Tire Replacement

[SpeakEasy]

I'd like to know how long your tires last on your popup. If you can tell me in terms of miles of travel that would be the most helpful.

I tend to put about 4,000 miles a year on my popup, and I have only been able to get about two seasons out of my tires. I am meticulous about proper tire pressure and making sure the trailer is level while towing. This seems to me to be very poor performance. What do the rest of you experience?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[tlhdoc]

Do you get your tires balanced?  I get 2 to 3 years out of a set of PU tires.  They tires tend to dry rot and I don't want to take a chance on a tire blowing.

[Spoon]

Do you get your tires balanced?  I get 2 to 3 years out of a set of PU tires.  They tires tend to dry rot and I don't want to take a chance on a tire blowing.

I was wondering if anyone uses tire covers to protect from UV damage. Our dealer gave us a new set of tires when we bought our PU. I was planning on getting some covers to help get them from dry rotting.

Earl

[abbear]

check out tim's site:

http://www.title-3.com/Tires.htm

[wynot]

3 years, I used to use RV tire covers over them, now I just stick a piece of cardboard in the wheel well.  Works just as well.
 
I ran into the dry rot problem that Tracy noted as well - I know she puts a lot more miles on her camper than most, but it is the sitting that kills them.
 
I check the camper tires' air pressure more than I check the cars, and still, I'm getting only a couple of years out of them.

[77colemanapche]

would puting the camper on jackstands in the off season work . you wouldn't have the load bearing on the tires.

[SpeakEasy]

Let me explain more about the reason for my question.

Since I've had the camper (bought it new) I've noticed the right-side tire wears unevenly. The inside edge wears faster than the outside edge. I've gone round-and-round with the dealer on this, and have come to the conclusion that I won't be getting any warranty help. (Very long story made short, so let's not discuss that option.) This is why I only get a couple of seasons out of my tire. I've never noticed dry rot, but I haven't really been looking for that.

Fast forward to the present. I've had a frame shop look at the situation, and I've gotten quote of $200 to remove the axle and straighten it out. He says that's the cause of the uneven wear, and that this will correct it. My dilemma is, if I spend the $200 will that give me longer tire life, or should I just leave the axle alone and continue to replace my tire every couple of years?

From the sound of the discussion here, it sounds like if I weren't replacing my tire because of uneven wear, I'd be replacing it due to dry rot. If that's the case, then straightening the axle won't make much of a difference in terms of saving money on tire replacement.

(The tire on the left side is a different story, for reasons I won't bother to explain here and now. See other thread "The Story" if you're really curious.)

Feel free to respond with your opinions. I'm undecided on this one. Oh, and by the way, we're going to take a 4000 mile trip this summer.

[77colemanapche]

if they claim the axle is bent then yes it would help because the wheels would travel straight. you would not be (pulling )one tire to ware it . i would also try maybe repacking the wheel bearings. i had a boat trailor that did this.i realize this is a different set up but i put bearing buddies on the hubs and this helped because you can shoot grease in the hub without taking it apart.. jmo also im sure you do this but tire inflation is improtant to it will cause uneven wear on tires to..

[SpeakEasy]

Yes, this is all part of the round-and-round I've been through with the dealer:

* balancing the wheels (every time a new tire is installed)
* maintaining correct tire pressure (before every trip; every day on long trips)
* towing the trailer level
* repacking wheel bearings (every spring or every 5000 miles whichever comes first)

All of this has been done religiously. But the problem returns. The real pain in the neck is that it takes about a year for the tire-wear to begin to be noticeable. I'm thinking that it must be the axle.

[mike4947]

Speak, been there, done that, more times than I care to think about.

An easy thing to check is to get side weights on the trailer. While it's more common in slide out models we have found greatly off weights from side to side on some RV's even without a slideout. You can be well under the axle rating but have one side well over the individual tire rating.
 
Another thing we've found about balancing is that small (13 inch and under) trailer wheels due to their different manufacturing process do not have a concentric center hole. So using the standard balancer can actually have the tire/wheel worse off than if it wasn't balanced. Small trailers wheel/tires need to use what is called a lug centric adapter for the balancing machine. it uses the lug holes on the wheel to locate. Either that or get them spin balanced on the trailer.
 
Then you do have trailers that just seem to wear out one side no matter what you do and yes then it's repair or replace. BUT, it can be other things than a bent axle itself. Like the springs/spring hangers/hanger mounts.
 
Depending on your mileage sometimes it's just easier to replace the tires every couple of years than screw around with repairs/replacing.

[wynot]

would puting the camper on jackstands in the off season work . you wouldn't have the load bearing on the tires.

I did it for 3 years, no.  They seem to last just as long at full pressure sitting supporting the camper.

[SpeakEasy]

Well, I bit the bullet and took the camper to a very well-respected alignment shop near home. I asked him to look it over and advise me. I showed him the wear on the inside edge of the right tire. He told me that he was sure it was a bent axle and that he would take the axle off and straighten it. He also recommended replacing that tire before our 4000-mile trip to Colorado and back. I told him that I didn't want to proceed on guesswork; if he was SURE that straightening the axle would stop my tire-wear problem to go ahead and do it. Otherwise not.

He found more than I bargained for.

He found that the right side of the axle was, in fact, bent. The camber (?) was out of kilter. (He explained that this meant that the tire was not vertical while driving down the road.) He also found that my left side was toe-in and was "peeling" that tire. (In "The Story" I told of how I had had that side repaired during our trip last year. So, apparently that helpful frame shop in Charleston, SC wasn't so helpful after all.) He fixed both sides. He also recommended a new tire for the left side.

Now, here's where it gets a little scary. He said that the axle is light for the amount of weight it has to carry. He said that after they straightened it out they put the wheels back on and took the camper for a road test. They found that the weight of the camper had caused both wheels to go a bit out of alignment. So they went back to work on it again and over-compensated so that the wheels would be straight when the weight of the camper was back down on the axle. They assured me that the tires would wear properly now.

GEEZ!  The axle is "light" for the amount of weight it has to carry? What's up with that???

He said that if I hit a big pothole I could bend it again!!! This is not inspiring confidence in the design of this camper! Have any of you ever heard of anything like this?

[wavery]

SpeakEasy

I would ask the repair shop to note all of that on his repair order. Send Coleman a copy of it and ask them for help.

There is never any excuse for poor engineering but I must say that it doesn't shock me all that much. Judging by the way that the rest of these trailers are built, I would say that they definitely lean toward building them as light as possible. However, there is no excuse for making the trailer axle so light that it might encounter this type of difficulty.

There is always the possibility that they accidentally put the wrong axle on that trailer too. If you are not the original owner, that person may have changed the axle.

Good luck with it. It's too bad that the frame shop didn't weld on some supports to help it carry the weight better. Maybe he didn't want to take the responsibility for altering the original design.

I hope that Coleman will help you out with this. I wouldn't feel very good about towing that trailer after hearing that either.

[mike4947]

"Light for the weight it's carrying" is nice speach for, "you are overloading the axle and we're going to align it to what you are carrying".

Have you ever weighed the trailer?

[tlhdoc]

I had to have my axel aligned this winter.   I took it to a shop that does tractor trailers and RVs from the Fleetwood motor home factory.  They told me that it was very common to have the axels out of alignment on PUs.  I asked them if I should get a new one and they said no, that the adjustment will do the trick.  My roadside tire is the one that would have the most wear.