campermama
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My travel trailer has Dexter tandem axles. I noticed both tires on the front axle have slight cupping on the outside of the tires.
My fresh water tank is just behind that front axle and over the rear axle.
My question is could having more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle be causing this?
I don't travel with a full tank but I do have 1/3 - 2/3 filled sometimes since I only boondock.
Everything on or around the axle looks fine otherwise.
* This post was
edited 08/25/22 06:38pm by campermama *
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enblethen
Moses Lake, WA
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I would check with a frame/alignment shop. Axle could be bent/
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Grit dog
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campermama wrote:My travel trailer has Dexter tandem axles. I noticed both tires on the front axle have slight cupping on the outside of the tires.
My fresh water tank is just behind that front axle and over the rear axle.
My question is could having more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle be causing this?
Nope.
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JBarca
Radnor, Ohio, USA
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campermama wrote:My travel trailer has Dexter tandem axles. I noticed both tires on the front axle have slight cupping on the outside of the tires.
My fresh water tank is just behind that front axle and over the rear axle.
My question is could having more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle be causing this?
I don't travel with a full tank but I do have 1/3 - 2/3 filled sometimes since I only boondock.
Everything on or around the axle looks fine otherwise.
The added weight of fresh water normally does not create outside tire wear, but axle or wheel alignment can. A pure weight overload more often points to inside tire wear due to loss of correct wheel camber assuming nothing else is messed up.
It would help to know a few things to better understand your tire wear. Here are a few items.
1. How old is the camper?
2. How many approx. miles are on the tires with the wear you now have since the tires were new? (if you know, or how many miles have you put on if you bought the camper used?)
3. Does the camper have leaf spring axles or a torsion axles?
4. Can you post some pics of the thread wear across the face of the tire in clear focus and lighting on all 4 tires? And which pic goes with which wheel location for front or rear tire and left or right tire. And yes, the rear tires help add to the story even if the wear is not as gross amount like the front.
Tire wear (assuming the the tires have not being rotated since new) help tell a story on wheel alignment.
Trailer running gear alignment issues comes from many places. Starting with the hangers welded on wrong on day 1 from the factory, axles being made wrong, worn suspension parts, loose wheel bearings, overloading of the axles, and wheel alignment damage from hitting curbs, pot holes or any other kind of bump at speed to name a few of the common issues.
Sadly, tire wear on campers is common when the wheel alignment is out of tolerance. And it happens somewhat frequently. When the wheels are in proper alignment and the axles not in overload, you will get even wear on the tire face for the life of the tire, other then minor normal outside tire turning wear which is not cupping. When they are out of alignment, the tires scrub the road wearing wrong rather then roll straight ahead.
Hope this helps,
John
PS. There are ways to correct the problems, but it helps first to know what the issue may be to tell you what to correct short of a quick answer, just take it to a RV dealer and let them deal with it. Not all RV dealers can handle trailer axle alignment, the shop needs to know and have the equipment for measuring all aspects of wheel alignment and later correcting the root cause of what is wrong.
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campermama
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JBarca wrote:campermama wrote:My travel trailer has Dexter tandem axles. I noticed both tires on the front axle have slight cupping on the outside of the tires.
My fresh water tank is just behind that front axle and over the rear axle.
My question is could having more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle be causing this?
I don't travel with a full tank but I do have 1/3 - 2/3 filled sometimes since I only boondock.
Everything on or around the axle looks fine otherwise.
The added weight of fresh water normally does not create outside tire wear, but axle or wheel alignment can. A pure weight overload more often points to inside tire wear due to loss of correct wheel camber assuming nothing else is messed up.
It would help to know a few things to better understand your tire wear. Here are a few items.
1. How old is the camper?
2. How many approx. miles are on the tires with the wear you now have since the tires were new? (if you know, or how many miles have you put on if you bought the camper used?)
3. Does the camper have leaf spring axles or a torsion axles?
4. Can you post some pics of the thread wear across the face of the tire in clear focus and lighting on all 4 tires? And which pic goes with which wheel location for front or rear tire and left or right tire. And yes, the rear tires help add to the story even if the wear is not as gross amount like the front.
