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Old 08-15-2018, 03:45 PM   #21
ingalmi
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Originally Posted by GO ARMY View Post
Hello everyone i have a newbie question and need assistance I have tire issues that came with my2017 Montana 3921 fb has a massive thread wear on the inner side close to the chassis the on both tires (rear) the wear was so bad the metal wires are showing, I notice the wear on the last leg of my trip I was blessed that I made it all the way to the camp grounds without blow outs and yes they are SAILUN S637 been traveling all year put in about 6500 miles on that tire. The info that all you guys posted was great to a newbie like myself couple of guys told me in the camp ground that I might have a camber Ng problem because of the wear and might be an axle problem from the factory since it was brand new not even a year old. I always do the right thing during travel by stoping every 2 hrs not overloading the trailer and a balance load (learned from the military) specially when the weather is hot I tend to stop more and check tire pressure. I went to the nearest camping world for advise but no help at all they told me that call keystone and tire manufacturer or drive the trailer in their location no help at all I told him that the tire were shot and I live in the trailer. Any help/ advise is greatly appreciated I apologized for using this tread for my issue. Thanks in advance this is a great forum/group for all newbies .
So here is an easy check to see if you have a bent axle, go to the hardware store and buy an 8’ piece of angle (aluminum). Place the angle lengthways across the rear and front tires on each side. The angle should touch across both tires if not the tire where it doesn’t touch equally is the problem and would indicate a possible axle or beam issue meaning it lost it’s preinstalled “bend” which would cause both sides rear to wear on the inside. Good luck!
 
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Old 08-15-2018, 04:41 PM   #22
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When we got our rig 2 years ago, I replaced the tires. The old ones looked good but the sidewalks were cracking.

Put a couple thousand miles on them and then left for an 8,500 trip. About 7,000 miles in I noticed that all 4 tires were very worn on the inside. So much so that I stopped at Les Schwab in Toolee, Utah to have them flip all 4 tires so the worn edge was on the outside. They were nice enough to let us boondock under their carport for the night.

When we got home I got into it. First, the rig came with 6,000 pound axles but the springs were rated 2,500 pounds. I swapped out the springs to 3,000 pound rating.

You can check out alignment with an 8 foot straight edge. Place it horizontally along the center of the tires. The sides of both tires should be touching the straight edge at all 4 spots. If not, axles are bent. My left side was fine, but both tires on the right side were off. If you Google "straighten trailer axle" you'll find videos of guys using a chain and hydraulic bottle jacks to straighten bent axles. I spent $32 for a 30 ton bottle jack at Harbor Freight. Followed the videos and aligned myself. You can check vertical alignment using a level, they should all be slightly "bubble out".

Leaving on another cross country trip next month. Put on new tires and am going to keep an eye on tire wear using a tire depth gauge.
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Old 08-15-2018, 04:56 PM   #23
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Excessive wear on the inside of the tire can occur if the wheel is overloaded. When packed for a trip, go to the scale and weigh each wheel, one at a time to make sure they are not so heavy that they are causing the axle tube to bend under the load.
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Old 08-15-2018, 05:12 PM   #24
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Go Army, My wife's dad was a Surgeon Colonel in the Army! We had the exact same problem on our 2017 3820FK. it appeared out of no where on our last leg of a long trip. I took it to a truck tire place, and right away he saw that those yellow octagon plates on the very front and very rear of your leaf springs: one had bent the side plates holding it in position, and it had rotated, which makes the axles not parallel to each other. He says that the bolts were not tight, so someone did not torque them to the 75 foot lbs. they should have been torqued to. He rotated it back to the correct position, and measured the distance between axles, and bent the side plates holding it in position back to normal, and now every RV park I get to, I check that all 4 of those yellow octagon plates are in the same position. Now I have had even wear on the tires since. So check your yellow plates, If one has rotated, then that is your problem. Go Army!! :-)
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Old 08-15-2018, 05:35 PM   #25
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I understand what you're saying that pumping out 25 RV's per day and not aligning the axles keeps the cost down. But continuing to fail is not a recepie for success. Continued improvement is. It doesn't matter how many RV's they flood the market with. Enough of this negative publicity will have it's affect on their longterm success. It's common sense that miss-aligned axles are going to produce abnormal tire wear and maybe even contribute to accidents. If they are not going to certify that the axles are running true, then that should be part of the dealer prep. If the dealer is not going to do it then the operating instructions should include a warning to the owner that the axles need to be aligned prior to use. And if the trailer is going to be towed across country for delivery, it should be done at the factory.

