Excessive wear on one tire

[splitting_lanes]

Not sure why I’m down to the wear bars on one tire when the others look fine,

Tire pressure has been kept up, and the wear looks pretty even. These tires have about 6000 miles on them. The worn one is drivers side front.

We have 2900 miles to go to get home.

Thoughts? Bad tire?



Compared to

[cpaharley2008]

Put the spare on and watch it, maybe just the tire or could be the axle, report back with results, please......

[Perry Butler]

Dexter Axles are a consumable and are installed by many maufactures.

We bought our 5.0 in October 2018. Both our axles were replaced under warranty, one at 4,000 miles and the other at 7,000 miles. We believe both axles were manufactured on Hangover Monday.

We just replaced all our tires at 40,000 miles on the camper. Two could have gone longer, and many wouldn't have replaced them, but with a 4,000 mile trip to the southwest starting in January we decided to replace them all, including our bald-on-one-side spare (it got the tire with the least wear).

If your camper is within Dexter's warranty, and you know how to talk nice, they will provide a new axle, and for us $140 for labor. If it is under warranty, escalate to a higher warranty tech if needed to get the labor reimbursed.

Again, Dexter axles are consumables. Great axles until you hit the wrong pothole or curb.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Eggscape]

With your trailer being a 2022 this should not be happening. Contact Dexter with your pictures.

[Viajante]

Edited out.

[splitting_lanes]

Ok, axle is likely the problem. I’ll move the spare to that location and put this tire to the spare.

What do I look for on the axle to verify it’s the problem? Or that will be something dexter will be able to diagnose?

Thanks for the replies - Perry, you’re funny, manufactured on Hangover Monday. Lol!

[wackyburggeezer]

Although you may have an axle that needs to be replaced by Dexter, You might jack up the rig to check the wheel bearing play. Ours was 'sloppy loose' from the factory, and caused the symptom that yours exhibits. Dexter has the adjustment for bearings on page #2 of their "Installation Instructions-Hubs/Drums/Bearings.

[Randy in Maine]

A side question....if this were to happen to me at some point is there a place one could take it to (as in a front end alignment shop or an auto body shop that does frame work) to have someone who knows to determine if the axle is bent or just what else is going on?

I know enough to be able to do wheel bearings but I am not sure about being able to tell if an axle is bent.

[SWCO]

Originally Posted by splitting_lanes

Not sure why I’m down to the wear bars on one tire when the others look fine,

Tire pressure has been kept up, and the wear looks pretty even. These tires have about 6000 miles on them. The worn one is drivers side front.

We have 2900 miles to go to get home.

Thoughts? Bad tire?

Attachment 65343
Attachment 65344

We experienced a similar situation. When we had the tires replaced recently, one of the five Escape-supplied white steel wheels was found to not be true...when the shop balanced the new tires, one of the four wheels that had been on the ground exhibited significant lateral (side to side) wobble. I imagine there is a more precise descriptor, but I am unaware of it. It might have been bent in use (unlikely, original owner) or it might be a manufacturing/shipping defect. I cannot know if this is the steel wheel that had the badly worn original tire, but it seems likely. It is currently serving as the spare. Two of the other wheels had no perceptible lateral wobble (on the balancing machine) and the remaining two had very minor wobble. Might be an axle or bearing issue, or it might be that wheel.

[Rossue]

Dexter was great when we had a similar situation with a new trailer.

LSS- it was our brake on one wheel locking up.

Have you done a brake adjustment? That was what the Dexter rep finally asked after a lot of brouhaha and them giving the benefit of doubt at every turn.

[splitting_lanes]

Thanks for all the additional input. I’ll check bearings and the brake on that wheel when I get it off the ground.

The trailer is coming up on 6 months old, so I would think the axle is under warranty.

[MVA]

The wear pattern from your post seems to show that the tire is evenly worn abit excessively. In our case, we had a bent axle where the wear pattern indicated excessive wear on one side of the tire, In that case Dexter replaced it. I layed a long straight edge along the two tires which indicated that they were not parallel. Dexter accepted that as evidence that the axle was bent. The oddity is that your tire indicates even wear. It sounds too simple, but did you check the tire pressure?

Edit - just reread your OP - tire pressure is OK. Check alignment with a straight edge.

[rubicon327]

Is the second picture posted the driver's side rear right behind the balding tire or a picture of passenger's side on the same axle? It is hard to tell from the photo but that tire looks like it might have some uneven wear starting too.

