New shorelander trailer falling apart!

[Majorsmackdown]

My fender supports broke on both sides, after a while one of them vibrated all the upper fasteners loose and swung into the front tire during braking at a freeway off ramp - it shredded the tire. My trailer towed smoothly at all speeds, but on some highways - even smooth ones - the fenders vibrated like crazy. I'm not sure if they were vibrating because the brackets were already broken, or the vibrating caused the brackets to break... Check that support and make sure it can't swing around..

 

[Bennie]

Ouch man - sorry to hear about that. Glad it happened at a slower speed and everyone is ok.

 

[Majorsmackdown]

Ouch man - sorry to hear about that. Glad it happened at a slower speed and everyone is ok.

Thank you. Shorlandr is sending me new fenders and a wheel/tire - but I'm glad I'm seeing this here before this all happens again. It looks like I've gotta throw down for some better tires, lovely.

 

[Bennie]

Yeah -- not been impressed at all with these trailers

 

[MrMoose]

So, because of @Majorsmackdown and @swatski, and many other's recent postings regarding their tire blow-outs and trailer issues, I took a closer look at my 2015 Shoreland'r trailer. A bit of history. I received it with about 100 miles on it from the dealer delivery. It had missing and loose bolts on the left fender. I immediately corrected this using stainless nylon-locking nuts. From the start, through my rearview mirrors, I noticed my driver's side fender vibrated more than my passenger side fender. I attributed the discrepancy to my side mirrors, where the passenger's side mirror has the "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.", so I assumed that the passenger's side fender was vibrating the same, but the mirror didn't show it because it was compressing the image.
Fast forward. After a year of ownership, because of all of the postings about the trailer issues, I took a closer look at mine. I found that my driver side fender diamond plate had started to crack at the rear bolt. No probs, Shoreland'r is covering it. Today, I made a special 45 minute trip to the boat to take a look at the fender mounting brackets (the ones that are cracking apart and blowing tires) and my driver's side bracket is just starting to crack. Passenger side is fine in all respects, so I started to think that maybe it wasn't just a mirror thing and maybe my driver's side is vibrating, dangerously. Wheel balancing is the first thing that comes to mind, so I called Shoreland'r and asked them about it. They buy their tire/wheel assemblies directly from Carlisle, and couldn't answer any questions about tires/wheels. So, on the drive home (unfortunately too late to turn back) I called Carlisle. Carlisle doesn't balance the assemblies that they ship to Shoreland'r. Maybe they don't need balancing? I dunno. While towing, I feel trailer vibrations when going over lane marker/bumpers and other stuff, but the fender vibration can't be felt in the tow vehicle.
I guess that my next step is to jack up the driver's side and see if something is bent when I spin the wheels. If so, then it was probably delivered that way, but I'm sure that I'm out of luck proving it. If the wheels spin ok, then I'll bring the trailer to a tire shop and get the wheels balanced.
Next time I'm at the boat, I'll have to take a close look to see if there are any balancing weights on the inside of the rims. I know that there are none on the outside... wish I thought of checking this earlier today.
So to summarize, the driver's side of my trailer has a vibration in it that has damaged the fender. It could be a messed-up hub, wheel, or balancing. For now, I'm glad that I caught the cracked fender bracket before it caused a tire blow-out. Thanks to those who have posted about this.
Stay tuned.

 

[Bennie]

(disclaimer - I haven't done any extrinsic mechanic work in over a decade)

I use to run a tire shop and we never balanced trailer tires unless the customer especially requested it. The main thought behind that is that trailer tire/wheel is normally sold as a package deal so there is a very slim-to-none chance that the wheel is bent. Additionally the tires are quite small (compared to say a truck tire) so there is not much mass to be unequally distributed to create a need for balancing the tire. Balancing the tire is useful at ~highway speeds and really just makes the ride more comfortable (unless its a large tire and can cause premature wear).
This is based on "norm" and you can always have that oddball that likes to FUBAR things.
First I would check though is to raise that side of the trailer and merely spin the tire. Ensure that everything is tight and shake the tire/rim assembly. Place a hand at 12 and 6 and shake, then 3 and 9 and retest. IF any movement I would first inspect/repack your bearings. If severe I would replace the entire hub assembly.
IMHO

 

[john94si]

Don't bother balancing. I tried that 50 miles from leaving the dealership. Bias ply are cheap. You have to upgrade to radicals or it will always bounce and vibrate.