Tire wear (assuming the the tires have not being rotated since new) help tell a story on wheel alignment.
Trailer running gear alignment issues comes from many places. Starting with the hangers welded on wrong on day 1 from the factory, axles being made wrong, worn suspension parts, loose wheel bearings, overloading of the axles, and wheel alignment damage from hitting curbs, pot holes or any other kind of bump at speed to name a few of the common issues.
Sadly, tire wear on campers is common when the wheel alignment is out of tolerance. And it happens somewhat frequently. When the wheels are in proper alignment and the axles not in overload, you will get even wear on the tire face for the life of the tire, other then minor normal outside tire turning wear which is not cupping. When they are out of alignment, the tires scrub the road wearing wrong rather then roll straight ahead.
Hope this helps,
John
PS. There are ways to correct the problems, but it helps first to know what the issue may be to tell you what to correct short of a quick answer, just take it to a RV dealer and let them deal with it. Not all RV dealers can handle trailer axle alignment, the shop needs to know and have the equipment for measuring all aspects of wheel alignment and later correcting the root cause of what is wrong.
I am not talking about it being overweight. I'm saying ALL the weight of the fresh water tank is on the REAR axle. So I am wondering if the FRONT axle with the cupping tire wear, doesn't have enough weight on it??
The trailer is a 2020, I bought it new. Tires are goodyear endurance, probably have about 10k miles on them. Trailer has leaf springs.Just noticed the cupping after the last 2k trip in which I carried more fresh water than usual. The "issue" is only on the front axle tires. Rear axle tires are fine! I'll try to get pictures today.
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enblethen
Moses Lake, WA
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Is the trailer sitting level or close to it when ready to hit the road?
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JBarca
Radnor, Ohio, USA
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campermama wrote:
I am not talking about it being overweight. I'm saying ALL the weight of the fresh water tank is on the REAR axle. So I am wondering if the FRONT axle with the cupping tire wear, doesn't have enough weight on it??
The trailer is a 2020, I bought it new. Tires are goodyear endurance, probably have about 10k miles on them. Trailer has leaf springs.Just noticed the cupping after the last 2k trip in which I carried more fresh water than usual. The "issue" is only on the front axle tires. Rear axle tires are fine! I'll try to get pictures today.
OK, this helps as a start. 10K miles is plenty enough for tire wear to rears it head of an out of alignment issue. Tire wear is slow and you may not notice it at first until it makes it to the obvious looking stage. For heavy outside cupping wear to occur in only 2K miles, that points to a major gross alignment issue, you may have not known the wear started long ago, it started slow until it wore enough it becomes more obvious. This is common to show up this way.
The weight of the fresh tank being over the front or rear axle "normally" should not cause cupping on the opposite axle. The steel trailer frame and the way the suspension is made helps to spread the load out over both. While both axle loads may not be exactly the same and normally are not, adding water to the fresh tank should not be a factor for cupping on the outside of the tire, assuming you have a semi normal size fresh tank.
In the event you have something special, what make/model camper and what size (gallons) is the fresh tank?
Cupping on the outside of the tire often comes from 2 areas, excessive toe wheel alignment out of spec, or the thrust angle of the front axle is not correct to the tow ball allowing the trailer to dog track off center when it gets bad enough. But tires will wear if the thrust angle is off even if the toe angle is correct.
To what the other poster asked, how is the towing stance of the camper when going down the road, nose high, level or nose low? If nose high or low, how high or low at the tow ball in approx. inches.
Hope this helps
John
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Gdetrailer
PA
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campermama wrote:JBarca wrote:campermama wrote:My travel trailer has Dexter tandem axles. I noticed both tires on the front axle have slight cupping on the outside of the tires.
My fresh water tank is just behind that front axle and over the rear axle.
My question is could having more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle be causing this?
I don't travel with a full tank but I do have 1/3 - 2/3 filled sometimes since I only boondock.
