Just bought a trailer for towing a toy vehicle.
Vehicle is around 2,000lbs, trailer is a heavy steel home-built type rig.

Front axle is open wheel style w/ 8-14.5 tires.
Rear axle is modern 6 lug wheels w/ 245/75/16 tires.
Obviously, there's a noticeable different in tire height front to rear.

Trying to figure out my options to match tires while retaining a good load rating and safety for towing. Won't be towing a lot - random couple hour trips to drag strips throughout the year, etc. However, do have one 700ish mile trip soon.

Short of swapping hubs or axles due to time constraints, is there a tire combo I could use? Thanks for assistance. Couple pics below of current set-up.

 

try to find a like 6 lug 16 inch

it might be just the photo but the equalizer bracket is really Lop-sided.

 

totally unsafe right now. I would get rid of that like chuck suggest.

 

What're you saying is totally unsafe? The mobile home style axle/wheels or just the current configuration? I have been able to find a tire for the mobile home wheels and a 6 luck 15 inch wheel/tire combo that puts them at the same height that I believe should work.

 

Depending on the axle it self you may be able to change just the hub to 1 that matches the rear axle. The other thing I noticed is the lack of a "dust/grease" cap on the front hub, you need to at least get a cap and clean and repack those bearings, inspect them carefully as the road dirt that is in them may have damaged them beyond safe use. You might check with Dexter or southwest Wheel to see if you can find a 16" that will fit the mobile home type hub. Personally I would do whatever I could to get that front axle off and replaced with an axle that matches the rear one, I used to haul mobile homes and the axle/hub and wheel/tire combinations where not known for high quality. Also you should be able to locate an axle and swap it out fairly quickly.

 

Yeah, missing dust cap has been one of the priorities of things to find. However, it's an oddball size and hasn't been the easiest. All bearings have been cleaned and regreased.

It's actually not a huge priority now, ended up with another trailer from a buddy and working on getting rid of this one.

Thanks for the input, guys.

 

Nick good to hear you got a (better) trailer.
As said the best is to match either axle.


I ran the "mobile home" axles with the 14.5 tires under a 34 ft 2 car trailer.
Only issues I had were tires till I bought a normal set for the road and not the cheap mobile homes tires, they do not hold up to the speeds of 55 MPH or more with out throwing the treads.


Also know most of the mobile home axles are over 8ft wide. I never had issues with DOT but this was back in the early 80's before DOT crack down.
Just what I have done and worked for me.
Dave ----

 

Thanks for the info, Dave. The second trailer is on mobile home axles also (matched, at least) with 14.5 tires. Local place was able to get me what appears to be some good tires, and I don't plan on going anywhere fast with it...so, hopefully not too many issues.

Second trailer is also much more well built, going to be much better for my needs.

 

IIRC the "bad tires" said "mobile home" on the side wall.
I did not see this till the truck tire shop pointed it out to me.
Once I had over the road tires I was good.
Never an issue with the axles or hubs.
Dave ----

 

Yeah, these are not stamped mobile home. Just 8-14.5 Load Rating F trailer tires.

 

Just in case pick up a spare tire/wheel or 2
I had 2 just is case, mostly before the tire swap.
Dave ----

 

You've got one Mobile Home axle and on what appears to be 5200 or 6000 lb trailer axle. You are not going to find hubs to match the opposing axle. You are going to have to change one axle and I would suggest dumping the mobile home axle for another 5200 or 6000 lb axles with matching bolt pattern.

 

Mispost, Infinite scroll is wierd...