Got Aluminum Rims on your HF trailer?

[chgrsteve67]

Anyone here put aluminum 15 inch rims on your Harbor freight trailer?

If yes...
What rims did you use?
What is the offset of the rim?
What size tires did you use?
Did you have to use wheel spacers?

Got pictures?


Steve

[satch]

I tried to put a standard 15 on my hf, but it was hitting the leaf bolt

bad pic, sorry. I think it needed to have around a 2" offset to work, but not knowing how much stress this was going to put on the bearings, I scrapped the whole idea.

[Alphacarina]

I've got the 13 inch alloy's which came on my Little Guy on my HF 1740 trailer - Not sure of their offset, but I used a 1 1/4 inch wheel adapter/spacer . . . . it bolts to the HF hub with 5 lugnuts and then it has 5 new studs for the wheel to bolt to. I now have about 3/4 inch between the tire and the side of the trailer body

Think these same adapters would work for satch as well . . . . assuming he has 5 bolt hubs

ebay clicky

The sell them in one inch width as well

Don

[TPMcGinty]

I've got 13" rims and it looks like I will need to use a 1/2" spacer on mine.

[chgrsteve67]

I think I have found the right rims for my trailer.

Its a 15 x 8 smoothie with a 2.5 inch back spacing.

Going to take a few more measurements before I buy them to see if I will still need spacers or not.

Stay tuned.

[brian_bp]

I think I have found the right rims for my trailer.

Its a 15 x 8 smoothie with a 2.5 inch back spacing.

Going to take a few more measurements before I buy them to see if I will still need spacers or not.

Stay tuned.

If the wheel was only 8" wide lip-to-lip, that would mean 2.5 from inside lip to hub face, and so 4" from lip to wheel centre, and thus 1.5" negative offset... and with the thickness of the lip this might be a 2" negative offset. That's a deep dish wheel. With the hub designed for zero or maybe 1/2" positive offset, that puts the load a couple of inches outboard of where it is supposed to be. It's as if the right type of wheel were used but with an extra 2" spacer.

Maybe that's okay... depending on the actual load, the axle rating, and the bearing details.

Keep in mind that Don's 1.5" spacer makes up the difference between a wheel with significant positive offset and a trailer hub, putting the wheel centre (and thus the load) essentially right where the hub is designed to carry it. This is quite a different situation.

[Alphacarina]

Keep in mind that Don's 1.5" spacer makes up the difference between a wheel with significant positive offset and a trailer hub, putting the wheel centre (and thus the load) essentially right where the hub is designed to carry it. This is quite a different situation.

I don't really think where the hub is located with relation to the wheel centerline a big consideration for a lightweight trailer

True, my 1 1/4 inch spacer does put the wheel about centered on the hub of my HF trailer, because the wheel has a high negative offset, but that same wheel came off the Little Guy and it uses no spacer - They just extended the axle a couple of inches to keep the wheel off the side of the trailer . . . . the hub is waaaaay offcentered with the wheel centerline on Little Guy trailers and I don't recall ever reading of any hub or bearing failures caused by that

Don

[brian_bp]

Interesting info, Don.

I can only guess that the bearings have substantially higher capacity than other axle/suspension components (such as the springs), or that higher-capacity axles are being used than required. I wouldn't want to count on any specific trailer/axle/wheel combination to be adequate without understanding why... if excess bearing/hub capacity is assumed, someone could put a wrong-offset wheel on a marginal hub (for the trailer weight) and regret it.

The trailers are lightweight, but some the hardware is, too.


Also, the Little Guy setup puts the wheel centre inboard of the hub's load centre; the deep-dish wheel would put the wheel outboard of the hub's load centre (likely by a greater amount). One might be worse than the other.

[angib]

I think the offset bearing question depends very much on how highly loaded the bearing is. If the bearing is carrying half its rated capacity then offsetting an inch or two shouldn't be a problem. But repeat that offset with the bearing somewhere near its capacity and the service life will tumble down.

