Tire wear concerns

[tom&pam]

My TA 5.0 has about 16,000 miles. I checked tread depth yesterday and noted two potential problems.

All four tires are worn more on the outside edges. This suggests underinflation. Escape suggests 50 psi and I have tried to keep my tires in the 50 to 52 psi range. I think I should raise the pressure but I am uncertain how much. What is the forum's experience? Is there a useful calculation to get the correct pressure?

I also found the rear tires are worn more than the front ones. I sent a photo to Escape asking if they thought my trailer was too high in the front and the reply was it probably was OK. To level the trailer I can think of two possible ways. I could raise the trailer on the wheels with blocks. I could lower the trailer by moving the pin box closer to the trailer. Is there an easier way? What is the forum's suggestion?

 

[SRS]

If your tires are wearing more on both the outside edge & INSIDE edge, that's underinflation. Outside edge wear only may indicate positive camber. My tires were wearing more on the very outside edge with a slightly scalloped appearance which was an indication of toe-in. I also could see that both sides had more wear on the outside half of the tire indicating a little positive camber. This was with about 10,000 miles on them. I took my trailer to a recommended alignment shop last month and they adjusted to toe-in and camber. They were honest and said that torsion axles are difficult to accurately align so no guarantees. I put my unused spare on to see if the alignment had any affect and I've put about 1000 miles on the trailer since the alignment. So fare, no evidence of toe-in or camber wear. Cost was $200 and well worth it if works.

As to your rear tires wearing faster, you might want to look at how weight is distributed in the trailer. Moving some of your load forward might be the simple fix. Worth a try I would think.

I'd suggest posting photos of the tire wear if at all possible. That could help others better evaluate the situation.

 

[Iowa Dave]

We don’t have a TA but I have had good milage out of my escape tires running 56 PSI. Also I rotate the tires including having the spare in rotation every 8 to 10 thousand miles . They are balanced with the weights on the inside of the rims. I’m getting between 32 and 40 thousand miles on a set before I’m down to 4/32. I’ve pushed them out to 3/32 on occasion if it’s the last trip of the season and the wear pattern is the same on all the tires. With the Anderson hitch on the 21C,
It’s fairly easy to get it set up to
tow dead level. I watch my weight on the trailer pretty close, personally not so much.
Iowa Dave