Uneven Tire wear
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Forum Name: Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks
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URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=5159
Printed Date: 12 Jun 2025 at 7:50am
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Topic: Uneven Tire wear
Posted By: fwunder
Subject: Uneven Tire wear
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 2:43pm
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Need some more consult from the experts - you! Upon returning from our cross country trip, I noticed some uneven wear on the outside edge of both tires. The pod is just less than a year old but we do have about 10,000 miles on it. I do check for proper torque and tire pressur and the trailer pulls fine with no unusual pull or noticeable bounce. I removed both tires today so I could inspect things and have the tires looked at. Checking balance shows both tires to be out (apparently, not unusual on trailers). In fact, so far out that it would take almost 8 ounces on one tire to properly balance. That's a lot of weight. Shop said it wasn't practical. Based on what they saw, just go camping and keep an eye on them and replace with some better tires when necessary. Concluded that it is not a bearing or axle issue - just cheap tires. Is it worth a call to dealer or Forrest River? Dealer is about 2 hours away and really don't want to make the trip if it's not really necessary. I'm guessing I won't put another 10K miles on the pod for two or three years at least. I hope you can see my concern in the picture below. Like I said, the wear is on the outside and not even around the tire which leads me to believe it is a combination of cheap tires and/or bouncing do to balance. Whatta you think?  ------------- 2014 RPod 178 => https://goo.gl/CV446f - MyMods and Buying Habits 2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6 Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks! |
Replies:
Posted By: Leo B
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 2:49pm
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I agree! ------------- Leo & Melissa Bachand 2017 Ford F150 2021 Vista Cruiser 19 csk Previously owned 2015 Rpod 179 2010 Rpod 171 |
Posted By: Cap-n-Cray
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 8:18pm
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What pressure do you run? I thought outside or edge wear meant too low of pressure. Looks to be on both sides. Are the rim pointing in the same direction? The outside (side away from the trailer) could be from turning too. I'm not a tire expert, but have run many miles with trailer tires. ------------- Cary 2014 RP-177 |
Posted By: GingerPod
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 9:06pm
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Really not that bad for 10K miles. Yeah the tires are not the greatest but not that bad either.Remember you can't rotate then like on a vehicle. Front tires on a vehicle that have been neglected to have been rotated can show just about that much wear with similar mileage,especially the cheaper brands. As far as needing 8oz. to zero out balance,it's the cheap wheels,not the tires. I am in the middle of making some cool and major wheel-tire AND fender changes to my POD this next week.I will be starting a thread about it as well...hint-hint load range "D" In my opinion the factory combo is satisfactory,but at the absolute limit when wet and loaded. ------------- FOUND OUR NEW-RETRO TEARDROP!!! |
Posted By: fwunder
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 9:11pm
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Thanks Cap-n-Cray. I run @ 50psi and check frequently with a good gauge. The wear is only on the outside edge of the tire and it's not even. Some places on the tire show very little and even wear across the tire. Not sure what you mean by "rim pointed in same direction"? Alignment? After 10K miles I think we turn left as much as right so not sure how that would do it. Just finished reading this thread, which I found interesting and kinda supports the theory that the tires may just be doing what factory trailer tires do: http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f219/things-to-know-about-trailer-tires-10660.html - http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f219/things-to-know-about-trailer-tires-10660.html Thanks, fred ------------- 2014 RPod 178 => https://goo.gl/CV446f - MyMods and Buying Habits 2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6 Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks! |
Posted By: fwunder
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 9:14pm
Thanks GingerPod, I was wondering about the wheels/balance. fred ------------- 2014 RPod 178 => https://goo.gl/CV446f - MyMods and Buying Habits 2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6 Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks! |
Posted By: GingerPod
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 9:30pm
