Trailer Tire Question

[RedDog]

While updating my maintenance and service log this evening, DonziDeb asked a question I had never considered before. Is there a need to rotate the tires on a tandem trailer? I would assume it would be best, but then I have never heard any discussion on this topic before.

[Ed Donnelly]

If 1 tire is showing more wear than the others(bent axle) rotating would help. Otherwise I can't see any advantage. Rotating on cars is due to the scuffing of the front tires when turning and alignment..Ed

[MOP]

I think it is done to compensate only for the extra wear a drive axle puts on them, not on trailers.

Phil

[Dr. Dan]

:cool!: Red Canine Dude :shades: ...use the Search feature.........

:bonk: Doc of Severe Mileage :spit:

[Murphy]

OOoohh Nooo... absolutely!!! Phil, you absolutely want to rotate those tires every 50-60 miles. If you don't have time, I'm sure B will do it. I'd rather you rotated those tires than waste time changing that drive oil. Now get to it!

Murph

[MOP]

OOoohh Nooo... absolutely!!! Phil, you absolutely want to rotate those tires every 50-60 miles. If you don't have time, I'm sure B will do it. I'd rather you rotated those tires than waste time changing that drive oil. Now get to it!

Murph

Uh Huh! :wrench: Not Likely :fire: that idea! She says Yeah Right even she knows better :biggrin.: :biggrin.:

[Tidbart]

IMO
I would rotate the tires. Being on different axles they have different turning radii and will wear at different rates. The differnce, in the short term, will not be noticible. In the long term you will. You will only extend the life of the tires. :biggrin:

Bob

[jc]

I have been towing for 20 years and have never rotated or replaced any trailer tires due to wear, only due to dry rot, debris strike or plain old driver error.

If your showing excessive wear on any of your trailer tires that isn't the result of bent axle, alignment or Tire inflation problems then you are towing your boat in tight circles or live entirely too far away from water to warrant owning a boat.

Anyone that has bought or regestered an RV or boat trailer in MD can tell you what a pain in the *** it is having to replace tires with practically brand new tread left on them because those few minor dry rot cracks on the sidewalls wont pass state inspection.

[goatee]

If 1 tire is showing more wear than the others(bent axle) rotating would help. Otherwise I can't see any advantage. Rotating on cars is due to the scuffing of the front tires when turning and alignment..Ed
ed,, you forgot "doing donuts in the parking lot to impress the chicks".


hey, spring is coming, you better change the air from winter to summer.

[Tidbart]

Tire rotation serves more than one purpose.
It forces you to remove your tires occasionally. This insures that you can get them off when you "need" to take them off.
Also, it makes you look at what is there. You can check bearing, brakes, axles, etc, not just the tires. This is not a bad thing. Just ask Fishboy and Budmann. :bonk: :biggrin.: :wavey:

Bob

[Forrest]

Often times people find that the tires on the front axle get more wear than the tires on the rear axle of a tandem axle trailer. If that's the case, then most likely it's because the tongue height is too low placing most of the load on the front tires. The key is to get the tongue height at a point where the trailer is level and equal load is placed on all four tires while towing.

[Last Tango]

Hmmmm. I'm a big proponent of rotating tires for added life. But, I'm wondering about the problem mentioned above where one tire wears faster than the others. Why would you rotate the tires, ruin yet another tire, and leave an already damaged tire on the trailer? I think if the wear on each tire is even, no point in rotating. If the wear is odd on one tire, replace the tire AFTER you repair the axel that caused the damage in the first place. If the tire wear is front-to-rear or side-to-side, then Forrest is correct about adjusting the load and tow angle.
As for doing dounuts in the parking lot with your boat trailer attached, it is important to remember to do an equal number of donuts in BOTH directions in order to keep the wear even.
The distance between the axels on a boat trailer is small and therefore the weight distribution should be equal. That is the whole point of the second or third axel is to evenly redistribute the load over more tires. In a car, you rotate the tires if they are the same size from front to rear (many cars are NOT i.e. sports cars) in order to maintain even tire wear. If done every 3-5k miles it works very well. Automobiles generally carry the most weight on the tires that also support the end of the car with the engine. Rotating the tires shares the extra tire wear over all four tires instead of just two. In front wheel drive cars, the front tires wear much faster than the rears because there is a substantial weight bias to the front. One could skip rotating tires and just replace the front tires in pairs as they wear out and get about a 2-1 replacement ratio front-to-rear. My 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 4X4 V8 is biased to the front. I have rotated the tires every 5k miles and am still going strong on the original tires (53,000 miles and counting). Getting to the end, but the rotation is due to uneven wear due to weight, not alignment or balancing. Front tires on dual axel trailer get a lot more punishment because they hit whatever first, and they also get scalloped from frequent tight turns.
One more thing. Correct tire pressures on trailer tires is absolutely CRUCIAL to good life and good wear characteristics. A 1 or 2 psi difference from the required cold set pressure makes a HUGE difference in the tire life. Also, your side walls are not designed to be a running or wear surface.

[mattyboy]

I always thought rotation( on a car) was needed to even out the wear on all tires and that due to the shape of the road with a build in turtle back for drainage and the fact that the front wheels turn that the front left tire wore the most then the front right then the back left then the back right and depending on your rotation plan a 4 tire or a 5 tire rotation which tire went where. now i did this on the old man olds 98 every time I got into trouble and let me tell you with a bumper jack a 5 tire rotation was a pain in the ass!!! now I don't know about a trailer but I would imagine some of this holds true

Matty

[Last Tango]

Road Crown would affect the other tires about the same. The left front tire wears faster because (drum roll)... uhmmm, think about where the normal driver sits in the normal car/truck in relationship to all four tires. Yup... more weight on the left front tire. And how often do you cruise down the road and see four adults sitting in car? "Car pool? We don't need no stinkin' car pools! We got our OWN car... and we don't need to ride back and forth to work WITH somebody."

[mattyboy]

That makes sense Mark


Matty

[boldts]

Hummmm I like to rotate the tires on our tandem for many of the same reasons tidbart mentioned. Because we put a lot of miles on our rig also, I balance my tires every spring. It forces me to check the brakes, hubs, bearings, and wear on the tires.

Some of you guys must have nice big entrances to your homes. My driveway is tight and requires very hard turning to get the truck and trailer lined up straight. It feels like a potato peeler working on the front axle tires. I've never noticed any unusual wear on the tires, but I feel better safe than sorry. Besides, it gives me a couple hours to sit by the boat and admire how much I love it! :biggrin:

[Last Tango]

Almost time to scrape the snow off of your boat and get the flat spots out of your trailer tires. Hey, Bolts, maybe we should do a theme on why snowbirds need to pull their trailer around at least once a month in the winter to keep from cracking the tire sidewalls due to cold. Make for some fun photo shoots - "My Donzi on a trailer in front of the city Xmas tree" "My Donzi on it's trailer under 14 feet of snow" kind of stuff. :umbrella: :lightning :cartman: :chillpill

[boldts]

Good idea Mark. It's funny, I don't have one picture of the Donzi in the winter time. To remedy the flat spot tire problem, she also gets blocked up so no weight on the tires in the winter time. Dad taught me that one when I brought the 18 home and put it in his garage which I cleaned up days before picking up a boat I didn't tell him about.

Sorry Tim. Got off-topic a bit. The block up the trailer to keep the weight off the tires though is good advice if you can't tow the boat around in the winter time or you don't want to get road salt and road grime all over your beauty.