OT:? Trailer tyres

I think minors would have been 13 inch wheels, cambridges were 14 and would have likely had the same stud spacing. My trailer has cambridge wheels, weighs about 3 quarters of a ton and takes a couple of tons, I am running at present on 185/65 14 s (4 tyres) off a montego, no trouble. If I was buying replacements I would look for narrow-ish commercial van tyres (to match the rim width) like 175 14C or 185 -14C which are definitely easily available

I wouldn't advise going for new tyres, I would go for cheap tyres sold at a car breakers yards. Even new tyres only have a shelf life of five years from new before they harden and crack due to sunlight

-- Zozzer .

If you're really lucky his even more stupid friend called Steve H will answer first?

Hmmm .. these are definitely 14" rims so may not have been MM (it was a long time ago) but as I had a couple of MM Vans at the same time it was quite likely / possible that's what I used?

Cripes, that sounds like a beast!

Ok.

Ok, what I also just spotted with said torch is that they are currently 145R14's (Kingpin remould's) and mention 76P (is that the load rating?). In the dark they look better than I remember them! ;-)

It must have been the set before that were the crossplies and I can now remember the radials were more 'sensitive' to the air pressure and load than the radials were, possibly because they weren't stiff enough (ie not 'van' tyres)?

I'll take a closer look tomorrow and just make sure I also replaced the spare tyre, possibly why I was thinking they were all still crossplies.

So, as the 145's seem to fit ok I'll need to find some 144//80/R/14's in Van spec or some Cambridge rims and some 185/65/14's ?

All the best ..

T i m

That could be a good idea, especially if I look for a wider rim with the same stud pattern / offset etc.

Understood, and even though this is *only* a trailer I'm pretty cautious regarding all the mechanics of the thing, especially when it has 1/2 tonne of gear on board or a couple of our motorbikes!

All the best ..

T i m

On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 14:00:10 -0000, "Fred" > (probably) 3 x 145R14's in 6ply (van?) ... can you help please?

Thanks Fred. Would it be ok to go up to a 165 over a 145 though? I know it's only another ~20mm in the width (and a bit in the profile) but these are fairly skinny rims!

Well I have since found these ..

And on rsrtyres ..

145SR14 CAMAC 145 / 80 / 14/ S £38.00 145/80R14 B/STONE B381 76T 145 / 80 / 14/ T £38.00

The last one actually mentions it's rated 76 so by my understanding they would be good for 400kg each so that's 800kg total for the trailer so probably ok for my ~500kg load?

Isn't there a link to the tyre / wheel size and it's load carrying ability though Fred, bigger generally being better? ie, if I go down in diameter am I not likely going to get a lower carrying capacity (plus I'm not sure how that would make the trailer sit (not much I should imaging as long as it is still a full profile 13" tyre))?

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. It's at times like this (as per the Kitcar tyres) you realise how fine a balance these things can be .. like all I want to do is get new, suitable tyres for the trailer but if I'm not careful I can see a complete re-build coming up and it really wouldn't be worth it (pcd, inset / offset, ride height, mudguard clearance, load rating, availability, cost etc etc). And if I did go for an upgrade then new braked Indespension suspension units to suit more available wheel sizes means I also have to 'upgrade' the overrun brake coupling (all getting very expensive now). :-(

Zozzer ("Zozzer" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Umm, that sounds to me to be a very good reason TO buy new... How old are those used ones?

Fred ("Fred"

T i m (T i m ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

D'you know what width? IME 165 are a squeeze but doable onto 4", and fine on anything wider. I've seen 195s on 4" before now, with no problems...

Can't imagine the rims are much narrower than that.

Half a ton including the trailer empty? Yeh, that'd be fine... Bear in mind they're designed to be used in sets of four, not two - not many cars are less than a ton.

Hi Adrian. The honest answer re rim width is no, I don't know, other than they were 'std' rims from either a MM car or Van (could have been either as I had both at one time or another).

