The shocking outcome of our axle appointment

We booked our axle appointment a whopping 7 months in advance, from nearly 3000 miles away. We were tucked away at our home-base in MA, ready to finish out our year in New England. We couldn't even fathom what 2025 would bring. Would we really head west again? Could we even make it that far on these axles? Initially, we hoped that we could just get an axle appointment closer to home, but we worried that an axle replacement wouldn't be covered under warranty if we didn't go back to the manufacturer. Between that and the fact that it's next to impossible to get good trailer care in MA, we finally obliged. Our first destination of 2025 was set. It wasn't a national park, and it wasn't a beautifully scenic land of adventure. It was Trailer Parts Wholesale in Santaquin, UT.

As the rest of 2024 wore on, we had many moments that made us doubt we would even make it out of MA, let alone all the way to UT. Still, we knew that if our ATC toyhauler was going to be in our lives for the foreseeable future, one way or another, we needed to get those axles checked by people who really knew them. We held tight to our plans, and after a delayed post-New Year departure from MA, we hit the road.

Our almost-3000 miles turned into just over 3500. We decided to venture south before our westward journey across the US, because winter. Then, as we waited for mid-March, we bopped around the Southwest for a while, enjoying warmer weather and the gorgeous desert scenery. In these 3500 miles, we only needed to change 2 tires due to uneven wear, and our trailer's creaking didn't seem as bad as last year. Perhaps the dry climate had something to do with it, because it always seemed a lot creakier in humid weather. There were some drives that made us wonder if our travel day earthquake was worse as a result of the axles, and the tire changes were a nuisance, but overall, we felt safe on the axles. Let's also take a moment to applaud the fact that, even with all the uneven wear, we never had a tire blowout!

The great thing about Santaquin, UT is that it's in the greater Salt Lake City area, so after months of traveling mostly in the boonies, we knew we could rely on this area for civilization. This came in clutch when we needed to schedule surgery for Tanner to remove a cyst that had become infected. We extended our time in Utah to pull double-duty with Tanner's vet appointments and the axle appointment. This made for a very hectic couple of weeks, but we trusted our beloved Beehive State to not let us down!

The most hectic day was March 17. This was the agenda:

• Wake up before dawn to pack up and check out of our RV park
• Drop Buggy off at Trailer Parts Wholesale
• Drop Tanner off at the vet for a bandage change
• Check into our Airbnb
• Run to grab groceries
• Pick up Tanner at the vet

And somehow among this, actually get work done, since it was a Monday. Our biggest saving grace was that our Airbnb hosts let us check in early for $20. Money well spent for being able to have the house for an extra 6 hours!

Our Airbnb was in Spanish Fork, which put us about 15-20 minutes away from both Tanner's vet in Payson and the axle place. Also, are we supposed to come to this area and not stay in Spanish Fork? We have a history here!

It was an older home, but the hosts did a nice job catering to visitors. They were also extremely attentive, which is the Utahn way. We had 3 bedrooms, a huge living area, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. We love having room to spread out when we're displaced, especially because displacement time means work time for us. In our 3 days of displacement, we had a combined total of 15 meetings! We purposely try to pile as many work tasks and calls into our Airbnb time because we have the space and the time. We don't book many adventures or activities, and we also wouldn't leave Tanner for too long in a strange place, especially during his recovery from surgery.

The biggest quirk of this house was that the two bathrooms were labeled as a men's and women's bathroom, which we thought was hilarious. Even better, the women's bathroom had a nice large tub, while the men's room had the water heater and the washer and dryer. It was decided then. Anthony was to do the laundry! (Actually, he tends to do the laundry most often anyway, so this just reiterated that we have our gender norms intact).

While we were in civilization, we added a couple more appointments to our agenda. We took our GMC for an oil change/maintenance appointment, and we also booked a tire change at the Spanish Fork Discount Tire. Initially, we ordered tires for both truck and trailer, but the axle guys told us to wait on replacing the trailer tires, because they all still looked fine. We do have one with uneven wear on the inner sidewall, but the axle guys didn't seem worried. That's when we realized that, if all went well with the axles, we'd need to reframe our thinking about our tires. We had been getting them replaced as soon as possible because we knew the wear would get worse, but now, that might no longer be the case. If everything got straightened out (literally!), the sidewall might have some more miles on it. Still, we'll be keeping a close eye on it.

We did, however, get our truck tires replaced, because those ones had a good 45,000 miles on them. We distinctly remember the day we last got them replaced.

A rather productive displacement, we must say, and over at Trailer Parts Wholesale, the guys were being productive, too. They told us back in August that the appointment would take "a couple of days," and so we booked a buffer day at our Airbnb, for a total of 3 nights. Technically, we didn't need it. The axle guys called us on Tuesday and said we could pick up the trailer on Wednesday. We decided to wait until Thursday anyway, because we still had lots of stuff to do.

