Trailer help needed

[Cowracer]

The high school band trailer (2 axle) that I routinely pull has been driving me nuts. It weighs about 4200 "empty" (racks and shelves, but no insturments) and it pulls like it weights about 10,000.

It wore the outside edges of both rear tires despite proper inflation. Looking at it, there seems to be something out of whack with one of the axles, but I cant put my finger on it.

By the looks of it, the front axle (no brakes) has a camber in the axle tube, but the rear one (with brakes) does not. But sighting down the trailer wall to the tops of the tires, the fronts look OK, and the rears look to have noticeable toe-in on both sides. Ive been all over (actually, under) this thing, but nothing appears to jump out as bent or damaged.

How can I measure things to prove whats wrong? The other band parents act like they dont see anything, but I'm the one burning up my fuel to haul this pig. I need a way to measure up the axles to prove there is something wrong, so they will approve the money to have it fixed.

Any help is appreciated.

Tim

 

[big block 88]

Have you done a cross squareing of the axles to be sure they run true to eachother? I would do across square pulling from the outside of the hubs, to make sure the axles aren't fighting eachother. And then maybe measure from the trailers frame to the end of the hubs to see if they sit the same distance out from the frame. Thats all I got man.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

It sure sounds like you have 2 axles fighting each other. Can you lay a straight edge across the tires/wheels on one side and see if they are even close to being inline ? My guess would be is that they are both bent and fighting each other.

 

[83GMCK2500]

For squareness you can also measure from the center of the hitch to equal points on the axles. Say the front edge of the drums on the forward axle.

 

[MACKIN]

How old is the trailer and do you know if it was bought new or used? What kind of suspension does it have?

Have you pulled the tires and checked the spindles and wheel bearings? That's fairly simple.Unless both axles or spindles are bent why would it scuff all four tires? It is a weird problem

But Of course your pulling it with the Ford so it would feel like 10,000 pounds.

 

[trouttrooper]

Does the trailer sit level when towing? That can affect which axle is taking more load.

Springs or torsion bar suspension?

Does the trailer track straight? Have someone follow and watch the trailer to see if it's dog tracking or fishtailing. Sitting in the drivers seat isn't always the best place to see these things.

Bearings ok on rear axle?

Like stated, gotta start cross measuring everything. I'd start first by making sure the trailer itself is square and not a parallelogram.

 

[RayMich]

Make sure the brakes are not dragging.

As stated above, check to make sure the axles are parallel to each other and square with the frame and you don't have a bad wheel bearing. You should also check the amount of toe-in on each axle and compare to the trailer manufacturer's specs.

A quick and dirty way to check toe-in is to use a spring-loaded shower curtain bar.

Place the shower curtain bar between the two tires on the same axle, ahead of the axle. (Using a bubble level, make sure the bar is level and at the same height as the axle)

Using a grease pencil or chalk, put a mark on the inside tube at the point where the outside tube extends over the inside tube.

Slowly roll the vehicle forward until the bar is behind the axle, again at the same height as the axle.

Measure the distance from the chalk mark to the edge of the outside tube. (This will be the approximate amount of toe-in.)

If the outer tube ends up covering up the chalk mark when you roll the vehicle forward, you actually have a toe-out condition. In that case, place a new chalk mark on the inside tube and then slowly roll the vehicle backwards until the bar is again level with the axle and measure the distance from the outside tube to the chalk mark. This will be the approximate toe-out dimension.

Obviously, this procedure is not as accurate as using an alignment machine, but if you are having a significant toe problem, this should help point you to the problem.

This procedure assumes that you don't have a bent wheel or badly bulging tire.

Hope this helps.

 

[Fingers]

The rear axle was probably backed into a curb while loaded and bent the axle ends forward. Straight edge across the axles will show the mis-alignment. At worst you will have to take the wheels off and run the straight edge off the fronts of the hubs.

Unfortunately, there is not safe way to straighten the axle. They do not take well to being bent back into alignment and frequently break either during the straightening, or break off while you are going down the highway.

 

[Pepperidge]

the rear axle should be "bowed" like the other... all four of the torsion axles on the two trailers I have/had they were bowed upward in the center "unloaded" weight applied reduces the bow...don't know if thats the issue though...

 

[WanaDmxSub]

the rear axle should be "bowed" like the other... all four of the torsion axles on the two trailers I have/had they were bowed upward in the center "unloaded" weight applied reduces the bow...don't know if thats the issue though...

That's what I would check first also. Axle may have spun in the mounts.

 

[JeffsJeep04]

Check for a local big truck alignment shop. They can probably get it straightened out for you reasonably, or at least give you a pretty good idea what's going on just looking at the tires.