Tire wear and Lippert axles?

[jjriff]

With less than 7,000 miles on our 2009 Cruiser CF30SK Patriot, I noticed extensive and excessive tread wear on the left rear tire outer bead area. It measured nearly nothing and there was also considerable wear on the right rear tire. The front tires showed very little, even wear. After looking closer at the left side it was obvious that the rear wheel was not setting in line with the front. I took the 5er in to my dealer and after checking it over he advised me to take it to a frame shop and have the axles realigned. I set up the appointment and had the realignment done. The cost was $343 and my dealer wrote me a check out for that amount. I am now setting here with a couple of worn-out tires and I am hoping that my dealer can get Crossroads or Lippert to make things right on both the axles and tire. If the axles that Lippert is supplying are not high enough quality to handle the trailers that Crossroads in putting on them, someone needs to make a production change. I have read stories about thin or crushing axles and now I am hoping that my problem is only an alignment issue and not a poor quality product purchased by Crossroads. I do hope my dealer is successful in getting me some new tires before we leave for <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:PlaceName w:st="&#111;n">Glacier</st1:PlaceName> <st1:Place w:st="&#111;n">National Park</st1lace> and <st1:country-regi&#111;n w:st="&#111;n"><st1lace w:st="&#111;n">Canada</st1lace></st1:country-regi&#111;n> the first of July. I am ready to replace tires now but will wait to hear from Crossroads. I hope that realigning will solve the problem. I don’t know if installing another Lippert axle would have been a better choice with all the posts regarding “Another Lippert axle issue!

[mwebber78]

My 2009 had a similar issue, I could see the mis-alignment from 5 feet away. My dealer thought it was one of the worst she'd ever seen. I'm not sure your dealer did you a favor by having you get the axles aligned. I think of alignment as a way to make small corrections to a bent axle, not a way to correct a gross defect. Both my axles were replaced under warranty, so far so good after about 5K miles.



As far as the tires, my suggestion is to call Crossroads Service Center and talk to Randy. Again, you may want to mention the alignment thing to Crossroads - I believe the axles should have been replaced if you can see the mis-alignment by eye!!!!!!

[aadolf3]

I have a 2006 32 Zinger QB I had to replace my tires in Disney because of tread damage after only 4000 miles. I took the tire to my local RV mechanic and he said the axels are definitely out of alignment. I am waiting to hear from Crossroads. If they give me a hard time I plan on contacting the National Transportation Safety Board - without a doubt this is a safety hazard

[aadolf3]

http://crossroadsrvaxelproblem.webs.com/ Don't count on crossroads - check out the website

[aadolf3]

http://crossroadsrvaxelproblem.webs.com/ Crossroads told me its a maintainence issue check out the web site

[jeb]

aadolf, How long was the warrantee on your trailer good for?

[aadolf3]

2yrs - I don't believe a safety defect should be held to a date. So far Crossroads conciders it a maintenance problem? How do you maintain welds!

[jeb]

It's not a matter of maintaining welds. It's a matter of inspecting the unit occasionally and when finding a problem (those tires didn't just get that bad instantaneously), doing what needs to be done to correct it. In this case, the misalignment could have been taken care of had you noticed the abnormal tire wear when it started, not two or three years down the road. If, by chance, the tires did get that bad instantaneously, then the axles weren't bad when they left the factory and the misalignment could have been road hazard induced (pot holes, railroad tracks, etc.) which isn't their fault either.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket on this because I believe Lippert/Crossroads does have a responsibility to take care of problems like this but in this case I think you might bear some of the responsibility yourself and calling Crossroads and threatening them right off the bat, isn't going to give them a warm fuzzy feeling. They, Crossroads, have an excellent reputation for their customer service but even they should not be told they must honor a warrantee when it's two or three years out of date.

Sorry, that's just how I see it and I suspect that whoever adjudicates this, if it comes to that, will see it also.