Just a 2" offset is enough to double the load on one of the two bearing races.

Andrew

[chgrsteve67]

I took a closer look at the trailer and axle today.

The bearings in the axles are about the same size as the bearings in the axle of my Charger. Talk about an under rated trailer weight. I bet this trailer could haul 3000+ lbs. Also the springs on this thing are definitely over kill for a tear drop, I could probably take a leaf out of each side and still not get close to its true capacity.

I wonder if its because the trailer is bolted together and not welded (Mine is welded now) has anything to do with the load rating?

The rims that came on the trailer are 4 inches wide and have a 2.5 inch offset. Adding 4 inches to the rim and sticking to a 2.5 offset is not going to be a problem with what I'm going to do with this trailer. It will weigh around 600 to 700 pounds (when completed) and maybe (at most) have 600 to 700 pounds of stuff in it.

I can see if one was going to use this trailer at its max capacity and the weight not being properly placed on the hub eventually causing bearing failure. I think my teardrop box will fall apart before the bearings fails.

[Alphacarina]

The limiting weight factor on the HF trailers (and many other small trailers as well) is usually the tires - Your HF trailer frame, axle, bearings and springs might be good for 1,000 pounds more than HF rates it at . . . . but the tires definitely aren't

If you have 4 bolt wheels on your HF trailer, likely you have the 4.80 X 12 tires on your wheels - Read the sidewall of the tire and you'll see there is little extra capacity available and that you have to run LOTS of air in the tires to safely use what little there is

My 1740 trailer has the 5 bolt wheels, with the 'heavy duty' 5.30 X 12 tires and even those have a maximum carrying capacity of 1045 pounds . . . . . and the tire must be inflated to 80 PSI to carry that weight. I hate using rock hard tires on anything, but especially on a lightweight trailer - Every pebble in the road will generate a shock inside the trailer. I did remove the small, lowest leaf in the springs on my trailer as I'm only carrying around 1,000 pounds and not the 1740 the trailer is rated for

Most vehicles use the sidewall compliance of the tire as a part of the vehicle suspension. Running 26 or 28 PSI in the tires of your car as the factory recommends greatly lessens the shocks and vibrations inside the vehicle, so getting rid of my 80 PSI 12 inch tires was a priority for me - They're OK for a spare, but I would hate to use them everyday. I'm running 30 PSI in the 13 inch tires - They are rated at 1360 pounds each at just 50 PSI so even with 30 in them, they're not loaded to anywhere near their limit

Don

[chgrsteve67]

I defiantly agree that the tires are not under rated.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

[mechmagcn]

Anyone here put aluminum 15 inch rims on your Harbor freight trailer?Steve

Mine is not a HF trailer, but from a popup. I plan to run 15" aluminum wheels from a 87 Lincoln Town Car when finished. These will match the ones that are currently installed on my 53 F100 tow vehicle.

[brian_bp]

...The rims that came on the trailer are 4 inches wide and have a 2.5 inch offset. Adding 4 inches to the rim and sticking to a 2.5 offset..

Continuing on the theme of my first post...
I suspect that those "offset" values are actually backspacing, and correspond to a nearly zero offset 4" wide trailer wheel and deep-dish 8" replacement wheel.

To demonstrate that this can be done, I note that the Earthroamer XV-LT uses Ford F-550 chassis, and runs wide single rear tires with massively incorrect offset, placing the load inches outboard of the intended location (and leaving the brake discs hanging out in the open, instead of in the inner wheel). I suspect that they are running the rear axle way under its rated capacity, so they can get away with this.

[Nitetimes]

.....and runs wide single rear tires with massively incorrect offset, placing the load inches outboard of the intended location (and leaving the brake discs hanging out in the open, instead of in the inner wheel). I suspect that they are running the rear axle way under its rated capacity, so they can get away with this.

Looks like what they are running are standard dually wheels on the back which would put the hub face out the back of the wheel. What makes that a poor setup is that the front wheels aren't the same offset requiring you to carry 2 different spares.