The half of the combination nobody aligns
Fleets put tractors on the rack. Trailers get hooked up, loaded and sent, and the only attention their axles receive is when a tire has to be replaced.
That is backwards in one specific way: a trailer runs the same miles as the tractor pulling it, carries most of the weight, and has more tires on the ground than the tractor does. A misaligned trailer is therefore wearing more rubber per mile than a misaligned tractor, and it does it quietly, because the driver up front feels almost nothing.
How a trailer tells you
The signs are visible from outside the cab:
The national trailer alignment page lists the signs. The reason to go looking for them is arithmetic rather than diagnosis.
A trailer carries most of the weight in a combination and runs more tires than the tractor pulling it. The same misalignment therefore costs more rubber per mile at the back than it would at the front, on the half of the vehicle nobody is measuring.
A driver who says the trailer feels fine is not contradicting any of that. A trailer running crabbed is not something a tractor transmits.
What gets checked
Axle alignment to the kingpin, axle-to-axle relationship on a tandem or tri-axle, and the condition of the suspension and mounting hardware holding all of it in place.
A trailer that has been loaded hard for years, or has taken a dock hit or a curb, is the usual candidate. Age alone is not the trigger; what happened to it is.
Doing it with the tractor
This store aligns both. Heavy-duty truck alignment for the tractor, trailer alignment for what it pulls.
Measuring one without the other leaves the question half-answered, because a combination that runs crooked can be the fault of either end. For a fleet with a stable tractor-to-trailer pairing, doing both on the same visit settles it.
Casings are the second saving
Trailer tires are good retread candidates when they are worn evenly. A trailer position scrubbed away on one shoulder costs the tire and the casing underneath it.
Albuquerque collects casings for retreading at the Purcell plants in Phoenix and Denver. A trailer that is aligned keeps feeding that program; one that is not stops feeding it.
About this store
The Albuquerque store carries trailer tires alongside commercial, agricultural, industrial, OTR, track, and UTV and ATV tires. It is managed by John Puchi and is the only Purcell location in New Mexico.
The nearest Purcell locations offering trailer alignment are Tucson, AZ and Colorado Springs, CO.
See the national trailer alignment page for all 36 locations.