 

[MrMoose]

(disclaimer - I haven't done any extrinsic mechanic work in over a decade)

I use to run a tire shop and we never balanced trailer tires unless the customer especially requested it. The main thought behind that is that trailer tire/wheel is normally sold as a package deal so there is a very slim-to-none chance that the wheel is bent. Additionally the tires are quite small (compared to say a truck tire) so there is not much mass to be unequally distributed to create a need for balancing the tire. Balancing the tire is useful at ~highway speeds and really just makes the ride more comfortable (unless its a large tire and can cause premature wear).
This is based on "norm" and you can always have that oddball that likes to FUBAR things.
First I would check though is to raise that side of the trailer and merely spin the tire. Ensure that everything is tight and shake the tire/rim assembly. Place a hand at 12 and 6 and shake, then 3 and 9 and retest. IF any movement I would first inspect/repack your bearings. If severe I would replace the entire hub assembly.
IMHO

@Bennie , my dealer checked for bearing wear a couple months ago. I'll double check. So, when you balanced trailer wheels per customer request, were they out of balance. Did you add balance weight to the wheels?

 

[MrMoose]

Don't bother balancing. I tried that 50 miles from leaving the dealership. Bias ply are cheap. You have to upgrade to radicals or it will always bounce and vibrate.

I can't imagine that shorelandr would build trailers with such poor quality tires that they would shake the trailer apart.

 

[Bennie]

@Bennie , my dealer checked for bearing wear a couple months ago. I'll double check. So, when you balanced trailer wheels per customer request, were they out of balance. Did you add balance weight to the wheels?

Yes @MrMoose we did add weights. Not much though. 0.25oz - 0.75oz normally. Just enough to really smooth them out. But as mentioned earlier by @john94si bias-ply will always have some bounce to them. Radials are how you will get a much smoother ride.

 

[MrMoose]

Yes @MrMoose we did add weights. Not much though. 0.25oz - 0.75oz normally. Just enough to really smooth them out. But as mentioned earlier by @john94si bias-ply will always have some bounce to them. Radials are how you will get a much smoother ride.

In my younger years, I used to own a small Honda CRX. I think that my trailer wheels are bigger than the CRX wheels... I had to balance my CRX wheels. As I understand it, there are legitimate reasons for installing bias-ply tires on trailers. Folks seem to suggest that the only reason that they are put on Shoreland'r trailers is because they are cheap.
@Bennie, are you suggesting that if my bearings are good, and my rims are good, that I'm wasting my time and money getting the wheels balanced? Are you saying that my trailer will continue to shake apart unless I get radials?

 

[Bennie]

No - not by any means. What I was trying to say was that we did not see a vast improvement in balancing trailer (bias-ply) tires and that it was not normal practice to do so. Again we did balance (trailer) tires at the customers request.

I believe though that you may have another problem with your trailer. Seems to be the norm to not balance tires - yet the majority do not have a severe shake like you do. Are all the tires the same size? That can cause quite a shake.

 

[john94si]

YES.. balancing did little to help. Just go ahead and buy some new tires and be done with it.

 

[Majorsmackdown]

I got my new fenders and it looks like there's a little more radius in the bend to that fender brace. I haven't had a chance to compare side-by-side yet but maybe there's an improvement in the fenders. stay tuned.

Btw. I am planning to get some radial tires on this since others have reported it as a cure. If making short tows I don't think I would bother but my tow is not short. We end up driving over all kinds of rough stuff on the long-haul and at high speeds.

I also wonder if there's a solid galvanized steel fender available these fenders aren't that tough looking

 

[Ricky Davila]

Thank you. Shorlandr is sending me new fenders and a wheel/tire - but I'm glad I'm seeing this here before this all happens again. It looks like I've gotta throw down for some better tires, lovely.

What contact did you use to have the fenders replaced? My supports on the fenders just broke out last trip out.

 

[Majorsmackdown]

I just called shorlandr tech support or customer svc and worked with gary. I sent him pics and he took care of me. PM me if you need further help and Ill see if I can find the phone number.

 

[MrMoose]

I posted this in a separate thread, but in case you guys missed it. If you have vibration issues and haven't already upgraded to radials, give Carlisle customer service a call at 800-260-7959.
They just sent me a set of 5 new radials mounted on new galvanized wheels. ... for free.

 

[Majorsmackdown]

Thanks moose.

 

[swatski]

I posted this in a separate thread, but in case you guys missed it. If you have vibration issues and haven't already upgraded to radials, give Carlisle customer service a call at 800-260-7959.
They just sent me a set of 5 new radials mounted on new galvanized wheels. ... for free.

That is nice! how do you like them?

--

 

[Edward]

This is frustrating. I had one fender side (think driver side) replaced last year, at the end of the season after purchasing due to the cracked diamond plate. Due to all the activity on the forum I just looked again....both sides are cracked again. And, the arm that is attached to the frame of the trailer is broken on BOTH sides.....talk about safety concern here, especially after hearing it can swing out and shred your tires.

I'll be calling both Shorelander and Carlisle tomorrow (and my dealer) to see what can be done to fix these. I also see, per the other thread on this, that my trailer has a sticker stating reccomended tires are Radials and not bias ply so hopefully either Carlisle or my dealer will step up and replace these tires.

This is frustrating and concerning....we regularly drive about an hour away to hit a lake and travel via highway so this is a pretty big safety concern.

Once everything is replaced, if the problem isn't solved with new tires/fender parts I'll find a custom shop to fabricate fenders.