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6 ton trailer same tire wear issue

John V

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2019
Messages
211
Location
North Carolina
Hello, I'm looking for some advice regarding my double axle 6 ton trailer. I recently had a blow out when I had to brake pretty hard and I was towing a 7000 lbs excavator. Got the tire replaced with a good used tire. Now that same tire is extremely worn. The outside groove has the least wear. There are spots on the tire that look like they've been dragging, but I haven't noticed weirdness while driving with it. I've maybe put 200 miles on this used tire. Does it look indicative of a brake issue?

Included a picture of my axles. They're both the same bowed shape, I'm assuming that appropriate?
 

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Tags

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
1,618
Location
Connecticut
Looks to me that your brakes are grabbing and flat spotting the tire. Either your brake controller is set to high when unloaded causing the tires to skid/drag when empty or you could have a leaky seal causing that one brake to get grabby
 

John V

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2019
Messages
211
Location
North Carolina
What brand was that used tire?
Loadstar. It had plenty of life when put on. Literally just a couple trips pulling the mini ex around and it’s trashed.

Any good methods for balancing the brakes? Or just turn the star wheel so all the brakes are about equal? Since it’s a deckover it’s hard to see if the wheels are locking up or not.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,876
Location
WWW.
Check the adjuster rotation against one of the other brakes to see if it's tighter, also are the others
working properly?
 

AzIron

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2016
Messages
1,547
Location
Az
A few things to check when loaded does the trailer sit fairly level or is it tongue heavy brakes have already been mentioned but also if the wheel seal is bad or thub gets over greased it usually ends up on the brakes causing an in balance of brake application so if you turn the controller up some tires may lock up while others really dont brake also you really need to figure out if there locking up when unloaded cause your brake controller is set to high

Biggest overlooked thing with small trailers is quality of tire a lot of trailer tires are cheap ass garbage the rubber is not hard enough to resist wear especially with a load on standard trailer tires they get squishy and build heat makes them wear way faster I have seen tire life increase dramatically on trailers going to a 3 or 4 ply sidewall as opposed to a 2 ply
 

1693TA

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
2,687
Location
Farmington IL
Occupation
FAA Radar Engineer, (Retired)
Are they supposed to be bowed like an upside down smile? Both axles look about the same

Most light trailer axles are "cambered" as yours to somewhat straighten out as they are loaded. This precludes the insides of the tire patch from wearing faster than the outer, (in theory) when the trailer is loaded. Semi trailers really don't do this but use much thicker tubing which adds a lot of additional weight in comparison.
 

gwhammy

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
604
Location
missouri
Lay a straight edge down both tires to see if one is bent. You could also put a level on the up and down to see if all the tires have the same canter in them . I'm guessing bent axle, 6000 lb. axles don't have very thick tubing, I've bent a lot of the 7000 lb. ones. Hitting pot holes loaded is really hard on them.
 
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