They also gave us the low-down on all of the axle repairs. Repairs?! Yep. No replacements necessary, according to them. They checked the axles and thought that they looked fine and still had their lives to live. Barring a whole list of fixes, of course.

1. Replaced worn brake backing plates and lining for all four brakes
2. Repacked the bearings for all four wheels
3. Torqued down spindle arm bushings
4. Injected lube into the spindle arm bushings
5. Tightened front passenger wheel hub to reduce end play
6. Added galvanic barrier straps between axles and frame to prevent corrosion
7. Replaced faulty trailer brake controllers

We were happy for the fixes, but we were left with a bunch of questions. First, if neither axle was bent, tilted, or misaligned, then why did the FleetPride dude in Fort Wayne believe them to be? The guys at Trailer Parts Wholesale explained that, when building the axles, there is actually some bend in them. They add about 1/2 inch of camber so that, once on the trailer, it'll end up straight. They never saw the axles once installed on our trailer, as this was done at the Payson FleetPride. However, this was one of the first things they checked during our appointment, and they said the axles looked straight. That said, we were left with homework. We still need to pay attention to our tires. If we continue to get uneven wear, we could get an additional 1/4 inch camber to the front axle. This would help keep the inner sidewalls from wearing, which has always been our problem. The axle guys deemed this unnecessary for now, as all the other repairs should fix the issues. If the camber isn't needed and they added it anyway, it could actually cause uneven wear on the outer parts of the tires. We might as well ride on these repaired axles for a while and see what happens.

This does mean that our saga continues while we keep observing our tires, but in reality, every RVer should always be diligently monitoring their tires, so this is just routine. Time will tell if we need to go back to Trailer Parts Wholesale, and if this blog post is actually the end of our axles story.

The other questions that arose were, how did we get so many of those problems? When we take our trailer for servicing, we ask the workers to check things like our brakes and bearings. Did someone not do this when they were supposed to? From here on, we'll need to make sure this is always explicitly stated whenever we get maintenance or servicing on our trailer.

Lastly, when all the repairs were done, we didn't get any warranty work. We paid for everything that wasn't directly axle-related, plus parts and labor. Labor is much cheaper out here than in MA, but we couldn't help but wonder, could we have gotten these repairs in MA and laid this to rest way earlier? We planned an entire season of travel around this trip to UT and don't even know if it was truly necessary. But, now that all was said and done, we didn't actually mind. If repairs in UT were convenient, we'd choose them over repairs in MA any day, no contest. Plus, the more time we spend in UT, the more it feels like our little home in the Rockies. We've been through a lot in this state.

We checked out of our Airbnb and picked up the trailer on Thursday, March 20. Our next step would be to get back to traveling and make sure no more wear happened on our tires, but first, we'd need to spend a couple more days in the area so Tanner could have one more follow-up at the vet. We booked two nights at the KOA in Springville, about 20 minutes north of Santaquin. This was one of the places we sought refuge during our flood recovery, and we knew it was a reliable place in a convenient location. Good thing we didn't plan a far drive that day, because we had one more issue to attend to when we got our trailer back.

This happened two years ago, too, after our axle installation. We picked up the trailer, only to discover that our trailer brake wasn't working. We figured out last time that it's hard for the workers to adjust the brake without having access to the truck. It's usually a quick fix, but this time, we needed to wait for the mechanic to get back from lunch, and so we hung tight in the parking lot for about 45 minutes.

We got the brake adjusted, but on our way out, still weren't getting a lot of response when we tested the hand brake. We were told that, because these were self-adjusting trailer brakes, they actually will adjust as we drive. Anymore manual adjusting and they might bust something. The guys told us to check it sporadically on our way up to Springville, and to contact them if the brake continued to not respond. This was not the solution two years ago. Typically, we keep our trailer brake gain at a 7/10, but we increased it to 10 for our drive and hoped for the best. During the drive, the brake almost seemed to start responding better, but we would need more trials to really see. Unfortunately, we had booked the KOA until Saturday, so we wouldn't be able to test the brake until then. If we left on Saturday and realized something was amiss, Trailer Parts Wholesale wouldn't be open to help us.

We debated whether or not to take the trailer somewhere on Friday just to test the brake, but we didn't have time. Friday was filled with bringing Tanner for his follow-up, running some final errands, and finishing our work for the week. We decided to risk the Saturday drive day, with our planned destination 225 miles away, through some mountains. So now, in addition to keeping an eye on our tires, we would also be regularly checking our trailer brake.

Up until this point, Utah has been a destination for chaos, trauma, and big reality checks. We owed it to ourselves to have at least some bucket list adventures in the state. We determined that, despite these unanswered questions about our trailer, our travels must go on! It was time for some Utah redemption.