bent axle?

[Legacy Posts]

There seems to be a upward bend in the middle of the steel tube that connects the tires and the pass side tire is wearing on its outer edge.I'm wondering if this may be a factory bend or if a previous owner hit a big rock or something.

<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f1b0678222f9side_view_of_bent.jpg/>

[Legacy Posts]

:wave Hi Stephen,

I have a '98 Scamp 16' and a 4 x 8 utillity trailer and the axle's on both of them bend up in the middle just like yours. I've also seen unmounted axle's at Northern Tools where they sell trailer parts and they bend too. I think if they made them straight they would tend to sag but with a bend up they are stronger. Kind of like if you try te bend a straight nail it's easier than bendeng a bent one back to straight. Anyway yours is normal, Dan

[Legacy Posts]

Stephen ... it's normal to have some arch in the middle of the axle ... trailer axles do this so that when you put some load on the axle, the axle tends to straighten, keeping the tire in good contact with the ground.

Your axle looks fine.

Could be the picture, but your tire doesn't appear to be wearing all that abnormally. It appears that the thread depth on both the inner and outer edges is about the same ... with more thread in the middle, which means the tires were probably run a bit underinflated.

A bad axle will cause one edge of the tire to wear off completely while the other edge looks brand new, with no wear at all.

[Legacy Posts]

Stephen
Our 77 Boler has the same bend in the axle but we haven't towed it far enough to tell if we are going to have tire problems yet:huh
One thing that scarces me though is there is 1 new tire on the trailer:sad I guess this doesn't help you much but keep us posted on what you find out. Rick n Karen

[Legacy Posts]

thank all of you very much. I kinda suspected that the bend would've been too hard to make by hitting a rock and not damaging the fiberglass. I'll put some new tires on then we're off to Montana for our first trip in our new toy.

[Legacy Posts]

Stephen
Make shure your bearings are OK before you put new tires on. This could be the cause of premature tire wear and also buy real trailer tires as they have a much stronger sidewall to prevent trailer sway
(wobble). Happy Camping
Rick N Karen

[Legacy Posts]

That bend should be there. If gives the wheels at each end of the axle a positive camber. The reason you would want it is the same reason you usually align the front wheels of an auto with positive camber. It puts a slight bias on the wheel bearings (and steering apparatus on an auto) to reduce the tendency to shimmy. On an auto the positive camber makes each front wheel tend to outward from centerline. This is compensated for by setting a slight amount of "toe-in". On a trailer, alignment with toe-in isn't as critical, but I would expect a slight amount might make it follow a bit better.

How do I know this? My Scamp towed just fine behind a 1/2 ton Chev pickup, but would wear half the tread off a pair of tires on a trip to Southern California and back. I had it re-aligned (done by bending the axle) at a place in Tacoma, WA that specializes in trailers. That's the info they gave me. It corrected the tire wear. I didn't notice any difference in tow-ability.

[Legacy Posts]

:wave
Don't worry, Be happy!!
The bend you noticed in your axle is called "radiusing" the axle. I have this directly from the Engineer at Standen Spring and Steering in Calgary. There they manufacture the Dexter axles under licence for Canada. Loren has his facts straight and please pardon my pun. The above information was delivered to me wrapped in a big grin and a look which questioned if I knew what I was asking.:red
Cheers