Boat Trailer Axle Alignment

I need some advice on my boat trailer. I have a '96 Ez Loader trailer with a single axle. As you can tell from the picture below, it seems over time the trailer axle has bent and needs to be straightened back out. I constantly check the air pressure, so know it is not the tires.

Is there anyone in the Raleigh or Burlington area that can align axles? I understand a trailer person usually has a machine that can get the alignment right quite easily, but I do not know of anyone and need some advice. Thanks for the help.


Right hand side that is badly worn is the inside.

Attachment 239630

I have had that same problem on my 05 trailer, the right side only, it runs on the edge or off the road half the time,I been rotating it to the other side to try to even it out. My tire man said he see that alot on trailers, because the last foot of the road( the edge) is rough on tires.

If the axle has a bend in it it may be letting the tire lean in at the top slightly and that can be why the tire is wearing on the inside. You might try a body shop that has a frame machine they might be able to fix it those machines can do most any thing.

One thing that I see is more wear on the edges than in the middle. Yes the inside is worse but both edges are wearing more than center. This is most likely caused by underinflation. Too low air pressure is the biggest cause of boat trailer uneven tire wear. I had the same problem and raised my pressure and solved both problems.

Dennis are you running radial tires?

I've been down that road. Moved up to 14" from 13's. Adjusted bow in the axle.The only thing that fixed it was a new 3500 lb rating axle.

Definitely worth getting the axle checked but I had the exact same thing to happen with the lousy Carlisle tires on the Tracker trailer. Eventually blowing one out but luckily within spitting distance of my driveway. I changed to Maxxis tires and those things are awesome. Over a year in use and countless trips to the lake and they are like new. It was amazing how bad the Carlisle tires wore just like your pics.

Best thing is call around and find a big truck dealership close to you. Find out if they have a body shop or a big truck body shop they use. Talk to that body shop. They will have a place the use to straighten frames and do alignments. They will have the tools and equipment to figure it out and fix it. Think you will find though that the cost to get it done right will be as much as buying the next size up axle and just replacing it.

We had an older ez loader trailer, and always had that same problem. The axel was always bowed, and in my opinion I just don't think the axle on the ez load is strong enough from the factory for the boats they hold.

My boats trailer came with Goodyear marathon tires, they always looked slack with the proper inflation. One side wore almost like the picture you posted.

I had the same problem with my trailer. I know this it is not the perfect way to align an axle but my tire wear has gotten a lot better. The trailer axles are bent when the are new. Over time they straighten out when you hit bumps, pot holes and run off the road. Don't laugh at my drawing but I connected a chain on the outside of the leaf springs and put a jack under the axle but on top of the chain. Then I jacked the jack up. The chain pulled down and the axle bent upward in the center. I then leveled the trailer side to side on jack stands and used a plumb bob to make sure the tire was sitting straight up and down. I also ran a string beside the tire from front to back of the trailer and adjusted toe. Once I got close to plumb I would move one end of the chain to the center of the axle and bend one side at a time.

sorry picture didn't load????

Attachment 239934

Is that a solid axle or a tube axle. I wonder if the tube would crush at the jack?
Driver side tires wear on the inside of mine. I think the axles are not in line with the trailer

Ez Loader is a tube and not straight across. It is bolted or welded onto a plate and then attached to the tubing.

My axle was a round tube. I helped a buddy bend his and he had a square tube. The square axle was harder to bend for sure. We ended up adding weight to the rear of the boat to get it to bend enough but neither axle tried to crimp at the jack. I know I used a bottle jack for the picture but I always used a floor jack like you use to jack a car up with.