Some manufacturer is going to figure out a way to incorporate an alignment pit in the assembly line and he is probably going to be able to do it cheaper than we pay to get it done. And when he does, he will probably improve some of his other assembly processes and you'll see less issues with the RV he produces.

After numerous tire issues I aligned my axles when my RV was 4 yrs old. 4 years later I aligned them again - yesterday. They needed slight bending the 2nd time but they said it was minimal. My tire wear was good. And I have hit my share of bumps, and pot holes since my last alignment. So It's on my schedule to align every 4 years which is about every 10,000 miles.

That's my 2 cents.
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Old 08-15-2018, 09:24 PM   #26
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Fred S … Correct Track will not address toe or camber issues … CT only adjusts alignment of one axle to another and together to the frame. Incorrect camber or toe has to be fixed by an alignment shop or replace the axle which has no guarantees it is per spec.
HBLICK48 … placing an angle horizontally across the center of both tires should not show continuous contact as in that case you'd have no toe in which an axle in correct alignment has. Without say @1/8" of toe-in … a trailer will tend to follow any crown of the road. Camber for the street side vs. the curbside is slightly different … I'd guess that would be a bit hard to determine with a bubble level. I understand it worked for you, but I'm just pointing things out for others.
Last but not least … if you've ever traveled behind an RV delivery driver (if you can keep up) you'll see that alignment before it leaves the factory would in many cases be futile. Most have two speeds … stop and wide open … most make any turn they feel like curb or storm drain be damned.
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Old 08-15-2018, 11:03 PM   #27
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About 8-10 yrs ago a friend bought a new Montana and was crawling around under it just inspecting things and he discovered the factory had installed the axles upside down! The tires were already starting to wear. He called service mgr at dealer where he bought it and explained it to him.....serv. mgr. said that it was installed properly....NOT!. Friend called Dexter(?) and told the lady that answered the phone the problem and she laughed and called the svr. mgr an idiot with the wrong job. She sent two new axles and dealer paid for 4 new tires. Lots of weird things happen in the RV industry.
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Old 08-16-2018, 05:10 AM   #28
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U-bolts!! Check them for proper torquing. Ours were virtually finger tight, probably less then 10 pounds clamping force vs spec of 60 for1/2" (90# on 9/16") u-bolts. The spring center bolt is supposed to ensure that the axles stay in the proper location, but....
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Old 08-16-2018, 06:11 AM   #29
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But the idea is to eliminate toe-out which is the main reason for inside tire wear is more than likely caused by a bent axle end or the beam itself. The angle across the tires will help determine that. Agree that CT helps put the axles parallel with each other and agree with slight toe-in but toe-out is the tire wear enemy.
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Old 08-16-2018, 08:52 AM   #30
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Traveled WA to TX with 5th watching tires closely. Came up with leaky seal on front rt tire and had the seal replaced by mobile repair. Passing thru FL noticed abnormal wear on inside of that tire and possible abnormal wear on opposite tire. Had axle alignment checked and within specs. No change in weight or distribution of load. Had bearings rechecked by mobile unit in SC and found okay but that wheel was not torqued down the same as the others. Had tires rotated, retorqued and have had no further abnormal wear on that location. Don't claim to understand it.
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Old 08-17-2018, 05:47 PM   #31
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We just had this happen to us in Omaha. Leach's RV recommended a shop they use as it would have been sent out to them anyway.
Truck/Trailer shop foreman explained everything to us and was very upfront about it.
They come from the factory this way. This place does 2 to 3 a week for this. It normally happens at 6,000 to 8,000 miles on the trailer. We had both axles bent and replaced 1 tire. Foreman said that when they have ordered new axles they were worse than the ones on the trailer.
Keystone said it was no longer under warranty. No surpize there, that is always their answer. Extended warranty would not cover either.
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Old 08-19-2018, 09:20 PM   #32
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Same here. I have about 10k on my unit and noticed abnormal wear on the rear axle tires. I took it to a shop in SLC that I have previously used for trailers; they do alignments on all kinds of rigs. They checked mine and adjusted (bent) the rear axle which was way off. The front axle was ok. Total cost: $68. I rotated the tires (not bad enough to replace) and will keep an eye on it.

