greg01
New Member
Posts: 4
Currently Offline
|
Post by greg01 on Feb 25, 2019 13:55:41 GMT -8
Howdy,
I apologize in advance if this was covered in the past but I could not find an answer to my question using the search option.
Today I found out that daughter's '64 Aristocrat Lo-liner 13 has passenger wheels/rims on it. Along with passenger tires. Tires need replacing probably because of something vikx posted about back in Sept '13 with Aristocrat blowouts. That would explain all the wear on the sidewalls while still having almost new tread on tires from '08.
So the trailer shop guy said the wheels were passenger wheels and that trailer wheels won't fit the hubs. (I was considering a spare) He said to check with junkyards to find a spare wheel/rim.
So my questions are;
Was it common to have car wheels on the trailers when the trailer was new back in the 1960's?
Or did someone switch them after it was purchased?
Thanks in advance for your help, Greg
|
|
nccamper
Administrator 
Posts: 7,743 
Likes: 2,870
1962 Forester- 1956 Shasta
Currently Offline
|
Post by nccamper on Feb 25, 2019 16:11:24 GMT -8
By wheels you're talking about rims? I think most of the original rims where swapped out over time. Usually with the wrong size.
I bought Michelin trailer tires for the camper we use. They cost about $250 for two. My feeling is that tires are one area you don't want to cut corners on and get a no-name brand.
If the tires are 2008 they need replaced even if the tread looks new. My understanding is that tires need replaced every 5 years.
|
|
|
|
Post by bigbill on Feb 25, 2019 18:11:14 GMT -8
Most smaller trailers with 5 lugs run a wheel/rim with a 4 1/2" bolt circle which was a standard Ford wheel on many cars. The four lug wheels/rims also fit many Ford 4 and 6 cyl cars before metric wheels appeared. These wheels are available almost everywhere even Walmart.com You were probably talking to a younger gentleman who only knows what fits imports and late models. As for being standard yes some trailers even came with Ford hub caps because they could be bought cheap. Also in the old days a tire was just a tire you bought the size and ply you needed to do what you wanted to do. then came belted tires and then radials and people started to design tires for exact purposes like trailers ect. Then they found that we didn't all drive the same speed on the same road carrying the same load so to improve safety they started building tires designed for special purposes like we see today. Another thing you have to remember is trailers 60 years ago rarely were towed over 50/55 mph. Some trailers even had warnings not to exceed 45 mph. You have to remember most of the interstate system did not exist yet. Near where I grew up they built a part of what is now I75 that had a large traffic circle and only went 5 miles to the next town. People would take their vacation and visit just to drive on it, some times they just drove around and around the circle for hours. We would drive by and laugh at them, but our grandparents said what a waste of tax payers money because there would never be highways built like that. It is amazing what has happened in the last 75 years. The town I live in now had a restaurant with a drive up window back in the thirties and again everybody knew that was a stupid idea.
|
|
|
|
Post by vikx on Feb 25, 2019 19:09:31 GMT -8
My Loliners did have passenger car wheels, the 6 cylinder Falcon type. The tires were BIAS ply and fit well within the space. Be sure to trim the front spring bracket regardless. Radials have been used but are fatter and may not fit well. I have to say that the bias ply tires didn't last as long but worked very well. With a little trailer wheel like that, my tire shop didn't have trailer tires to fit.
|
|
roadtripper
Active Member
Posts: 311
Likes: 116
Currently Offline
|
Post by roadtripper on Feb 25, 2019 19:19:50 GMT -8
Good stuff big I’ll. And nc is right. Replace at 5 years max. When I lost a wheel last year on my 62 on a trip I ended up getting the whole ball of wax new....axel, wheel and brakes, rim and tire and the cost really wasn’t that bed for the comfort of having every thing new. And if it would have been for one of my daughters I probably would have upgraded more. And one more thing Greg. When you change the rims, CHECK THE LUG NUTS soon after and regularly.
|
|
jeremiah
Active Member
Posts: 274
Likes: 36
Currently Offline
|
Post by jeremiah on Feb 26, 2019 5:18:36 GMT -8
Is it true that. My car has trailer wheels/rims on it? "Hold the Presses". Center hole size is not always common to the pattern size. I Guess times change! Since we were living on a farm, we found early about things that interchange. Or that some wheels/rims had more than one application. That sort of gave us a different life lesson than the guys that lived in the city.
|
|
kudzu
Active Member
Posts: 344
Likes: 84
Currently Offline
|
Post by kudzu on Feb 26, 2019 5:38:36 GMT -8
As a car guy I don't think there is any difference between car and trailer wheels. They do the same job on both of them and are subject to same forces more or less. Assuming that they fit properly I don't see any probably problem using them on either.
What he might have been saying is that the hole in the center of the wheel doesn't fit the hub. The hole should be the same same as the lip on the hub. It centers the wheel on the hub and I suspect it takes a lot of the load off the lug nuts too.
|
|
jukebox
Member
Posts: 43
Likes: 9
1961 Shasta Airflyte
Currently Offline
|
Post by jukebox on Feb 26, 2019 14:47:10 GMT -8
I agree. Structurally a car/truck rim will perform the same as a trailer rim. I think the differences are in offset and the visual look. Current trailer rims I see are styled/designed to be used as is without hub caps. Car/truck rims have always been designed to be used with hubcaps and or trim rings. Looking at an old rim, i don't know how someone would know it is a specific car rim and not a trailer rim. I don't have any experience with old trailer rims except for some 70's style ones that look like on open 5 spoke style painted grey. Ugly too. Make sure that the rim is designed for tubeless tires. If you have tubeless radial tires on there now then i would buy new trailer tires of the same size. Replace the valve stem and have them balanced. People cheap out and don't feel they need to balance wheel assemblies on trailers.
A few points about swapping rims. Make sure the rim fits. As someone else mentioned, the wheel nuts/studs are only designed the hold the rim to the hub face and not carry the weight. The center flange of the hub carries the weight. The inner diameter of the center hole in the rim should fit snug on the center flange of the hub. Also, replace the wheel nuts if you buy new rims. The nut mating taper is designed to fit the rim. This mating face gets worn out from on and off or over torquing. If the sizing of the wheels and tires you have now seem to perform well then I would replace with the same sizes.
|
|
