence goes a long way.

[Jim Bennett]

I recently had to have my axles aligned as there was bad wear on the tires on one of them. I took it to a local axle shop that deals in all sizes of axels and had them check it out and adjust it. They also checked out the seemingly good one while they were at it. That was late last year and all seems good on the new tires, but time will tell.

The axle shop said it is very common for this to develop with RV trailer axles and some unknown bump, turn, pothole, or many other thing might do a wee twist on it. I can't think of anything that happened to me and I had put lots of kilometers on my trailer before this developed last year.

[Camp@Home]

Just found one of these on mine, left rear, maybe 6K miles. Looks like poor camber alignment, worn down on inside below wear indicators and quite a bit across tire as well. Almost as if was not new originally, needs replaced. New spare measures @8/32 depth, used ones are 6/32 (over 1/4 gone @6K!). Rotated in spare for now, will see if wear pattern continues. Reported to Escape yesterday, along with two of the cable retainers for the brake wires where they enter back of drum. Both bolts for these on passenger side snapped off inside drum leaving wires&plates hanging loose. Temporarily patched with adhesive caulk to back of drum plate....

[Sean Murry]

I too had inside tire wear on one tire. Contacted Dexter along with a report from an axle shop. Dexter sent a replacement axle to the axle shop, paid for about 2 hours labour and replaced the worn tire. Dexter was amazing, very quick and no push back

[SageRpod]

Started seeing some wear on the outside of the front passenger side tire on our latest trip. Not too bad but noticeable compared to the other tires which are wearing evenly after 6k miles. I will follow the same process as others and go to an axle shop and then contact Dexter.

[Martin Cramer]

On my 2018 E19 I had one tire wear like this. When I had it in for brake and bearing service they suggested I take it to a shop that could do an an alignment. I had it done at a local shop (Standens in Calgary). I’ve put about 8000 km on since and have had no problems. I don’t think it was very expensive either.

[Sean Murry]

Interesting. I was told that the Dexter axles do not have any way in which to adjust alignment. Is this in fact true?

[Ron in BC]

When I installed my replacement axle I found that there was enough movement available in the mounting holes to move the axle to the same distance, hub center to hub center, on both sides. Without that, one of the axles by default wouldn't be aligned.

I'm wondering if the tire brand is a factor in some situations. Never had a problem with Carlisle tires. It was the Ranier brand that didn't wear well and had the uneven wear.

Ron