Wheel Turned Inward

[Duchess]

Took our maiden voyage last week from TN to Savannah, GA. I know, I know -- you are supposed to camp in your driveway for the "first time", but I figured we could make the same mistakes 9 hours away from home as we could in our driveway, so we headed out!!! All went well -- after a couple of phone calls to friends with RV's to confirm that we had a couple of things hooked up the right way. HOWEVER -- when we returned home, my husband was backing the TT into the driveway and I was in position to give "directions". I noticed that the back wheel on the left side (tandem) was turned 'INWARD" and was not in line with the front wheel. When he pulled up, the back wheel returned to its normal position, in line with the front wheel. Is the back wheel "supposed" to swivel -- for lack of a better term, when the trailer is in a bit of a bind backing up????

[Crabman]

Welcome to the forum, Duchess. I moved your post to the TT forum for more exposure.

[yddad45]

Welcome to JOF.
As long as your wheel returned to normal after the turn, don't sweat it. My TT did the same thing last time I took it camping as I was in a tight space and had to do some jackknife turns (extremely tight turns) to get my TT into the space.
I really don't like putting extreme stresses on the axles though,but sometimes it can't be helped. I would say though if you can possibly turn your TT gradually I would recommend it.
You may want to check your lug nuts though just to be safe to make sure they are tight.

[Terry]

Hey Duchess! Welcome to the forum. Yep - that is pretty normal on a tight turn. Kind of freaked me out when I saw it the first time as well.

[dg1971]

This happened to me as well first time I did a tight turn backing the 5er onto my driveway...but it straightened out OK. With tandem wheels, there has to be some give somewhere in a tight turn. 3500 miles later, no damage or wear detected.

[clutch]

It is probably ok. It most likely happens more often than we think. You were just in a position to see it. I would keep an eye on that tire for ususual wear just to be safe.

Welcome to the Jayco Owners Forum.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm guessing it was a tire distorting during the tight turn instead of the wheel itself which is normal, especially since moving the TT in a straight line corrected it. To put your mind at ease, you could jack up each wheel one at a time and check them for play

[Denise]

Welcome to the Jayco Owners Forum Duchess! Rest assurred, it's normal (so Dexter told us when our tt was new). We have taken our tt well over 10,000 miles so far. There is no unusual 'wear pattern' on our tires. If you are relying solely on the wear pattern, make sure you faithfully keep your tires at 50psi (that's ours anyhow) so that isn't a deceptive culprit. Hope this helps and congrats on the new tt!

[Bobby T]

Very normal Duchess.....actually that is the suspension working and doing what it is supposed to do....

[usmc616]

Wheels will turn like that when you are manuevring in a tight area, especially on concrete or ashpalt. Whenever I notice a severe turn to a wheel I pull forward until it straightens out then I back up to where I want to be.