[CharlesinGA]

Dexter uses rubber/elastomer cords for the spring in the axles. See the illustration.



What Dexter does to vary the weight capacity of the axles is to vary the length of the cords. The longer the cords, the more weight they will support (up to the point where you step up to the next class of axle with a larger tube and larger diameter rubber cords).

Its possible that Dexter put longer cords on the side with the worn tire, as opposed to the side with the "good tire". Lets say the axles require 18 inches of cords, and all were done that way, except that one position, which got 24 inches instead. The result is that the longer cords would be carrying weight intended for the tire behind it. This would wear that tire out well before the other tires.

There is a similar situation, with a different cause, when towing a tandem axle trailer with torflex axles, and the trailer is not level. If the trailer is tongue high while towing, the rear wheels will be carrying more weight than the front, and those rear tires will wear out first. Tongue low will cause the forward tires to wear first (and also cause weird handling/sway issues.

Note that with leaf springs and straight axles, this cannot happen, as there is an equalizer link between the front and rear leaf springs to allow the axles to be loaded generally the same, even if the event of the trailer not being level. (to a point)

So, given no other evidence or explanation, its possible that a defectively manufactured axle is to blame.

As an aside to this does Dexter offer the option to order axles with different down angles (higher ground clearance) or the Eliminator™ version of the torsion axle which has replaceable spindles, should a bearing destroy the spindle. See the PDF flyer to see what I am talking about.

https://www.dexteraxle.com/user_area...it-705-00).pdf

Charles

[JohnK]

Originally Posted by splitting_lanes

Not sure why I’m down to the wear bars on one tire when the others look fine,

Tire pressure has been kept up, and the wear looks pretty even. These tires have about 6000 miles on them. The worn one is drivers side front.

We have 2900 miles to go to get home.

Thoughts? Bad tire?

Attachment 65343

Compared to

Attachment 65344

Our new to us 2020 E21 had both tires on one axle much more worn than both tires on the other axle. The culprit turned out to be broken brake grounding wires to the wheels with the less worn tires preventing the less worn tires from performing their fair share of the braking, therefore requiring the more worn tires to do all the braking. It may be worth your while to check that all your brakes are functioning, not just the front driver's side brake.
John

[Iowa Dave]

The poor connections, missed crimps, corrosion caused by water infusion at the connection point where the brake assembly pigtail connects to the main brake wiring wires (right at the end of the split plastic wire coating) has been reported over and over .

It seems that the frame manufacturer has an ongoing problem with this. It would be a good idea if the quality control person at Escape personally examined each connection before the body is mounted on the frame. It sure would eliminate a lot of reported problems Solid crimps or soldered connections, heat shrink connectors properly heated would certainly be an upgrade that collectively would save thousands of dollars over the years.

What do I know? I’ve only been towing implements like tree spades that weighed 7,000 lbs with electric brakes for 50 plus years. If you don’t have time to do it right the first time when are you going to find the time the second time? Bob Scott.
Iowa Dave

[JohnK]

“It would be a good idea if the quality control person at Escape personally examined each connection before the body is mounted on the frame. ”

Is there a QC person at ETI?
John

[splitting_lanes]

Circling back after changing the tire.

Checked brakes and bearings, both fine. Can’t see anything obviously wrong with the axle or rim. The tire is a little more worn on the inside than the middle or outside, but still, not really out of spec.

The one tire is at the wear bars, and all the others are a long way from the wear bars. I emailed ETI on Friday morning, we’ll see what they say. And, I have 2,900 miles to go starting tomorrow, so we’ll see if the spare shows a high amount of wear too.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[MVA]

Sorry you are dealing with this problem, but post any solutions that you figure out. I have not seen a tire wear problem like this in the past where there is extensive uniform wear on one tire.

CharlesinGA's comment makes sense. When you jack-up the trailer does the wheel with extensive wear drop lower than the other tires?

[BILLB]

For what it’s worth, I had a similar (though not as severe) problem with only one of my 5.0 tires. Ended up trading that tire with my spare and problem went away. Conclusion: definitely could be a tire or wheel problem .
Also, none of my tires were balanced from the factory. Being out of balance can definitely cause tire wear abnormalities. However, a balancing problem would likely cause “cupping” and not all over wear like the photos show.