Rear axle inside tire wear

[Fresnojerry]

I have a 2021 17 MKE with less than 6,000 miles on it. Noticed the rear axle tires are wearing out on the inside. Where do I start so I can get this issued fixed? I have never overloaded the trailer or hit any curbs or potholes. It’s a little upsetting having issues with something that has little usage. Thanks

[howson]

I have a 2021 17 MKE with less than 6,000 miles on it. Noticed the rear axle tires are wearing out on the inside. Where do I start so I can get this issued fixed? I have never overloaded the trailer or hit any curbs or potholes. It’s a little upsetting having issues with something that has little usage. Thanks

The issue is a loss of camber or overloading (according to the diagnostic chart posted below from a Dexter axle manual).



1) Are you looking to repair this yourself, at the dealer, at a trailer shop, or by an independent RV technician?

2) Are the axles Dexter or Lippert? (Crawl under the camper and you'll find a sticker facing toward's the rear. Take a picture of it as it has a lot of pertinent information.) It will look something like the example below.



Howard

[humunuku]

Fresnojerry I had the same problem with our 2021 GD Imagine. Following our first trip cross-country (3000 miles), we had significant inside tire wear on one of four tires. (Tire Wear). The end result wast that Grand Design approved axle replacement. We drove to Elkhart IN, and used one of GD approved repair sites. It was a small business but very professional. Lippert sent the new axle assembly directly to them. I watched as they replaced the axle. The installer provided me some insite to the root cause. The work was completed in a couple of hours and we were back on the road. It has been two years and 10k miles with no further problems.

The installer could not find any problems with the original axle or spindle, but he did notice the weldments that hold the suspension to the frame were slightly out of alignment. I think it was less than 1/2" maybe closer to 1/4". He measured from the front axle mounting hole in welded bracket to the mounting hole in bracket for the rear bracket. I hope this is clear enough to understand.

My recommendation is to call Grand Design Support for a warranty claim.

[Cate&Rob]

Excessive tire wear on one tire is usually a bent spindle (or possibly alignment error in manufacturing when the spindle was welded to the axle tube). If the wear is the inside (or outside) of both tires on the same axle, this is usually a bent axle tube resulting in excessive camber or toe-in on both ends (this could be overloading of the trailer). Wear on the outside of one tire and the inside of the other would be misalignment of the axle to the frame.

Single tire wear on a new trailer could easily be a bent spindle that happened during delivery even though everything was fine when it left the factory and there is no way for a dealer to know this.

Note that trailer axles are usually manufactured with some positive camber (centre of axle tube higher than ends) which may flatten somewhat with load but should not disappear completely.

Rob

[Jlawles2]

Trailer now has 6,584 miles by me on it. Inside curb side of the rear tire is almost to the wear bar. Inside of the street side is worn visibly more than the outer.

I need to crawl under there tomorrow (wet today from draining the part fresh water tank). I know the CRE and all of the wet bolts are greased well (they will get another shot when I am under there tomorrow) as I try to hit them with one shot every trip probably over kill, but grease saves wear).

[Jlawles2]

Crawled under camper this weekend doing brakes and no apparent signs of bent axle. Can see the slight downward bend from the leaf spring to the end.

Guess next step is to hookup, move forward / rearward to relax axles and measure centers.

[TucsonJim]

I've been chatting with the other forum moderators about the exact same situation on my 2017 Reflection TT. I have one tire on the LR that wore off the inside edge. I'm on my way to the National Rally, and I'm going to replace the axle when I get there. This will be the 4th axle in that position in seven years! Three tires wore in the inside edge, and one on the outside edge. These trailer axle spindles seem to bend very easily.

I know you say you haven't hit any curbs or potholes. But I can't seem to go 50 miles without running into horrible road conditions, no matter what state I'm in. All it takes is on sloppy bridge approach or pothole on the highway, and wham, another bent spindle.

Jim

[Jlawles2]

Jim,

I wonder what it would take to get GD / Dexter to upgrade the tube from STD to Heavy? If so many people see to be having issues, that might make sense. The few extra $$ would be passed on to the end user anyway. Personally I'd rather pay the extra up front vs $225 per tire X 4 (plus mount balance valve stems etc) every 8,000 miles.

If it were one tire wearing funny on one axle, I'd be more apt to think it's a bent spindle. But it's both tires on the rear axle only. That's what blows my mind.

[Shiny side up]

Joesph et al,

Rear axle inside treads wearing more than outside treads on both tires on our 315RLTS. 20k miles in two years doesn't surprise me for a TT that weighs 11k. We keep the water tank full, water is gold out west but the tank is in the front, go figure. My guess is the rear axle scrubs while the front axle tracks. I expect the inside edges to wear more because the axles are the bare minimum, it's an RV and everything is cheap and borderline by design. I jacked the whole thing up to grease the suspension and inspect bearings, seals and brakes. All good there but the rear tires cannot make another 3,500 trip this fall so I am buying new tires for the rears and leave the fronts where they are. I am going with Howson's suggestion for the Sailun tires over the GY Endurance. We shall see.

[nprario]

Another one here. Starboard rear axle inside edge down to wear bars. Switched it to the front trying to finish our trip and save my new spare. Been taking temps across the tire frequently and funny thing is temps are even across the tire in that position like the others. I would think with that type of accelerated wear I would see higher temps on the inside edge of that tire?

[Shiny side up]

Of the two rear tires, the street side (port) wears fastest. I attribute that to the kitchen is on that side, it has to be heavier than the chairs on the curb (stbd) side. We check the tire temps regularly, nice feature that we never had the opportunity to do before modern technology. Pressure and temps match on all four, all the time. We have the alarms set for just a hair over our average hottest temps and so far so good, no alerts and no blowouts.

[ColoradoGreg]

I was winterizing my rig yesterday (2022 Reflection 28BH) and noticed the left rear tire is worn down to the wear bars. The rig doesn't have 10K miles on it.
I'll get the axle info and contact Grand Design about what options I may have.

[Country Campers]

I was winterizing my rig yesterday (2022 Reflection 28BH) and noticed the left rear tire is worn down to the wear bars. The rig doesn't have 10K miles on it.
I'll get the axle info and contact Grand Design about what options I may have.

Is the whole tire wore the same?

Brian

[Cate&Rob]

ColoradoGreg

A single tire worn evenly is indicative of a dragging brake. Worn unevenly side-to-side across the tread is indicative of a bent spindle.

Rob

[ColoradoGreg]

The left rear tire is worn to the wear bars on the inside edge only. I called Grand Design about it and they said I need to take it to a dealer so they can measure for uneven tire wear. They gave me a case number, but that doesn't guarantee that this will be covered by the warranty, but it could possibly be. The person I spoke to said this is a fairly common problem.
I contacted my dealer and they said the same thing - they get a fair amount of calls for this sort of thing. My appointment with the dealer isn't until next month, so we'll just have to wait and see...