Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Does anyone here know about sidecar wheels. Specifically, do they come in the 4x100 flavor?

I ran whatever was on the front of the bike, that way I had one less size tire to buy.

Sorry-my question was not clear, I'm trying to find out if there are any sidecar wheels that would bolt up to my 4x100 hubs. I want a large tire/wheel but don't really want to pay the weight price of using old VW rims.

Thanks for the advice however
Regie


p.s. my tow vehicle is going to be a Miata-I'm going to have the hub-centric ring removed from the space saver so I only need one spare for the trailer and the car

Sidecar wheels come in all sizes, but the bigger issue is how they fit on the hub. Most of them are not like car wheels and bolt onto studs on the hub. Most of the sidecar wheels are like motorcycle wheels in that they fit onto a center axle.

You will also find that sidecar wheels may not be available or cheap by themselves.

You might go to Sidecar.com and post your question.

Another issue that you may run into is the gross load that a sidecar tire can carry. There are a lot of the motorcycle trailers that also use these type wheels and tires. I am concerned that they are not rated for a 400-800 lb. load per wheel.
I learned something in my build process of my trailer. All tires are not the same. It is highly recommended that trailer tires are used for trailers and not passenger tires. It seems that trailers do a lot of sliding and scooting when turning. This abuse can actually break down the belts in a radial passenger tire. Most trailer tires are a 6 ply bias ply tire. They scoot and slide with the best of them.
Someone else may be able to elaborate on this a little more.
Just my 2 cents work!

Tires raise a whole bunch of issues. Sidecar tires (flat profile) come in limited sizes and require inner tubes. Motorcycle tires, which a lot of sidecar wheels use, are expensive and don't last long. If I get more than about 7,000 miles out of a motorcycle tire, I am doing well.

Bandit wrote:I learned something in my build process of my trailer. All tires are not the same. It is highly recommended that trailer tires are used for trailers and not passenger tires. It seems that trailers do a lot of sliding and scooting when turning. This abuse can actually break down the belts in a radial passenger tire. Most trailer tires are a 6 ply bias ply tire. They scoot and slide with the best of them.

The scrubbing you are talking about is mostly a concern for tandem and tridem axle trailers. Because the trailer axles are not articulated they follow different paths around corners and one or both axles ends up scrubbing sideways. Our teardrops shouldn't have that problem.

Of more concern is trailer tires are designed for sitting for long periods and are compounded to be resistant to dry rotting. Again not a major problem. Builders putting 14 and 15 tires on a 1100lb teardrop have so over tired the unit I'd bet in some cases the side wall itself would be stiff enough to hold the trailer without any air pressure inside.

The best tire you can have on a lite single axle trailer is a car tire. You don't have to carry as high of air pressure as trailer tires usually call for leaving you with a much better ride for your little trailer.

MINI Cooper 7 hole alloy wheels are the lightest wheels offered by the factory. Don't know the exact weight (edit:: 12 pounds each)........but it's a possibility. Toss some lightweight bias ply tires on 'em. Not a bad looking package.



Or look here:

http://www.mini2.com/qt/r81_silver_wheel.mov

Where did you get hubs that are 4X100? I was looking to keep the same wheels on the tear as on my MINI, so that all things in the universe will meld correctly. Haven't been able to find a source.

subtearanean-12 lbs each is great. miata wheels are pretty light as well and I like you would like to have a matched look with the car. My tear should come in at a little under 400lbs and I'm stuggling with putting on a tire wheel combo in the 27-28 lb range.

I got one of these axles http://www.southwestwheel.com/Sidebar/Promo3.htm
but now that I reread the page I'm not positive it is a 4x100 (I thought it was) you guys might need to straighten me out on this one.

Wow lots to consider here-thanks guys for the input.

Er, bein' a furriner I'm no expert but in looking through the axle manufacturer's data sheets, I've never seen mention of 4x100 hubs. Please note these are not 4-4" - that would be 4x101.6.

And, no, you can't just take a die grinder to the wheels until the studs will fit on a 4-4" hub...............

Andrew

subtearanean wrote:Haven't been able to find a source.

Two choices if you can't find one ready made. 1) Any decent machine shop should be able to drill a 4x4" axle flange for 4X100mm, make sure they drill a metric set of holes for the metric studs. 2) You can get wheel adapters (not spacers) that'll convert 4X4" to 4X100. The adapters would help to suck up some of that excessive FWD offset as well.