Everything on or around the axle looks fine otherwise.
The added weight of fresh water normally does not create outside tire wear, but axle or wheel alignment can. A pure weight overload more often points to inside tire wear due to loss of correct wheel camber assuming nothing else is messed up.
It would help to know a few things to better understand your tire wear. Here are a few items.
1. How old is the camper?
2. How many approx. miles are on the tires with the wear you now have since the tires were new? (if you know, or how many miles have you put on if you bought the camper used?)
3. Does the camper have leaf spring axles or a torsion axles?
4. Can you post some pics of the thread wear across the face of the tire in clear focus and lighting on all 4 tires? And which pic goes with which wheel location for front or rear tire and left or right tire. And yes, the rear tires help add to the story even if the wear is not as gross amount like the front.
Tire wear (assuming the the tires have not being rotated since new) help tell a story on wheel alignment.
Trailer running gear alignment issues comes from many places. Starting with the hangers welded on wrong on day 1 from the factory, axles being made wrong, worn suspension parts, loose wheel bearings, overloading of the axles, and wheel alignment damage from hitting curbs, pot holes or any other kind of bump at speed to name a few of the common issues.
Sadly, tire wear on campers is common when the wheel alignment is out of tolerance. And it happens somewhat frequently. When the wheels are in proper alignment and the axles not in overload, you will get even wear on the tire face for the life of the tire, other then minor normal outside tire turning wear which is not cupping. When they are out of alignment, the tires scrub the road wearing wrong rather then roll straight ahead.
Hope this helps,
John
PS. There are ways to correct the problems, but it helps first to know what the issue may be to tell you what to correct short of a quick answer, just take it to a RV dealer and let them deal with it. Not all RV dealers can handle trailer axle alignment, the shop needs to know and have the equipment for measuring all aspects of wheel alignment and later correcting the root cause of what is wrong.
I am not talking about it being overweight. I'm saying ALL the weight of the fresh water tank is on the REAR axle. So I am wondering if the FRONT axle with the cupping tire wear, doesn't have enough weight on it??
The trailer is a 2020, I bought it new. Tires are goodyear endurance, probably have about 10k miles on them. Trailer has leaf springs.Just noticed the cupping after the last 2k trip in which I carried more fresh water than usual. The "issue" is only on the front axle tires. Rear axle tires are fine! I'll try to get pictures today.
Annd HERE is what Dexter says..
Page 77..
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/0ncTPnsl.jpg )
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/m3zZPvb.png) Click For Full-Size Image.
Cupping can come from an out of balance issue or wheel bearing adjustment issue according to Dexter axles manual.
I have seen tires just suddenly start wearing unevenly for no reason at all as they get some miles on them.
This spring had rear set of tires on my TT start wearing the outside edges quickly (about 300 miles into a 2K mile round trip was down to the wear bars), never had that happen before, loaded the same way as past so no change there, same tow vehicle with same setup no change there.. Only can assume that the tires were just simply done and needed replaced. The replacements have nearly 1K miles on them and look OK..
Had a tire that broke a belt on my other trailer a few yrs back, caused a bulge in the tread area, tire was only 2 yrs old and less than 2K miles on it.
My tire shop tells me once they start wearing odd, nothing can slow it down or fix it other than replacing..
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time2roll
Southern California
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Outside wear is generally positive camber or toe-in out of spec.
Cupping is usually balance or bad shocks.
Usually overload will cause negative camber so I doubt the water tank is an issue. Axle could have been bent if someone jacked on the axle tube in the middle section at some point. This would cause positive camber. Road hazard would not likely cause this except maybe going up a curb etc. at an odd angle to bend something.
Some truck/trailer places can bend the axle to realign. Otherwise you are looking at replacement.
Yes could be a bad tire but odd to be both on same axle. Tread separating or belt shifting can do lots of odd stuff.
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Mike134
Elgin, IL
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as others have said cupping is from out-of-balance.
Yet keyboard warriors who don't have a clue will say that you don't need to balance a rotating wheel.
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![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/0ncTPns.jpg )
