Just pulled my boat home from fishing yesterday and noticed the left tire and leaf spring were vibrating significantly while the right side was normal. This has never happened before. Didnt see any issues with the tire, they are almost new. Anyone had this issue? Or possible fixes. My boat is an 18 foot nitro with tracker single axle trailer. Thanks

I would jack it up spin/tug on the tire to make sure the bearings seem ok. If that looks ok take tire to get balancing checked. A lot of people do not balance trailer tires and they should!

Im assuming you have already looked it over pretty good for a bulge/broken belt etc.

Thanks for your response. I have done a quick look at the tire but have not jacked it up yet. DIdnt have time when I got home. You mentioned tug on the tire to check bearings. Will it feel loose if there is a bearing issue. Any details on that I would appreciate. thanks

I don't really know how to explain it, it should have a "little" play in it if you push/pull away and toward the axle. If you try to turn the tire like your front tires on your truck turn when you turn it shouldn't move much if at all.

If you spin the tire (by hand with it jacked up) and all seams pretty quiet and smooth it should be good.

Jack it up and slowly spin it and inspect tire and wheel. Then spin and listen. Any noise means bearing is probably bad. Grab the tire on each side and quickly push with one hand pull with the other. A very small amount of movement is OK, but a quarter inch movement is not good.

A quick check should be part of every pre trip inspection, along with air pressure.

Balancing is a wise thing to do, it will make the tires last a little longer and pull much better.

Thanks for the responses. I pulled the tire off and it was very misshapen. Its a brand new tire and literally was running perfectly on the way to the lake? Anyway I am going to have it replaced and make sure wheel is aligned.

The wheel did not have alot of play in it. Same amount of play as the other side so I dont think its a bearing issue? Hopefully just a bad tire.

I went ahead and took the hub and bearings off. everything look good. Only thing I noticed was that there were some minor rough spots on the spindle. Not sure if this is a problem.

I did read you can sand them smooth again but not sure if I will attempt this since it does seem minor and dont want to cause other issues.

If anyone has any input based on this info I would appreciate it. Thanks.

If the bearings sounded quiet and ran smooth I wouldn't mess with sanding the spindle.

Trailer tires have gotten somewhat cheap these days, broken belts and blowouts on new/relatively new tires is not at all unheard of. Glad it will be an easy fix.