Kendon Technical Insight Series: Wheel Toe

What is Wheel Toe?

Wheel toe, or tracking, is an essential element of any vehicle. It is extremely important that wheel toe is properly set up to maintain proper function of the vehicle.

The wheel toe on your Kendon Stand-Up™ Trailer has been properly configured at the factory from our industry-leading axle supplier, Tie Down Engineering. But what exactly is wheel toe and why is it important for a trailer? Let’s take a look:

In automotive engineering, toe is the symmetric angle that each wheel makes with the longitudinal axis of the vehicle; in our case, the trailer.

Axle alignment, wheel toe, and wheel camber (the relation of the tire to the ground) are necessary to position the wheels and tires in the optimum position for the best possible tire performance and wear. Toe is also very necessary, especially on a trailer, to reduce wear to the leading edge of the tire and – most importantly for a trailer – to avoid road wander.

What is Road Wander?

Road wander, or steering wander, is when the trailer moves side-to-side with no outside influence. It can sometimes be referred to as the trailer or wheels “hunting,” hunting for a happy place to ride. And it can become a dangerous situation if not properly corrected.

Wheel toe problems are amplified when the trailer is improperly loaded without enough tongue weight. In short, too little tongue weight produces too little wheel camber, which can negatively affect wheel toe. So if your trailer feels like it’s “hunting” for a happy place, make sure you have enough tongue weight. Please check out our article on proper tongue weight here.

Now get out there. Go. Ride.