Axle alignment?

I pulled my Sundance XLT from the dealer to home in October. She's been in the garage ever since. Yesterday I went and measured the gap between the tires so I could order the Rotochocks. The one side gap was 6 1/4" and the other was 6 1/2". In your opinion is this enough of a difference to cause a problem and should I have the dealer align it before the season begins?
Thanks in advance.
Paul Grant

Paul,

I had the same issue with my Cyclone. Yours is a 1/4" difference where mine were/are 3/8" & 5/16" (tri-axle). The dealer says they called Heartland/Lippert for Warranty Authorization and were told these axles measurements were within specs.

I have my suspicions regarding the Dealer's service department so I intend to have the alignment adjusted prior to having new rubber mounted up. With 6 tires it'll take a while to save up for that! There is an alignment shop here in town specializing in RVs & medium to heavy duty trucks.

I would give your dealer a chance as in my experience it was "he said/she said". BTW - This dealer in no longer a member of the Heartland family.

I heard some good excuses though; "You can't measure between tires as the air pressure may be different in just one that will mess up the measurements." "One of the tires may have more tread than the others so the measurements may be off."

Measure axle to axle and these "excuses" are discounted.

Give your guys a chance or contact the frame folks for the direct answer.

Dave G.

I dumped our dealer for warranty work right out of the gate, however, all dealers are not flakes.
HL set me up with a service only shop and they got the job done right.
As far as your axles go, Lippert replaced my springs and all the hardware under warranty.
Then when I was concerned with the axle alignment they measured and re-mounted the hangers to where they are just about perfect.
If possible you might want to contact Lippert yourself, I did and all turned out well...

I wouldn't think that a 1/4" from side to side would be that big of a deal. I do think that you will find that your trailer typcally weighs more on the kitchen side than the opposite side therefore you could very easily have more pressure on the tires to show that 1/4" difference. I have had both my Heartland trailers weighed at our rallies and we were always heavy on the kitchen side.

My 2-cents

I thank you all for the replies. I need to measure the axles before I panick. I believe the weight issue from side to side could be valid. The side that is the closest is the slide side. The kitchen opposes it but again the 5er is completly empty as it sits. I'll dig a little deeper..
Thank you all
Paul

I could be wrong but center to center side by side axle measurement changes slightly according to the weight on each wheel. I measured mine with uneven weight on side to side (it was off 1/2") then jacked the entire unit off the ground and measured c2c, it was dead on. Being only 1/4" off can easily be just the tires. Try jacking your unit off the ground and measure the distance while spinning the tires.

What are some of the symptoms of trouble with your axles? I have no clue.

no trouble, i just measured between the tires for rotochocks

Larryheadhunter said:

What are some of the symptoms of trouble with your axles? I have no clue.

Click to expand...

Larry,
The symptoms would show up in the way your tire wears. Look for premature wearing on inside, outside etc. of the tread.

100 miles so far from the dealer to the garage. I'll keep an eye out for wear but haven't pulled it far enough yet to wear anything.
Thanks all.
Paul

Paul, gotta get that new rig out on the road! How's the new baby?

Baby is doing great. We have to deal with the cleft lip/palate issue, but we knew that at 20wks. Kim's is also doing very well. It would be fanatastic to get a full nights sleep but I don't believe that's in the near future.
Camping? Our goal is Memorial Day weekend. We'll probably just do the KOA in Fredericksburg so that we're close to home incase it doesn't work out. I'm still hopefull tho.
Is there a Fall Rally in the works for VA?
Paul

Paul,

Sent you an email about the Fall rally.

We had axle alignment problems on our current trailer. In fact the axles were replaced as a result. I had the alignment checked initially by a local truck shop. I ended up having them install the new axles and make sure they were aligned. No problems after that. I'd recommend getting an experienced truck shop to look at it.