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Sure,since we are on the subject I can elaborate a little more. Out side wear on tires is a "Toe out" condition.Since the axles on Pod's is independent with no provision to adjust alignment,when traveling down the road tires have a natural tendency to "Toe out" following the path of least resistance. The axles are set "straight ahead" at the factory and the rubber isolators allow for this to happen,I would guess about 1/16 " toe out while cruising down the road.Not a bid deal but does show up after 1000's of miles. Now solid axle leaf spring trailer axles usually don't show uneven wear since it is solidly mounted,unless something is worn,bearings,bushing,etc. This is why vehicles usually have the front wheels aligned to 1/16" to as much as 1/8" "TOE IN" so when traveling down the road they track perfectly parallel. ------------- FOUND OUR NEW-RETRO TEARDROP!!! |
Posted By: fwunder
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 9:35pm
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Interesting. So it makes sense that the wear might be a little (naturally) pronounced on the outside because of toe out and uneven because of balance? fred ------------- 2014 RPod 178 => https://goo.gl/CV446f - MyMods and Buying Habits 2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6 Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks! |
Posted By: GingerPod
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 9:55pm
Yep,that's what I would assume. Also the camber angles with these axles seem to vary from Pod to Pod,I see reading around here and certainly doesn't help. Interesting link above from Forest River,Quote(The combined capacity of all of the tires should exceed the loaded trailer weight by 20 percent). Well I've done the beer math and we could easily exceed 3500 lbs with all 3 tanks full and loaded with gear.The factory fitted 14" tires are rated for 1720lbs each....  Houston we have a problem....but load range "D" can fix that  ------------- FOUND OUR NEW-RETRO TEARDROP!!! |
Posted By: GingerPod
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2014 at 10:46pm
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I left out on important point to help avoid confusion..... We have to remember that in a vehicle a "Toe out" condition would wear the inside of the tires. A "Toe in" condition wears the outside. But in fwunder pictures the outside of the tires are worn,how could this be? This is because the trailing link on our Pod axles is facing towards the rear,so the "Toe out" side is facing the rear, path of least resistance. The "toe in" condition faces the front,thus the pronounced outside tread wear.The more often than not negative camber present by most Pod owners,myself included but very slight and seems to increase with age,further aids toward this tendency. This seem very strange doesn't it,because if only negative camber came into play all the wear would be on the inside  Just wanted to be clear since using a vehicle's front steering wheels wasn't the best analogy but got the point across. The axle and suspension system is of a good design but just has a little bit of weird traits in it's simplest form used on our Pod's ------------- FOUND OUR NEW-RETRO TEARDROP!!! |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2014 at 8:24am
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On my tires, after 5 years and 15,000 miles, all of the tread is wearing evenly except the strip of tread just inside the inner edge. The tread is different than the picture above - on my tires that strip of tread is narrower than the outer edges. The tread on the outer edges is wearing evenly even though the wheels are noticeably tilted inward. ------------- Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1723 - Pod instruction manual 
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Posted By: Seanl
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2014 at 9:04am
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I have not noticed any uneven tire wear on mine. But I did notice that when I am traveling down the road I have negative camber on the wheels. I know most trailer axels have postive camber on them and I know that when standing still mine has either slightly positive or 0 camber on it. I would have to get out a laser and be on a level pad to know for sure. I think that the wind must put a downforce on the axle causing the negative camber. It does not apear to be enough to effect tire wear much on mine though.
------------- Sean, 2011 Rpod RP-173,2009 Jeep Liberty Rocky Mountain Edition 
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Posted By: fwunder
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2014 at 9:08am
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I'm thinking I should have had them balanced as you (Doug) and others suggested before leaving on an 8,000 mile trip. Now that the wear has started, the balance is worse and the wear will probably accelerate. Not too worried yet, but will watch closely for additional wear. BTW, is anyone familiar with http://www.allseasonsrvs.com/ - All Seasons RV in Easton, PA? They are the closest Forrest River service to me. Thanks, fred
------------- 2014 RPod 178 => https://goo.gl/CV446f - MyMods and Buying Habits 2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6 Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks! |
Posted By: Hairy Podders
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2014 at 9:48pm
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If the outter edge of the tire is worn in a short area & not in the rest it leads me to believe that the tire has a broken belt. If it is worn in more than one area on the edge(scalloping), that sounds like balance.
