Tire Rotation on Single Axle Trailer

[jamoody]

I have a single axle Clipper on a cross country trip, so lots of miles in a short time. The outside edges of the tire are wearing a bit quicker than the inside edges. This implies that the axle has a slight upward bow which I assume is normal to allow cargo weight to straighten out the axle (we run somewhat light, always with empty water/waste tanks). Can I rotate the tires to even out the wear or are trailer tires uni-directional?

[A32Deuce]

You can do what I did with a car trailer tires that were wearing on the insured edges due to worn bushings. Had the tires flipped on the rims and rebalanced. Evened out the wear.

[Splitshaft]

If nothing else, just increase the tire pressure to the maximum side wall pressure if not already running maximum inflation pressures. I will help the tires carry more load in the center of the tread when running light. Sometimes the labor to mount and balance tires is not worth the extra miles obtained.

[jeffnick]

Balancing Trailer Tires - Yes or No?
I guess it's not a bad idea, but before I discovered not to use ST tires on my trailers, the tires didn't last long enough for me to think of it as a good investment. Hmmm, if I could just do it myself.
I bought one of those 'bubble balancers', but never felt good about the procedure. And after getting slack from tire places about putting car tires on my boat trailer I bought a tire changer for less than $50 and bolted it to the garage floor to do my own tire swaps.
This really helped a buddy with failing torsion suspension because I could turn his tires around on the rim and get extra life out of them. Anyway with my own tire changer I thought I'd try some self balancing beads.
You put them inside the tire and they do a dynamic blance as you drive.
I put them in the front tires of my van too, so I could really tell if they worked, and they do work, about 90% of the time. Not sure why every now and then I'd get the wobble, and it always went away after not too long, but it made me wonder if/when it would reappear and so for the car/van I went back to regular balancing.
Once I went to car tires on the boat trailer I thought I'd just wait to see if any irregular wear appeared, and it did - after about 40,000 miles without rotating; so I no longer worry about balancing the trailer tires...who wants to spend extra buck to balance an ST tire that's only going to last 6,000 miles (or less)?

[A32Deuce]

I get over 20000 the ones I use.

[JayArras]

Originally Posted by jeffnick

Balancing Trailer Tires - Yes or No?
I guess it's not a bad idea, but before I discovered not to use ST tires on my trailers, the tires didn't last long enough for me to think of it as a good investment.

Not use an ST tire that's specially made for trailers?

...And after getting slack from tire places about putting car tires on my boat trailer

Whhhat? I can't imaging why you'd get slack. Not even an LT tire? (But there's a whole thread here somewhere on that controversy.)

Never mind... It's not worth the argument.

[dieselguy]

I pull a heavier fiver (12800+) … until the last couple of years when Saliun's came on the market, there were no ST tires that I felt comfortable with … so I went with LT's with no regrets. In fact I've run LT's on my rigs for the past 14 years with not one issue other than peace of mind. In the 2011 time frame, Goodyear Marabombs were exploding under many of the heavier RV's no matter the brand. The lighter ones seemed to survive. Like you mentioned … this subject has been cussed and discussed at length on about any brands forum … run what you're comfortable with.

[RMWSierra]

My 2009 Sierra called for LT E rated tires. My 2018 Sierra calls for ST F rated which I changed to Sailun G rated.

[Big Bill]

The tires should wear evenly , yes balance tires , just like a car/truck

[PenJoe]

Originally Posted by Big Bill

The tires should wear evenly , yes balance tires , just like a car/truck

X2 Balance all tires. Trailer tires are no different. Some people believe they should only balance the front tires on a car or truck. Then wonder why they have hum from flat spots on the tires. We also ask that the balance be checked on every rotation.

[jamoody]

Getting back to the original question of rotating tires on a trailer, can I correctly assume that trailer tires are not unidirectional?

[russhd1997]

On your single axle trailer you can only switch tires from side to side when you rotate them unless you include the spare. If the tires are wearing on the outside edges on both sides of the trailer swapping from side to side won't correct anything. You can have the tires dismounted and mounted back up with the inside edge facing out to do what you are trying to do. As far as I know they don't make directional tires for trailers.

I always balance my trailers just like I would on my car or truck. If I can get a vibration from unbalanced tires on my car or truck the same thing can happen on my trailer. I don't want that tire vibration shaking my trailer apart as I'm towing it down the road.

[JayArras]

Originally Posted by jamoody

Getting back to the original question of rotating tires on a trailer, can I correctly assume that trailer tires are not unidirectional?

Not likely. I have never seen them.

[jamoody]

Originally Posted by russhd1997

If the tires are wearing on the outside edges on both sides of the trailer swapping from side to side won't correct anything.

Excellent point, I had not thought of that. I think I'll leave things alone and just replace the tires when they become too worn. Thanks.

[PenJoe]

Originally Posted by jamoody

Getting back to the original question of rotating tires on a trailer, can I correctly assume that trailer tires are not unidirectional?

For clarification, there are no right side/left side trailer tires. They can be used on either side.

[jamoody]

Thanks for the clarification.