Uneven tire wear on 2018 Jayflight

[Lorraine]

I have one tire with uneven wear on my 2018 dual axle, 26 ft Jayflight. The right front tire wears significantly more on the outside. I was edgy about it and had a tire shop put on my spare at about 20,000 miles. The spare is wearing in the same uneven pattern. Now trailer is at the originating dealer for warranty work. They checked the tires and the axles and say leaf springs are failing and that possibly I overloaded the trailer. Dry weight is 4,500 lbs and GVWR is 6,000 lbs. It’s not a toy hauler, I’m a solo traveler, I always tow with empty tanks and I don’t have 1,500 lbs of stuff in it! What are your thoughts on tires, axles or leaf springs?

[SkyBound]

This happened to me a couple years ago. Driver's side rear tire was wearing rapidly on the inside edge. Turned out to be a bent axle. I also was careful not to overload the trailer, but these things are sometimes built to the full capacities of some components. My trailer is 7500GVWR and had dual 3500lb axles. My old trailer was 5900GVWR and had the same 3500lb axles.

The best choice was replacing both entire axles with heavier duty ones. My leaf springs were fine and I kept the originals. As for tires, the following year I upgraded from load range C to load range D which also is a good idea. Ever since the axle replacement there has been no abnormal tire wear.

[Lorraine]

Tire shop thought it was possibly a bent or misaligned axle. I just don't want dealer to attribute this problem to me. It is but one in a slew of structural & appliance failures in a brand new trailer.

[Jagiven]

Wearing more on the outside makes me think possibly bent axle, or the TT is being towed nose low.

Next, where you park your TT, how is parking approach? When I moved, I started to wear one tire way more than the others, due to tire scrubbing. You could really see it in the asphalt in the street. When I replaced my tires, I changing my approach, I come from both directions, and have evened out my tire wear.

[Lorraine]

My trailer really hasn't been parked in one spot for any length of time because I am traveling the country. A couple weeks here, a couple weeks there. I appreciate your advice. The bent axle seems more likely. I wonder if that's an installation issue? How does an axle become bent?

[mokurt]

Axles can bend if over loaded or something hit them.

Could be bent from mfg.

[skids]

Originally Posted by mokurt

Axles can bend if over loaded or something hit them.

Could be bent from mfg.

There was an interesting discussion concerning "snow load" on the Keystone forum. The claim is that snow is never removed from the roofs of campers by the dealers. Also, the manufacturer probably does not remove snow either. A heavy wet snow can be significant weight. (Maybe overload axles)

[Lorraine]

Thanks mokurt and skids. I've never camped in snow, and don't recall hitting or running over anything that would bend my trailer axle in the 18 months since I bought it (brand new!) I sure hope Jayco and/or the dealer can help solve this for me!

[mokurt]

I don't think you have to worry about snow overload in Riverside!

[RichR]

Making right turns at curbed intersections are bad news. All you need to do is rub a wheel up against the curb to bent an axle. Take it to a spring shop and have them check it.

[goducks]

If they're Lippert axles then they're as cheap as they can be. Axles are not perfect even when new.
On a previous TT that I had to have the axles aligned the shop doing the alignment told me that when they replace axles they still do an alignment because most are not perfect.
It could very well be that the transport driver hit something.
If you buy a TT made on the east coast and live on the west coast then it already has 2100 miles on it. Who knows what happened during that trip.