Trailer Tires, What causes this?

Tom Bond · Nov 8, 2012

Noticed one of my trailer tires has odd wear pattern. As you can see in the picture, the 2nd. row of lugs has uneven worn pattern. Just on the one tire. Tire pressure in both tires exactly 40 psi.. Never been overloaded and 4 years old. Thought maybe a bearing was bad in the hub but they are perfect. Either way, they're going in the garbage. Don't want to take a chance hauling the 4 wheeler and equipment in the trailer. It's a 6 X 10 enclosed with 3000# limit. Never been close to that. Any Ideas?

donjr · Nov 8, 2012

Had one on my truck that did something like that. Tire dealer said it could have been a couple of things. He said it could be a factory weak spot that was causing the cords to seperate, or we could have run over a rock or another obstruction that caused the cords to start to seperate. After a bit, they started getting a wop-wop-wop sound that clued us in that a replacement was needed.

casecollectorsc · Nov 8, 2012

It pays to balance trailer tires just like anything else

RayP(MI) · Nov 8, 2012

If they were radials, I would think a separated belt. But I don"t think they are... Size designation is not right for radial. I have a similar trailer with radials (actual factory origional tires.) No problems like that. Not sure why that one happened.

RayP(MI) · Nov 8, 2012

If they were radials, I would think a separated belt. But I don"t think they are... Size designation is not right for radial. I have a similar trailer with radials (actual factory origional tires.) No problems like that. Not sure why that one happened.

Mike Groom · Nov 8, 2012

Had the same thing happen to my trailer tires,had to change all of them after about 5 years.

Morgan Flowers · Nov 8, 2012

(quoted from post at 01:29:27 11/09/12) Noticed one of my trailer tires has odd wear pattern. As you can see in the picture, the 2nd. row of lugs has uneven worn pattern. Just on the one tire. Tire pressure in both tires exactly 40 psi.. Never been overloaded and 4 years old. Thought maybe a bearing was bad in the hub but they are perfect. Either way, they're going in the garbage. Don't want to take a chance hauling the 4 wheeler and equipment in the trailer. It's a 6 X 10 enclosed with 3000# limit. Never been close to that. Any Ideas?

Cheap chinese tires?

D7fever · Nov 8, 2012

Looks like the alignment is off, check it. Hitting a
good pothole can throw it out. Axle can bend, axle
can slip on the springs . Possible broken belt in
tire also, like the other guy said.
Good luck

glennster · Nov 8, 2012

Usually cupping or scalloping in the center of the tire is caused
by worn springs or too soft of a compound tire

Dean Olson · Nov 8, 2012

Cheap tires that are bouncing going down the road. Check
suspension, alignment, and balance.

How it's loaded can affect wear also. I have a 6x12 enclosed the
houses all my remodeling tools. I had to redistribute the weight
several times till I figured out what worked the best.

My trailers seem to be a lot more sensitive to the above than my
vehicles.

Red Mud · Nov 8, 2012

I'd have it balanced just to see if thats what the problem is.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 8, 2012

not sure about trlr tires doing this
but maybe along the same lines as my class 8 truck tires
what i found,after a good alignment, is instead of the 100lbs of air the dealers recommend is i am only running 95lbs of pressure in them,
i was hualing light loads in az,tx,nm and nv.
as hot as it gets there they would quickly over inflate and the trk would ride like an h farmall going across the cornfield at an angle,took 5lbs of air out smoothed out the ride and tires seem to be wearing a lot better

jon f mn · Nov 8, 2012

That's kind of wear is from out of balance. It's
common on trucks when you don't balance tires, more
so with duals so they fight each other. It won't do
you any good to try to fix it now. Once a tire takes
a "set" it will continue to wear like that. It won't
hurt anything except wear out faster so just run it
til it's shot then get new ones. Most tires get some
of this kind of wear it just doesn't show up so
soon, that's why you see it more on truck tires that
can get 3-400,000 miles on them.

504 · Nov 8, 2012

Trailers bounce when empty and the tire scuff. Rotating them side to side will get you more miles, but may not give you any peace of mind. As for alignment, a single axle trailer is built out of alignment, that makes them pull good at high speed.

Old Roy · Nov 8, 2012

could have been defective from factory. ..A "cold spot" on a mold could cause improper curing / Cooking and the one side didn't cure as hard .

Allan in NE · Nov 9, 2012

You'll always find this "scalloping" effect on light load tires.

Save your money and rotate.

Allan

RBnSC · Nov 9, 2012

In other words nobody knows.
Ron

Bret4207 · Nov 9, 2012

I've seen that a lot, I don;t know what causes it, but I'd be darned if I junked them just 'cuz they wear funny! Tires are expensive!

dustycoal · Nov 9, 2012

tires look like goodyear S T. they are pretty good tires made just for trailers. the pattern is from running as much unloaded as loaded. PSI should be 50 lbs cold, check the pressures before using the trailer and it will help them last longer and save any tire breakdowns on the road. Never air tire that are hot! be safe! if you are mounting tires always look for a white or red dot on the side wall put it were the valve stem is or check rim for a dimple marking the heavy spot on the rim. then they will be almost balanced then. lot of tires are mounted wrong and someone puts a lot of wieghts to try to balance

Mike M · Nov 9, 2012

Our tandem dual axle gooseneck was wearing the tires funny took years for me to put enough miles on to notice. A quick check with a tape measure from the center of the hitch to the center of the axle confirmed it was built out of alignment ! Kinda ticked me off that cornpro made it out of wack that bad.

Took it to a local truck alignment shop and they realigned it. They had to loosen the springs to move the axles into alignment.

Trailer Tires, What causes this?

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