In researching tire wear, I come to this question: is there an alignment adjustment on the axles or the tires? Or, is it just up to the guy who drills the holes for the axles?
if there is no adjustment, if one tires wears due to mis alignment of the axle, should the other tire attached to the same axle not wear also? I think yes. [On my 14dbs the front tires looks perfectly centered in the tire well on both sides. The rear tires are slightly forward in the wheel wells, equally on both sides. Not a measurable assessment, just caught my attention]
With either a leaf spring straight axle or a torsion axle such as on all CLs, as you note the wheel alignment on one side is fixed in relationship to the other side and "should" be square. AFAIK there is no adjustment for being out of square.
For single axle trailers a slight misalignment of the axle mounting to the frame won't do much. The trailer will just track a little off to one side.
But with twin axle trailers, if one was mounted out of square with the frame and the other axle is straight then there will be misalignment and tire wear.
On my twin axle 16TBS I replaced one of the four tires as it was worn badly after 5,000 miles but the other three still have lots of tread. I looked to see if there was any obvious misalignment but didn't see any. Your post has me wondering, so I will get out with a tape and check it closer.
David
I checked with a tape and did not find a difference in distance between the tires. I guess the best way would be to try and measure to the rim vs the rubber---to the frame somehow----but as you noted, if both axles are not 90 degrees to the frame, what can we do except replace tires. My rear tires are wearing more than the front for sure, but I too have had one wear more than the other three. I attributed this to different rubber compounds and maybe these crappy vail sport tires**** I do always check tire temperature, thinking that an elevated temperature might indicate misalignment and therefore excessive road resistance, and then increased temperature. I have not noticed any in any trips.thanks for sharing ideas.
*** what is good mileage, are we talking 15,000 vs my 12,000, or 40,000 vs my 12,000.
Differential tire wear is likely a brake adjustment issue. Drum brakes are hard to adjust equally when new and pretty much nobody goes back to reset the shoes after break in. One tire wear is probably a tight brake. However, both tires on the same axle wearing out could be either that or perhaps a problem with the brakes not working at all on the axle with less tire wear. Check the brake operation by jacking up each tire with the TV hooked up and apply the trailer brakes manually to makes sure the wiring is all up to snuff.
[quote timestamp="1475969686" source="/post/25253/thread" author="@sandroad"]Differential tire wear is likely a brake adjustment issue. Drum brakes are hard to adjust equally when new and pretty much nobody goes back to reset the shoes after break in. One tire wear is probably a tight brake. However, both tires on the same axle wearing out could be either that or perhaps a problem with the brakes not working at all on the axle with less tire wear. Check the brake operation by jacking up each tire with the TV hooked up and apply the trailer brakes manually to makes sure the wiring is all up to snuff. [/quote][p]Maybe, but when I replaced my single tire, the wheel spun easily. That doesn't mean that when it was new it wasn't dragging and subsequently wore in.[/p][p]
[/p][p]But when new, while approaching a stop I would release the brakes and the rig would slowly creep forward. So I don't think that one wheel was dragging much.[/p][p]
[/p][p]David
[/p]
Could also be that the one brake is adjusted properly (not tight) and the other 3 are too loose so they don't do much. It's hard to imagine any other reason for differential tire wear (other than a defective tire).
Remember, with a dual axle trailer there is a lot of tire scrubbing when turning, especially tight turns. Since the wheels aren't castors, the only way to negotiate a turn is to drag some of the tires sideways a bit. That can also result in uneven tire wear.
One simple test of alignment is to place a string at the three o'clock position of the front tire and nine o'clock position of the rear tire.
The string should touch touch both tires evenly. Of course this only works on twin axle rigs.