BTW, in my 30 years of doing alignments for a living, tire wear on the outside edge is caused by too much Toe In, or too much positive camber. If the tires were wearing on the inside & outside edges equally, the cause would be under inflation. Another cause of scalloping could be the fact that these trailers do not have shock absorbers to hold the tire in constant contact with the road. I could go all Techntrek on you about tire construction, alignment settings, inflation, balancing. But I won't. I've given the basics. That all said, I noticed on our pod, after 5,000+ miles that the (balanced) tires are showing a little bit of outter edge tire wear. Very slight. I study these things... I chalk it up to being heavily loaded for the tire rating & the cornering forces applied there upon. When in the mountains of Colorado, I found that I could go around curves at about 5-10 mph above the posted curve speeds. ------------- Darryl, Julie & Lindsey Cooper & Libby- Devoted Canines 2014 RP178 2006 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2014 at 10:20pm
 ------------- Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1723 - Pod instruction manual
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Posted By: GingerPod
Date Posted: 15 Aug 2014 at 10:03am
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I don't believe we are looking at a broken belt condition in the OP pictures considering both sides are wearing unevenly about the same although wear pattern is similar. Good point regarding the lack or "real" shocks and cornering loads.Very likely a contributing factor to everyone's seemingly different wear patterns. A broken belt is a serious and dangerous condition.Quite obvious when it happens with vibrations and sometimes instant failure with no time to react.A real problem when the industry was making the transition to steel belted radials during the 70's that plagued every tire manufacturer.The steel to rubber bonding technolgy was in it's infancy and was a real problem.Today most steel radials have a transverse nylon layer "over" the belts to eliminate separation,Michelin was the first to use this method. Even later tires had problems,we all remember the Firestone ATX on the Ford Explorers  Today we rarely see belt problems unless the tire was run serverly under inflated for a long period of time. ------------- FOUND OUR NEW-RETRO TEARDROP!!! |
Posted By: Hairy Podders
Date Posted: 18 Aug 2014 at 6:00am
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The belt problem on Ford Explorers was largely due to Ford spec'ing underinflation & the owners not being responsible enough to keep them at that pressure or above. I also blame the quicky oilchange places for not checking the tires either. We serviced numerous Explorers at the time, but aired the tires to the pressure posted on the tires. We never saw a single Firestone tire failure at that time. The explorer could be a sketchy handling vehicle with soft tires, too. But Firestone took the blame...
On the broken belt explanation; I was throwing that out there so that people would know what to look for, nothing more. I too notice a lot of sidewall flex in these tires & was very concerned at first. They've held up surprisingly well so far. I'm thinking of going to load range D tires when I replace these, but don't want to shake the cabinets apart with the rougher ride.... ------------- Darryl, Julie & Lindsey Cooper & Libby- Devoted Canines 2014 RP178 2006 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon |
Posted By: GingerPod
Date Posted: 18 Aug 2014 at 9:05am
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Interesting info on the Fords Explorer.Like everything else the media runs wild with it.... I went for a test drive yesterday with the Load range "D" tires and didn't notice the Pod running any rougher. The side walls still flex a bit,just not as much as before with the stock tires.One thing I did notice was that the suspension was moving more then before,actually absorbing some road irregularities since the tires themselves were not bouncing as much.I could actually see the trailing arm moving in my rear view mirror. ------------- FOUND OUR NEW-RETRO TEARDROP!!! |
Posted By: Hairy Podders
Date Posted: 18 Aug 2014 at 11:05pm
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Very Nice. As I said in your other post, This is definitely the direction that I want to go. ------------- Darryl, Julie & Lindsey Cooper & Libby- Devoted Canines 2014 RP178 2006 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon |