Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

So my trailer came with 15x5 5x4.5 lug wheels. I'm trying to find a narrowish 16 inch wheel with the same bolt pattern. I've found a wheel made by a company called Vision but no one seems to have them in stock. They were a 16x7. They make a 16x8 but that seems too wide for a trailer tire. Anyone else running an 8 inch wide tire? Anyone have any experience with this "upgrade"? I'm trying to open up my tire options and I just installed trailer brakes with the 5x4.5 lug pattern so I don't want to switch hubs.

Stock Jeep Liberty wheels are 16x7 and 5 on 4.5. They come in steel (02-07 models) or aluminum alloy (08-12). Not expensive and available in most any junkyard. Check https://www.car-part.com to see the options near you.

I agree with Ifhoward, the Jeep Liberty wheels should work and they're a good looking wheel. They also came on later Jeep Cherokee XJ's and are fairly easy to find used. I put Jeep 16" MOAB wheels on my off road trailer. They are 16"x8" so maybe a bit wide for what you're after. One thing though, 16" tire options are a bit limited. I use Goodyear Duratracs on 3 Jeeps and 1 trailer (245's and 265's). They're good for on and off road use but may be a bit too aggressive for most trailers. Narrower sizes in more typical road treads may be available but again the choices might be limited.

justa note...

i switched "trailer wheels" for Jeep wheels on a former trailer and the offset tag'd me

it moved the whees enuff closer to the trailer body that the tires rubbed the trailer

just something to be concious of and check out before inve$ting your funds

have you checked out higher profile tires ?

one thing i am finding on another wheel/tire swap search is the actual diameter of tires available as i change wheel diameters

when i jumped wheel diameter the available tires had the same or darn near the same tire diameters as the smaller diameter wheels

the up sizing of wheel diameters on many vehicles has become a manufacturer's trick to add bling w/o changing the diameter of the tires

IMHO it pay$ to do your research b4 buying

sw

That’s a good point about the offset possibly bringing the tires closer to the trailer sides than you want. I believe stock Liberty wheels that are 16x7 have 4 inches of backspacing, and the 16x8 Moabs have 5 inches of backspacing if I remember correctly. If that’s a problem and you still want to run Jeep wheels, a different wider axle is probably better than wheel spacers. But now you’re probably spending more than you want to.

oops - double post.

lfhoward wrote:That’s a good point about the offset possibly bringing the tires closer to the trailer sides than you want. I believe stock Liberty wheels that are 16x7 have 4 inches of backspacing, and the 16x8 Moabs have 5 inches of backspacing if I remember correctly. If that’s a problem and you still want to run Jeep wheels, a different wider axle is probably better than wheel spacers. But now you’re probably spending more than you want to.

That's correct re MOAB wheels (5" back spacing). I have Jeep wheels on 2 trailers. One has a Dexter axle and the other one is Rockwell American. In both cases I used 2" spacers to deal with the backspacing but they were also needed to fit the Jeep wheels over the axle hub. Jeep wheels have a relatively small centre hole (about 2") compared to the O.D. of the axle hubs (about 3"). There's a pic in my build thread below (about 3rd one in) that shows a 2" spacer on a typical trailer hub. Another pic shows a MOAB wheel next to a trailer wheel and the centre hole size difference between them.