Axle or Bearing Problem?

[jimc]

After having my share of axle camber and inside tire wear problems on 3 previous 5th wheels, I haven't had the under-camber issue on this Montana. I noticed though that the right front tire is wearing more on the outside and is cupping on the wear area.
The first thought was a bad set of bearings, so I jacked it and rocked the wheel - There was very little slack. Pulled the drum - first time I've had the wheel off - and they seemed to be over-greased, and there was some grease on the outside shaft side of the seal. Both bearings looked OK, but the outer one was slightly scuffed on the face next to the lock washer, and the inside diameter was scuffed and brown over about 1/3 of the diameter. So I'm going to replace the bearings (complete bearing kit $24.95 from etrailer.com), flip the tire, and then measure the toe-in when I get it back together. When I checked with the only axle shop close (100 miles), he automatically quoted $250 to fix it without knowing the problem. If it's a toe in alignment issue, that seems pretty steep.

Has anyone else seen this same problem?

[Rondo]

Jim-- It could be a wheel balance problem also! I've read quite a bit of the threads on wheels and problems and since Keystone does not balance the wheels before they put them on, it could be a balance problem! Just MHO however and I think you'll get more responses on this shortly!
Keep us informed on what it turnsout to be!

[sreigle]

If you have the tires balanced, be sure to have them use a lug centric adapter to center the wheel. If they use the automotive hub centric method you will not get a good balance and may actually be farther off balance than when they started, even though the machine will think it is balanced. Trailer tires are not centered by that center hole. They are centered by the lugs. Good luck.

Beyond that I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your questions. Some guys with knowledge on this topic will be along shortly, I'm sure.

[Countryfolks]

We had a bad wear problem last year. Took it to an alignment shop. They couldn't find any mis-alignment. One of the people their mentioned they had worked on a trailer that had a similar problem. Turned out the tires were different diameters. They checked our tires and one was an inch larger than the others. All of them were supposedly the same size. Replaced all of the tires and the problem seemed to go away.

Skip