I am planning to find some take-off Chevy HD wheels & tires to replace the old 16.5" bias ply setup on my race car trailer. I need 6 wheels for the trailer, so 2 sets of take-offs will give me 2 spares. I won't be doing this for several months, so I'm afraid I can't offer any advice as to how it would work. For your situation, free is a very good price!

Regards,
Michael Pliska

 

I wish you were closer, I have a nice set of 2nd gens steel with 10ply tires I have no use for. Could have traded for anything

 

Gotta say, this thread is as much fun to read as the oil threads on motorcycle forums.

 

Thanks, it was about a year ago that I was looking and I was actually amazed that I couldn't find any, but the main reason I went with new trailer rims was I wanted to keep the deck between the wheels keeping the Center of gravity as low as possible. The trailer width came out at 101 1/2 inches (1/2 inch under) just to be safe.

 

One of our race car trailers has been giving us fits with blowouts and outside bearing failure. The axles are the Dexter 5200# with 6 lug 15" wheels. The trailer is right at 10,200# loaded so we are about 200# under rated capacity.

For years we have thought about swapping out the axles for 7000# 8 lug 16" wheels to get the bigger outside bearing and a better selection of tires. The only thing that has been keeping us back was the hassle and expense of this change on a trailer with over 100,000 miles on it.

We finally ran into a trailer guy that really knew his stuff. He suggested swapping out the hubs on the trailer with the 7000# hubs. He said they were exactly the same as the ones that are on the 5200# axles except they have the bigger outside bearing and 8 lugs vs. 6 lugs. It was hard to believe until we did it this week. Sure enough they are an exact fit! Brakes and everything fit perfectly.

We did have to buy 5 new wheels and tires, but it was about half of what we estimated it would have cost to go with the complete axle swap and labor.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------
stumpjumper:

I am getting in on your thread a little late but wanted to give you my input on this. Like alot of other issues here on DTR, there is a wide range of opinions and this thread subject seems to be no different.

FWIW, I have a dual axle 24' "Kaufman" Flatbed Trailer with a 14,000 lb. capacity. I tow my Dodge CTD Pickups on it as well as that of my Son's 2004 Dodge CTD CR and have also towed several NCDTR #18 Members Trucks as well that broke. That trailer came with "Duro" Trailer Tires. After about two years of moderate use, I had three blowouts on one trip and decided to check into going to an LT tire versus an ST or "trailer tire." I talked with alot of Members here and to various tire companies and decided to change over to an LT tire, specifically, a "Uniroyal Laredo LT Truck Tire" with an "E" load range rating. I went with the Uniroyal, because of the good price I got. In addition to the fact that one of our own DTR members, specifically, David Dunbar (DavidTD) who runs all over the country with his portable Dynojet 248 had them on his heavy dyno trailer and had great service with them.

With all that being said, I can tell you that with the Uniroyal Laredo LT Tires, my trailer rides better, the tire wear has been much better than with the ST Tires and so far after two years I have had no problems whatsoever with the Uniroyal LT Tires. I also wanted to tell you that I also own an 18' "Pace" Enclosed Cargo Racing Trailer which came with "Goodyear Marathon ST Tires" and I have had trouble with those tires too. As soon as the newer ones wear out I will be switching over to an LT tire on that trailer too.

Just my .02 cents, but I hope it helps you out some.

Take care.

---------
John_P

 

I will never run an ST tire on anything. Really not sure why they are even made. We run LT's on all of our stuff and getter longer life out of them and zero blowouts. However my fifth wheel has 15s on it due to only being a 24 footer with a slide.

 

we have 11 trailers, 2 with dual tandems , 2 toy haulers (TT, 5er) and misc cargo flat deck and the sort, we stopped using trailer tires 4 years ago , except for the 5er toyhauler,(16950 LBS) it has Goodyear rst load range G , and we have cut our tire bill way down from what it was. the Goodyear RST seems to be a great tire sofar . we are using toyos now and any tire failure can be traced back to the drivers......wheels falling off hitting objects or low pressure (flats) going down the hwy

 

Had 2 of what ever forest river puts on my caridanal blow out in I-80. Got D rated LT tires ( all that was available) and made it to yellow stone and back to st joe mo before they blew. This time Put E rated LT again. All designed to carry more weight than I had on them. Did them all away around. Got ran up to 70MPH 1st time they blew. So my experience was if you want to run 60mph or less and not go more than 5k on them and it is below 70 out side then LT might work. Finally solved issue with Hankook trailer tires at G rated 14 ply. no issue so far and ran it at 80 mph before the Big truck was decommised.

 

I made the switch to LT tires on my toyhauler too. I am extremely pleased with my new BFG Commercial LT E rated 215/85/16 80psi tires on new 16'' rims. These tires were put on in Feb. and I have been on several trips including to Louisiana, Colorado, and just got back from Arkansas........and have performed flawlessly....loaded heavy....around 11K lbs. at over 100 degrees...ambient temp.









..

 

I have the same size of BFG's on my trailer,did you know the load rating on them is 2680 ea which totals 10,720?I'd watch my loads if I were you.

 

Yeah, but about 1600-1700lbs of that is tongue weight on my truck wd hitch.

And even though they are "rated" at 2680lbs.......I think they are VERY conservatively rated. I know the junker 15'' D rated tires that came on it were a whole lot more "squirmy" on the road than these.

..

 

Yeah,I forgot about the tongue weight,they sure sway alot lees when loaded.
Looks good on your trailer.