Wheel Spacers vs. clearance

[jandbsteardrop]

Hi,

We are currently getting ready to start our build but have a question about the distance between the tire and side wall of the teardrop. Currently the frame is 2" away from the tire. If we run our 3/4" plywood over the frame, along with the 1/8 luan and filon skin, then we will only have 1" between the tire and side of the teardrop. We have a 3500 axle with springs.

Question - is 1" enough or is it possible to get wheel spacers (if we have enough thread on the bolts)? Or, should we put the 3/4 plywood on the frame itself and only run the 1/8 luan and filon over the frame, saving 3/4 of a inch?

Thanks everyone...this site is fantastic!

Jack

[working on it]

Hi,

We are currently getting ready to start our build but have a question about the distance between the tire and side wall of the teardrop. Currently the frame is 2" away from the tire. If we run our 3/4" plywood over the frame, along with the 1/8 luan and filon skin, then we will only have 1" between the tire and side of the teardrop. We have a 3500 axle with springs.

Question - is 1" enough or is it possible to get wheel spacers (if we have enough thread on the bolts)? Or, should we put the 3/4 plywood on the frame itself and only run the 1/8 luan and filon over the frame, saving 3/4 of a inch?

Thanks everyone...this site is fantastic!

Jack

I don't know what your clearance will become, when you have your trailer on the road, i.e: how much the flex in your suspension or tires' sidewalls will affect it. Since, I built my TTT by utilizing an unused, and undersized trailer frame I had for 18 years, and had no Idea what the trailer was capable of hauling, I used bolt on, studded spacers to solve my clearance issues, not the flat plate type spacer (which I've also used-but only when the wheel studs show thread beyond the top of the lugnuts- even on my Chevelle dragcar). Here's the process: I just had to re-engineer it (shadetree style). I started with 8" wheel on a 4 bolt hub, but quickly realized that much larger wheels, and heavier duty bearings would be needed. As I had 14" wheels on my other, larger TT, I chose 14" on 5x4.5 hubs. Went to a trailer supply house, and got a set of 5x.5 hubs and big bearings to fit the existing spindle stubs. But, after getting the 14" tires/wheels, I found that the increased section width of the 14" ST trailer tires (over the 8" tires) decreased the tire to frame clearance to about 1/4"-1/2", on the rolling chassis. I saw that once the superstructure was built, and loaded, and the trailer was being towed, that clearance would not be enough. So, I had my friend (at whose shop we were working on the trailer, at the time) source some 1" aluminum 5x4.5" to 5x4.5" spacers.

5x4.5 to 5x4.5.jpg (59.66 KiB) Viewed 1902 times

He had used them many times before, on various car projects he had done, and I had used similar ones on some of my VW's I had owned (in the early '70's). We both trusted them, on lighter weight vehicles specifically, so we had no qualms about using them here. I have seen them used on many street racer cars, but wouldn't trust them for off-road or high-horsepower drag cars. I don't remember the source we found, and lost my link when my computer fried last year, but here's another source of similar ones (might even be the same?) http://www.uswheeladapters.com/shop/1-5x4-50-5x4-50-wheel-spacer/ The difference they made on my trailer is from this

• with 8" tires,
• (wheels, hubs, spacers added) and finally this.

Though my superstructure is inset, not hanging over the frame, I believe that spacers are a viable alternative to replacing a trailer axle (at least under most conditions). Additional info: I even used them for a year (38000miles), on my '69 Chevy pickup (6 lug wheels), hauling all sorts of loads, at all speeds. I gave them away to a guy at work who needed them, when I sold the truck. No problems there, either. Just check the torque (on both the spacer and the road wheels) whenever you can; I checked them on the truck every 5k miles, on tire rotations, and (after I learned to trust them) on my VW's every tire change (I drove 'em hard; tires only lasted me 5000 miles then). Opinions may differ; many don't like spacers of any kind.

[MtnDon]

Trailer wheels usually are "lug centric" and the wheels are cars/trucks are usually "hub centric". Hub centric means the wheel is being centered by the machined part of the hub that fits snugly into the center hole of the wheel. The weight is also supported on that machines interface of wheel and hub. Lug centric, as on most trailers, means the studs or wheel bolts are centering the wheel on the hub as well as supporting weight. I would have little problem myself using cheapy plate spacers on a trailer as long as there were 2 threads showing with spacer in place and torqued. But I'd never use that style on a car/truck. There are machined hub centric spacers for that purpose, They usually bolt to the hub as illustrated previous and have a new set of full length studs to secure the wheel.

Keep in mind that all spacers will increase forces on bearings; could lead to more maintenance.

But back to the question of where the 3/4" plywood sides should be located. Lapping over the frame or sitting on top of the floor? I've not built a teardrop ever. I have built many other things like homes, garages, sheds where walls always sit on top of the floor framing. And that's the same way my utility trailers are configured.

It seems to me that structurally the side walls are better when placed on the floor. If the 3/4 walls overlap the outside of the frame rails what is securing the weight of the walls and roof and anything attached to them? Perhaps there is something I am missing when it comes to teardrop construction and how walls are secured to the floor? Please straighten me out if I am not seeing the full picture here. Thanks
DonM

[TPMcGinty]

I have 1 inch between my tires and my walls and have never had a problem with it.

[Woodbutcher]

Same here, 1" no issues , but I needed wheel spacers to get that inch. I upgraded from the 12" tires on a Northern Tool trailer to 15" ones. The trailer has about 10K miles with no troubles.

[jandbsteardrop]

I have 1 inch between my tires and my walls and have never had a problem with it.

Great, thanks for the reply. Good to know!

[noseoil]

1" should be fine on a teardrop type of trailer. The "worst case" scenario is having one wheel drop into a hole, while the other side hits a bump, rock, curb, or whatever & gets lifted at the same time. The wheel hopping over the bump will put the top-inner edge of the tire closest to the body. With 1" of side clearance, an axle with leaf springs will be fine. Most of the time, an inch is plenty.

If you have a lot of spring travel (an off-road setup for example), it would be best to do a mock-up of the geometry, just to see what happens when bouncing around a lot.