Picked up a cheap ($50) beater trailer project last week off FB to help move more wood around the yard. Guy also gave me hubs and some rims with it to (more on that in sec). Great size for what I wanted, it's a bit beefy for pulling with the riding mower but should work ok once I get a deck and some sides on it. Reason for my post is the tires and rims are shot to hec. Appears they both have tubes in them and one has a slow leak. Guy I got from said these rims are very hard to find and gave me a set of hubs and rims to swap them out if I wanted to. Not much of a car guy or mechanic but know some basics and can fumble my way through most stuff. This is probably a dumb dumb question but was wondering if anyone could look at the rim tell what size it could possibly be and or look at the trailer tell what size it might be to replace the hubs on it. Hubs given are really really beat up and looks like missing some bearings and rings, I may just purchase new ones rather than fool with them. My first shot is to see if I can get the slow leak patched. This is just to move some wood around the yard nothing special and won't be used ever on the road. Thanks in advance!
You could remove one rim and measure the bolt pattern. 4.5, 5, and 5.5” are common. If you’re not pulling it down the road, I’d get new tubes installed and run it
Thanks huskihl that's exactly what am gonna do first, take it off, measure and see if the local tire shop can put a new tube in it or patch it. Not sure if the chain stores do that kinda work but gonna try.
Chances are bearings are some sort of a standard size , you should be able to measure them with a pair of calipers and figure out what they are. Being older it is most likely a common size that fit a lot of applications. For the bolt pattern on rims you measure between the center of two studs skipping one in between. If you numbered them in a circle from 1-5 you would measure between studs 1 and 3 / 2 and 4 / 3 and 5 etc. Just pick two and skip one in between. Not an over the road trailer so just put new tubes in and call it a day as mentioned.
Actually just noticed the rot around a valve stem , that might be an issue with cutting the tube near the stem.
Yes, they are in pretty bad shape. Gonna roll the dice see how far I can get with a tube replacement but will take measurements and try and ID hub and rim sizes just in case I come across something cheap on CL or FB. Thanks!
I did do a repair some time ago by grinding out around the valve stem hole and welding a washer in place , then re-drilled the hole in the washer to size.
Don't build the sides too high....would be too easy to put a whippin on that tow rig and/or hang the front tires. As far back as the axle sits, there's going to be a lot of tongue weight.
Agreed, I almost didn't pull the trigger because it's so beefy but couldn't pass it up for the $$. But I plan on in time picking up a heavier duty garden tractor or a beater ATV. I plan on only flooring to where frame angles and will keep in mind to keep the load more towards the rear.
Without seeing the axle stub I would take a guess and say they look like a standard hub assy maybe 1inch or 1 1/4 bore bearing an hub assy , E Trailer has them or a local farm store should have them I do not think any tire shop would mess with those rims because of the rust around the valve stem hole
I would probably give the green slime stuff a shot. I used it with my mower and it has worked pretty well. It usually works well for slow leaks.
Heck, for pulling around the yard, why even worry about tires? Weld some studs on the edges of those rims- BOOM- instant lawn aerator!
Yep. I have a wood splitter that I slimed last year that had one tire go down in about a week. I noticed yesterday that it was still up since I filled it on thanksgiving. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
To keep yourself from overloading on the tongue, build a box for your gas, oil, chainsaw, chains, log grabs, water, dry gloves and that will take a 1/3rd of the length at the front, making the bed size and area over the axle about right.
