Trailer front wheels warmer, WDH the cause?

[bbells]

Question: Will having the WDH set too tight cause extra weight on the front axle of the TRAILER? I followed the directions for re-setting up my weight distribution hitch and now the tires on the front axle get much warmer than the rear axles and the tire pressure increases (of course). The tire pressure goes from 50 to 70+ pounds. I know that is still a safe place to be, but it would be nice to know what is going on so I can reduce the problem. Outdoor temps affect this a little, but do not seem to be the cause of the problem. This did not happen before I 'tightened' the WDH more. I setup the WDH so the differences between the front and rear height of my Toyota Tundra are about equal to what they were without the trailer. I went from my previous 3 links unused to 5 links unused. I have checked for dragging brakes, moved weight from the front to the back of the trailer, checked the wheel bearings and re-greased them. None of which made any difference at all. I am checking the pressure with both my Tire Minders and a hand psi tester. I am checking the temperature with both a laser and the Tire Minders. I have moved the Tire Minders to other tires and still have the same problem with the same axle. It appears something changed when I changed the WDH. Could the WDH be too tight? Thanks for any help!
TV: Toyota Tundra
Trailer: North Trail, 4600lb dry weight, dual axle.

[humblerb]

bbells wrote:
I think the problem was a combo of 2 things: The dealer set the angle

For Travel Trailers, the dealer doing anything with the set up will nearly always be an issue.

[bbells]

Sorry for the delay. My tries at posting have timed out. Oh well. Here is how I
fixed it on my 2 year old trailer:
I used the Equalizer hitch instructions instead of the Eaz-Lift ones for
my wdh. They seemed more realistic. This meant I raised my ball a little
over an inch and tilted it back several degrees more. This allowed me to
be on the 6th chain link and met the Equalizer standards for the front
and back of the truck. I took it for a 70-80
mile ride today at 60mph and it appears the temps and pressures have
normalized. In fact, the treads on the front axle were running 1 degree
cooler than the rear. Not statistically significant. Also, 2 psi was the
maximum increase I had in any tire (That is a very slight increase). I
think the problem was a combo of 2 things: The dealer set the angle
wrong on the hitch (and I didn't bother checking it) and I did not set
the height properly when I re-did things.

[aftermath]

Wow, that sounds like my story. Got a tent trailer in '89 and the tires looked good. Within the first year after driving from Spokane to the California border I noticed a big chunk of tread missing. Replaced the tires and within a couple of years had a major failure which did a lot of damage to a wheel well. I figured it was a faulty tire. Went in and replaced these 12 inch tires again. About 4 years later another blowout. This time no damage but by the time I got it stopped it was so hot I feared a fire would break out any time. Finally, we to Les Schwab where a guy explained the problem with under inflating a tire.

I had been asked if I "aired up the tires" before the trip and if I was "overloaded". I aired up the tires so there was no noticeable bulge never really paying attention to the 80lb. specs on the side of the tire. I went YEARS with under inflated tires and had three failures because of it. Learning the hard way is not the way to go.

[All_I_could_aff]

I can tell you from personal experience (and perhaps my ignorance as a new owner years ago), that my 13 inch single axle trailers tires would routinely go from 50 psi cold on a 70 degree day to 65 psi after a 60 mile ride never exceeding 60 mph.

Turns out my wife was packing way more stuff in the camper than we should have, but as the driver, I was responsible for knowing my load.

It was our third or fourth trip of the first season... We were getting ready to leave on a Friday morning, and I said I'd like to stop at my friends scrap yard just out of curiosity and weigh each axle. Turns out the trailer tires were each overloaded by about 250 pounds, and our Ford explore rear axle was right at max load.

[aftermath]

What kind of tires do you have? Are all 4 the same? If you are starting at 50 lbs inflation there might be a good chance that they are under inflated. An under inflated tire will flex more and build up heat faster. If all of your tires are the same and if all of them are aired up to the max on the sidewall then this shouldn't be an issue.

Swapping the fronts and the rears sounds like a good problem solving option. Let us know when you do this.

[JBarca]

bbells wrote:
This did not happen before I 'tightened' the WDH more. I setup the WDH so the differences between the front and rear height of my Toyota Tundra are about equal to what they were without the trailer. I went from my previous 3 links unused to 5 links unused.

I am checking the pressure with both my Tire Minders and a hand psi tester. I am checking the temperature with both a laser and the Tire Minders.

Hi bbells,

I agree a 20psi rise is not right. You said you took lazer temps during these hi pressure events, do you have info on what psi lined up with what degree temp? In order for raw pressure to get that big, there needs to be a corresponding temp to go with it.

Your statement in blue up top, what principal of WD setting are you trying to accomplish with that procedure? To make this simpler so we can follow what you did, do you have fender heights as measured at the center of front and rear axle with the truck hitched and then unhitched? We can see by the numbers what you have going on with the WD.

Measured like this through the center of the axle


I tried to look up a Tundra owners manual but do not know what year and what cab configuration you have. Some of the older ones had a receiver limit of 750# when using a WD hitch. And some forum members have reported they bent the receiver trying to get WD setup.

