Wheel Camber

[Whitehall]

I've built a trailer for a light weight 15' rowboat. The leaf spring axle is straight (horizontal) whether the boat is on or off. The tongue has about 100# of downforce. Would it help to have some camber in the tires for tracking purposes? If so, positive or negative?

[Charles Brennan]

Whitehall, Boat trailers generally don't have much camber on boat trailer axle spindles. In fact, they generally refer to it as "half-camber", where the top of the wheel slopes outward, only very slightly. Further, they usually don't bother with half-cambering the axles until around the 2500 - 3500 pound load range.  Even then, it's only for tire wear and not for tracking.

The 100# you mention on the tongue, is called tongue weight and has little to do with weight on the axle spindles which could affect camber, although it affects towing handling.

Your light weight 15' row boat is likely on a 2000 lb axle and probably doesn't even have any camber designed in.

Options available to you are to either get a magnetic camber gauge and check for yourself, (boat loaded vs unloaded on trailer) or to simply keep an eye on the tires, watching closely for inside tread wear.

Hope this helps,
Charles Brennan