Why is my wheel not centered in the wheel well?

**ShrimpBurrito** · 07-19-2007, 01:15 PM

Just picked up my 2000 2720SL, and made a 5,000 mile road trip from the Carolinas, up through Canada, across the badlands, and home to Southern California. Had a fabulous time until we had a blowout on the door side 20 miles from home. And I was planning on doing the wheel well modification as soon as I got it home, but it beat me too it. No major damage, although the wheel wheel needs a fair amount of attention. However, that brings me to my question:

-- on the door side, the wheel is off center with respect to the wheel well. In fact, it's fairly close to the rear protruding frame member to which the box is attached. I don't see this on the other side, and I noticed it before the blowout. I checked underneath, and I don't see physically how this could have happened post manufacture. The axle doesn't appear to be bent, and since the axle is bolted to the frame in a fixed manor, the axle can't slide. And there isn't anything heavy on that side that would be compressing the frame to the wheel, either. This leads me to believe this is how it has been since day 1 -- maybe the wheel well is off a few inches.

Has anyone seen this before? I've attached pics. I guess it isn't a huge deal, but there sure isn't alot of clearance between that tire and the frame member.

This being the first time I've pulled the trailer, it may be tracking a bit ahead on the right side, which isn't consistent with the right wheel being too far back. It appeared the way in the McKesh mirrors, but in my OEM mirrors, it appeared straight, so I'm not sure if it is an illusion.

The first image is of the offset door-side wheel.

Dave

**ShrimpBurrito** · 07-19-2007, 01:19 PM

I just measured the gap between the tire and the frame member, and it is 1.25" max at the smallest gap.

**Bill** · 07-19-2007, 04:43 PM

I wouldn't bet that the wheel well is off center. These things are cut in big jigs, and I can't imagine a cutting error such as you describe (and picture).

My first question would be whether or not the tires are wearing strangely. Realizing that you have only one of the original tires, make some tread depth measurements on that "old" tire. Specifically, look at tread depth near the outside of the tread, as well as depth near the inside of the tread. They should be equal.

You might also get a BIG carpenter's square (a roofer's square or bigger) and slither under the TM with it. Is the axle square with the frame? Be sure to make each measurement twice at the same place - once with the leg of the square pointed left, and again with it pointed right. If they agree, fine. But if they are a bit different, then your square is a bit out of square, and you have to mentally take the average.

WMTire, please chime in here.

Bill

**fcatwo** · 07-19-2007, 06:57 PM

Could have come from the factory miss-aligned, moved by hitting a serious chuck hole or someone may have adjusted the axle to compensate for a bent frame. A good alignment shop should be able to figure which. The right wheel being slightly back would cause the trailer to track more to the right at the rear.

07-19-2007, 11:41 PM

In the pictures it appears that the wheel in question is closer to the top of the wheel well. If that is the case, it could explain the difference because the suspension moves in an arc as opposed to up and down. The farther the suspension is compressed, the farther back it goes. This is one reason I don't like Dexter axles - the whole weight is carried by the rubber in the end of the axle tube. It makes for poor alignment and in many cases tire wear and the trailer running at an angle. I was just looking at our TM today to see if there's a way to replace the axle with a "real" axle and springs. My curb side wheel is also closer to the back of the wheel well than the street side and I'm convinced that the axle is the problem. I think I can mount springs and a straight axle on our TM and it will raise it several inches as if I had installed a lift kit. I had been thinking of adding a lift kit, so if the axle and springs result in the same thing, I'll be ahead of the game by the price of a lift kit. Now I have to find out how much it will cost to do all that modifying. I'm also convinced that the Dexter axles are a major contributing factor in all the tire problems. I've never had a blowout on any trailer with a straight axle.

**RickNewcomb** · 07-20-2007, 12:30 PM

If you look at my photos from the Wheel Well modification in the link below, the wheel is not centered in the wheel well and the wheel is also very close to the frame.

http://home.comcast.net/~trailmanor/whlwell.htm

My guess it is just a normal part of the manufacturing process.

I've had no abnormal tire wear. I changed out the tires in 2005 when they were six years old and those tires had no abnormal wear.

**ShrimpBurrito** · 08-07-2007, 07:45 PM

Well, all of our company just left and I finally had a chance to go out and slide under the TM to take some measurements. I don't have a roofer's square, so to determine if the trailer was tracking properly and to find an explanation as to why the right tire was substantially closer to the frame outrigger behind the right tire vs. the left tire, I measured the distance from each of the wheels to the tongue. My wife held the tape measure to the ball socket on the tongue, and I slid underneath and took measurements at 3 different spots on the axle / axle mounts near each wheel.

Each of these 3 different measurements for the right wheel were at least 1 inch more than the left wheel, indicating that the right wheel is further from the tongue than the left. Disturbing, seeing as I don't see anywhere where that inch came from.

To determine whether or not the axle was bent, my wife and I held a string to end of each axle on the side. The string did not deflect at all -- it hugged the axle housing all the way across.

I checked tire wear on both tires (one being the one that failed). Tire wear on the remaining tire is even. The failed tire had worn more on very outside tread 5/32" deep vs. 3/32" deep on the very inside tread. The tires don't have alot of miles on them though -- the center tread was about 9/32" deep.

I see your wheel, Rick, in link you provided, but is your other wheel the same way?

Does anyone see how the axle could have moved? Is there any play in the axle mounts, or are those holes round and drilled exactly to the size of those bolts? If there is, I'm going to try to slide the right wheel forward. I'm going to put a lift kit on shortly, so I'm going to see for myself soon.

Dave

**Bill** · 08-08-2007, 08:03 AM

Next set of measurements. Is the left frame rail the same total length as the right frame rail? While you are at it, check the distance between the frame rails, measured at the front and again at the rear. This will assure you that the frame was assembled correctly.

Assuming yes, the next measurement is from the end of each rail to the bolt hole in that rail. This will tell you if the bolt hole was correctly placed.

Bill

08-08-2007, 09:47 AM

Might be a good idea to talk to the factory and see if they engineered it that way so the trailer will follow a little to the side. Who knows what engineers can come up with!

**ShrimpBurrito** · 08-08-2007, 09:06 PM

Ok, well this is getting interesting. On Bill's suggestion, I spent some more quality time under the trailer [which is approaching roughly the amount of time I have spent inside the trailer....

] The distance between the frame rails is roughly the same front to back. It is 54" from the outside edge of one rail to the outside edge of the other, except where the axle is mounted where the same distance is about 53.75". Probably not a big deal.

I also measured the rails that make up the tongue -- from the ball socket to the weld that joins the tongue rail to the side sail -- both tongue rails are the same size.

The last measurement was from the rear of the front axle mounting bolt to the same weld mentioned above. The right side (first picture above) was 92.5". The other side (right picture above) was 91.5".

So that seems to confirm that this is the way the trailer shipped from the factory. I've never heard of designing a trailer that specifically does not track properly, but if there's any speculation as to why that may have been done, I'd love to hear the theories. I'll probably call the factory to get their input, but I am guessing this was not intended. To repair it, I presume the axle mounting bracket on the right will have to be moved forward on the right side and rewelded.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for all your collective wisdom. This board is incredible!

Dave