[firefighter65]

What he said! X2

[mwebber78]

I don't particularly care for your hijacking of a post on rv.net because you have an axe to grind. Hey I'm no fan of Lippert but Crossroads takes good care of their customers. A four year old trailer doesn't just now develop an alignment issue without some road hazard or failure. Just my two cents but you bashing Crossroads isn't helping your cause. Good luck to you...Edited by: mwebber78

[aadolf3]

Last time - Rv mechanic believes the tire damage is due to the hangers being out of alignment and Lippert says that if you get an alignment it voids the warranty

[carl]

This problem is not new as I had same problem with our 05 Silverado within first 1-1/2 years, but it was taken care of at the factory to my satifaction. This included new tires. They have always treated me fairly. I haven't had anything done there since before Thor purchased it.

[Hamops]

Alignment may be a possiblity, but it's more likely you have a bent axle. I had one tirewear onthe inside which meant that I had to replace thecomplete axle assembly. I took my trailer toa welding shop thatdoesmore than half it's work on trailersof allkinds. I talked to theowner andasked about aligningtheaxles and he said the only alignment comes from thespring centres and that if the spring mountsarecorrectly installed then thespringcentres willbe square and if thespring mounts wereimproperly installed, thenall the tires would be showing unusual wear and the trailer might be a little hairy to tow.

[scott]

If your trailer is still under the factory warranty then your dealer should look to CrossRoads to replace a defective axle. If you are out of the factory warranty but the frame and axle warranty is still good thru the manufacturer of the frame and axles then you or your dealer should go thru that manufacturer. I purchased my '04 Paradise Point used and noticed after the fact that a couple of my tires had extensive wear on the inside which means the top of the tires are leaning inward. I new the CrossRoads warranty was up but I called them anyway. They were nice enough to tell me that Alko Kober (axle manu.) admitted to them of a quality problem on a series of axles and CrossRoads new theVIN numbers of the trailers they went on. And luck have it my VIN was in that series of numbers. Again they were nice enough to give me the contact person and number at Alko to help me out. Alko wanted me to jump thru hoops of fire so they could inspect the axles to determine if there was a manufacturing defect and I wasn't willing to do it so I decided to fix it on my own. Long story short, aligning or bending the axles might be a way of fixing it but if there is a warranty either from CrossRoads or Lippert you should use thatwarranty instead. You could end up with brand spanking new axles and tires.

[drcook]

I realize this post is a bit old, but I have to have my say on it.......as I am still sore about the issue 5 yrs later.



Bent axles / mismanufactured axlesare not inclusive to one manufacturer. We have an 05 Forest River trailer. We bought it new and didn't get to use it for a year due to health issues. First time I pulled with it on a 2400 mile round trip, we had a tire scrub off.



We were also told that I "curbed it" or did something else to twist that steel assembly without, coincidently, ripping off the stairs right in front of the bad axle. Forest Rivers don't sit as high as the Crossroads we are currently looking at (that is how I found this forum) as I think we are going to get a Sunset Trail ST29SS



Turns out, I found another Forest River trailer with the exact same issue, and other posts and now this post.



The RV dealership, would not help with Forest River denying coverage as I believe they were shooting to make money on the repair. Last month, we talked to a guy who was a salesman and now manages another shop and he said he heard aboutwhat the service dept did.

After being given the run around, I said, well if I did it, then lets turn it into insurance. The service dept promptly gave Nationwide an inflated estimate even after the Nationwide adjuster was under the trailer and said he saw no signs whatsoever of a collision/chuckhole damage, broken paint, or any of the other myriad signatures of bent metal.



I pulled it from their shop and had it replaced for a 1/3 of what they tried to gouge us/Nationwide out of.



Bottom line, this is a common issue. And blaming it on people is a common tactic. People have got to realize, that if you hit something so hard as to twist a spindle, there is going to be other pieces in the assembly that would be bent as well. None of the shackles or other spring perch components were even the slightest bit damaged, nor were any of the brake components, it was simply the welded on parts to the axle were welded on wrong. Any removable piece was reused.

Last month I asked that same salesman/now manager how the business model of a RV dealership was structured. He explained how each area (sales,service,etc) were stand alone components. And each area was responsible for its own P&amp;L (profit and loss) payroll, staffing, etc. That is one reason why Service won't help Sales and Sales won't help service as each charges the other's area and why a Service Dept will do anything to make money even as far as to turn a customer into the worst ex-customer / Negative Publicity Generator that the dealer can imagine,



dc