Blige!. Reading up on some MM sites I feel there is a general agreement that the 145's are a better solution (for the cars) than anything bigger (165 was suggested) as they are firmer on the walls and lighter on the steering (neither an issue on a trailer of course). I'll have to make up some big external calipers so I can do some rough measurements.

Again, trying to get to the bottom of what I've actually got it seems there were car and van rims at the time and are marked either LP917 and LP936 (stamped on the hub cap lug). I'm still not sure if this affects the rim width or just the wheel offset.

Whatabout 500kg *plus* the empty trailer Adrian (assuming it's ~300 kg?).

Ah, good point .. and a good deal more once you add 5 people and their belongings I suspect.

FWIW, I should imagine in the real world the worst case / predictable load could be my BMW R100RT (~200kg) and her XV750 (~225kg).

Unpredictable loads like paving slabs or rubble are a bit more difficult to judge and I generally go by gut feeling and how the trailer looks on it's tyres / suspension / nose weight etc.

Only ever been one minor stability issue when a mate helped me load the trailer by adding a couple of large lumps of concrete at the last minute, right at the back. On the way to the dump it got into a very tiny wiggle and I slowed and it got back under control. When we got there I unhitched the trailer and it nearly catapulted me over the car! Another lesson learned .. not everyone understands or considers these things ... ;-(

All the best ..

T i m

T i m (T i m ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

A quick google suggests up to 175 is fine on Moggy Thous.

Ah... That's the important weight, of course... So you're already on

800kg. I'd be looking for a decent safety margin.

You'd be surprised - often the max laden weight for small cars is insufficient for four fat bastards.

And, of course, you're looking at 1.6t across four tyres...

Adrian (Adrian ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Slow...

I assumed you meant 800kg for the two 400kg rated tyres - not for the trailer...

Erm (to make sure we have our wires straight), what I meant (by sorta working backwards as I believe most of this is arbetery in a real world if not legal POV), was *if* I had a pair or tyres that could support a maximum of 800kg between them, then that could be considered as 500kg load and 300kg for the weight of the trailer (although I have no real idea what the actual weight is as I type).

I have found a few more choices at 155R14 with a load rating of 80 so giving me a slightly higher total capacity of 900kg (so the empty trailer can now weigh up to 400 kg). ;-)

All the best and thanks again.

T i m

145 80 14 can be fitted to rims from 4j to 6j , 165 80 14 from 4.5j to 6j. I think the moggy used two sizes of tyres? 520 on the cars and 560 on the vans, I would assume that the van rims were wider?

If they have stock (Which I doubt) thats a good price for on site fitting.

Correct, and the Camac is also 76S

Not always, the type of tyre denotes it's ability to carry load, 165 80 13

8ply would have a load index of 94 . 165 80 14 8ply has a load index of 94 , Car type tyres in those sizes will be around 80 .

The overall diameter would be 587mm for the 14" and 562 for the 13"

On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 21:10:21 -0000, "Fred"

Thanks for that Fred.

Ok.

And probably good enough for my needs then, unless I can find a good replacement wider wheel, either in 13 or 14" and with the same PCD and similar offset where I might be able to get 8 ply etc?.

So as I thought, not that much in the real world (with the 13's the trailer would sit 2.5 mm lower) and unlike with cars you don't have to worry about speedo calibration or top speed etc. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

One more thought: are the Morris rims suitable for tubeless radials? Unless they have "humps", they may be suitable for tubeless crossplies, but not tubeless radials.

Although it's all very clear in the BS for wheel rims, this is widely ignored, but it's perhaps worth making a conscious decision one way or t'other. I'd be very wary of using tubeless radials on plain rims on a

4-wheeled trailer, where there can be very high lateral loads on the wheels.

I don't believe so.

Understood. Mine currently have tubes.

Agreed. Even though the tyres are tubeless and would probably *work* on these rims I wouldn't trust my motorbikes in there without tubes. ;-)

Yes, I guess they would have worse lateral loads when turning but better when cornering (load shared etc).

All the best ..

T i m