This is not just a Montana or Keystone problem. My last trailer (SOB) had an axle replaced, was aligned two or three times and eventually had the springs upgraded to heavier ones.
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Old 10-05-2018, 05:38 PM   #33
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Current update dexter sent me two upgraded new complete axle wheel hubs and spring really nice of them to do that.
I appreciate all the great advice that you all provided
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Old 10-05-2018, 07:06 PM   #34
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you first sentence means you need to get to a place that can do an alignment on rvs.


good luck
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Old 10-06-2018, 05:41 PM   #35
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Current update dexter sent me two upgraded new complete axle wheel hubs and spring really nice of them to do that.
I appreciate all the great advice that you all provided
How did you get them to do THAT?
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Old 10-22-2019, 09:29 AM   #36
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Post Tires wearing out on inside (rear axle), wearing outside (front axle)

I own a 2018 Montana 331RL with approximately 3500 miles on it. Drivers side tire replaced a couple of months ago with steel belts showing inside of rear axle camp side (passenger side). Now drivers side rear axle showing the same after about 250 miles.

I have also noticed excessive wear on the outside of the front axle tire on the passengers side.

Camping world checked rear axle and said it was in spec. CW diagnosed as a tire defect on the first tire. I have the camper back in at CW now to see what is happening.

This is the 3rd Keystone RV i have owned, the first Outback was great, second I gave up on after 24 months because of the wall issue on a High Country 353RL after Keystone refused to acknowledge it was their issue; camper stayed in the shop as much as it was in storage. Traded it in at 24 months on my High Country 331RL and now this issue (it has been it the shop a lot for other issues). Love the camper, hate the quality issues.
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Old 10-22-2019, 09:45 AM   #37
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All the comments in this thread are excellent. We had the same problem on our 2018 High Country 331RE after bout 6,000 miles. Replaced the tires with Carlisle's 14 ply and had the dealer check them. No problems since but from my experience I recommend having the original tires replaced by heavier duty tires and then monitor closely. Cheers
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Old 10-22-2019, 05:29 PM   #38
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Originally Posted by davespickard View Post
I own a 2018 Montana 331RL with approximately 3500 miles on it. Drivers side tire replaced a couple of months ago with steel belts showing inside of rear axle camp side (passenger side). Now drivers side rear axle showing the same after about 250 miles.

I have also noticed excessive wear on the outside of the front axle tire on the passengers side.

Camping world checked rear axle and said it was in spec. CW diagnosed as a tire defect on the first tire. I have the camper back in at CW now to see what is happening.

This is the 3rd Keystone RV i have owned, the first Outback was great, second I gave up on after 24 months because of the wall issue on a High Country 353RL after Keystone refused to acknowledge it was their issue; camper stayed in the shop as much as it was in storage. Traded it in at 24 months on my High Country 331RL and now this issue (it has been it the shop a lot for other issues). Love the camper, hate the quality issues.
#1-Trust me when I tell you that NO dealer has the equipment to check/correct a trailers axle alignment. They just do not do that. NO trailers axles are aligned from the factory and its hit or miss weather you will have issues or not.

#2-With that being said, get your trailer to a place that works on big rigs, like dump trucks 18 wheelers etc.. They will have the right equipment to bend the axles back into alignment.

#3 NEVER have Camping World repair anything on your camper...… (even if you bought it there) They have a horrible reputation throughout the US
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Old 10-22-2019, 06:57 PM   #39
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alignment. keep it simple.
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Old 10-22-2019, 07:29 PM   #40
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Good article
Axle alignment
https://www.centrevilletrailer.com/h...ler-tire-wear/
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