You said you used 2 more links on the chains on this new setup. That is a lot more WD. Or the receiver is flexing too much. What size WD bars do you have and which brand WD hitch is it? While we are at it, what model and year camper?

Heavy WD settings can add more weight to the front axle of the camper. It does not always spread out to the rear evenly. But, the amount of air pressure rise is well, extreme for just added front axle weight. There may be more then one issue going on at the same time.

Hope this helps

John

[bbells]

From jmtandem:
"A 20 psi difference between cold and hot tires is way too much. Something is wrong.

Also, for some reason that you did not share you felt the need to adjust the hitch. Why, if it was working just right or were you fixing another issue?

I would swap the tires front to back and see if that helps. That can provide information if it is the tires or the hubs/brakes/bearings. Then with an infrared temp probe watch the hub temps front to back. Not the tires, but the hubs and see what the temps are. They should be close but will never be exact. Don't do a lot of braking before testing just sort of coast to the side of the road in a safe place after 15 minutes at highway speeds and then take the temps. Something is seriously wrong and it is likely not the hitch. Also, when you rotate the tires front to rear check the brake drag for each wheel."
***************************************************
The dealer setup the WDH when I had nothing in the trailer. I was concerned because the chains were pretty much loose. I went on the net and uncovered the proper way to setup the hitch and redid it after I used the trailer a few times. From what I could tell with the laser temp, all the hubs were very close to the same temp and felt the same to my hand. The front tires were much warmer though. I checked the brakes already and the wheels turn normally for drum brakes. The brakes could hang after being used, so if the steps above don't work I will crawl under and take the temps of the drums themselves and compare between all the tires. Thanks!

[bbells]

Lynnmor wrote:
Does this trailer have torsion axles or conventional leaf springs? Torsion axles will not equalize the weight.

It has leaf springs. Thanks!

[bbells]

BurbMan, I am trying the easiest things first, of course. Then doing one thing at a time to see if it got fixed. First I checked the trailer hitch vs the tv hitch when uncoupled and level. The trailer's hitch was a little off from the truck hitch. I have moved the ball to match it. This means I also had to adjust the chain link tension for the torsion bars. I will try this as soon as the winds reduce. It is 50+mph right now. If this doesn't do it I will next rotate the tires. If that doesn't give me an answer I will check the axle equalizer links underneath. I am sure one of these things will work. I am retired. Gives me something to do. Thanks!

[Lynnmor]

Does this trailer have torsion axles or conventional leaf springs? Torsion axles will not equalize the weight.

[jmtandem]

Question: Will having the WDH set too tight cause extra weight on the front axle of the TRAILER? I followed the directions for re-setting up my weight distribution hitch and now the tires on the front axle get much warmer than the rear axles and the tire pressure increases (of course). The tire pressure goes from 50 to 70+ pounds. I know that is still a safe place to be, but it would be nice to know what is going on so I can reduce the problem. Outdoor temps affect this a little, but do not seem to be the cause of the problem. This did not happen before I 'tightened' the WDH more. I setup the WDH so the differences between the front and rear height of my Toyota Tundra are about equal to what they were without the trailer. I went from my previous 3 links unused to 5 links unused. I have checked for dragging brakes, moved weight from the front to the back of the trailer, checked the wheel bearings and re-greased them. None of which made any difference at all. I am checking the pressure with both my Tire Minders and a hand psi tester. I am checking the temperature with both a laser and the Tire Minders. I have moved the Tire Minders to other tires and still have the same problem with the same axle. It appears something changed when I changed the WDH. Could the WDH be too tight? Thanks for any help!
TV: Toyota Tundra
Trailer: North Trail, 4600lb dry weight, dual axle.

A 20 psi difference between cold and hot tires is way too much. Something is wrong.

Also, for some reason that you did not share you felt the need to adjust the hitch. Why, if it was working just right or were you fixing another issue?

I would swap the tires front to back and see if that helps. That can provide information if it is the tires or the hubs/brakes/bearings. Then with an infrared temp probe watch the hub temps front to back. Not the tires, but the hubs and see what the temps are. They should be close but will never be exact. Don't do a lot of braking before testing just sort of coast to the side of the road in a safe place after 15 minutes at highway speeds and then take the temps. Something is seriously wrong and it is likely not the hitch. Also, when you rotate the tires front to rear check the brake drag for each wheel.

[newman_fulltime]

My first thought is are all the tires the same size it really sounds like the rears are smaller putting more weight on the fronts or the rears are breaking down causing more weight on the fronts or the trailer is not level when hooked up

Correct to set up wdh jack the rear of the vehicle up a little with the trailer hooked then apply the torsion bars then lower if you are simply hooking the chains ad grunting them up its not correct also you need the ball head tilted correctly to throw the weight to the front tires of the vehicle

[Artum_Snowbird]

Switch the fronts with the backs and see if there is any difference first.

[bbells]

Ok, I will do 3 things. What I mentioned above, and check the equalizer links on the axles and the tires. Would draining the air from the tires with the valve stem on the bottom remove water, if there is water? Or, should I take the tires off?