Trailer Help....NF

[bassjnkie]

Before I put my boat in storage I noticed a bunch of grease on the rim and the tire is worn down on the inside side. I'm not familiar with this issue, but sure the bearing is gone for sure. But what can cause the unusual wear on the tire? So I hope the pros can give me some help/suggestion on this issue. Thanks. Daniel

[SlowPoke]

if the tire isn't tracking properly it will cause tire wear. The axle may be bent, misaligned to cause this. A worn bearing could but is less likely

[bassjnkie]

That's not what I wanted to hear, but thanks for the quick reply. I was gonna change the bearing, but I'll bring the boat to the trailer guy down the road instead.

[cheaptackle]

Before you do (if you want) just jack it up, pull the wheel and hub/bearing assemblies off and check the axle for trueness with a straight edge or string. IF the axle is straight then bearings are the most likely culprit. The only other choice (assuming springs & mounts are good) is wear on the spindle itself, not likely but a remote chance. Have you tried the basic "wiggle" test? Just jack it up and see if there's movement top to bottom or side to side indicating loose or worn bearings. I had a failure on the highway once that I noticed when turning off - in my mirror I could see the tire/rim was on an acute angle and the dust cap was missing. Lucky for me I was turning into my driveway at the time so I could immediately jack it up to see what happened.

Bearing had disintegrated inside the hub so much the spindle actually contacted the outer hub and wore it open, causing the dust cap to pop off. It was my Dad's trailer so for once he caught hell from me (gotta love payback for all the lectures!) for not maintaining it! New hub & bearings and it was down the road again, no damage to the spindle at all!

Good Luck!

 

Michael

(ps - that reminds me - he still owes me for the hub & bearings, dang it he won after all! That was 20 years ago!)