I've nearly completed converting my axle from over the spring to under it and I've gained a lot of clearance around the tire. So that has me thinking of going to 15" wheel from 14" and move up to a E rated tire.One thing I'm looking at is wheels. There's the basic white or black steelie wheels that look like they get stamped out by the millions by some machine. Then there's fancier wheels, aluminum wheels, etc.Other than aesthetics, are there advantages to a wheel that costs $100 vs one that costs $25?

The original reason for alloy wheels was to reduce unsprung weight, which makes the suspension work better. That doesn't matter much for a trailer. Now, it's mostly aesthetics.

My Bigfoot originally came with aluminum wheels.The original owner was a retired trucker. He said he would always check everything on the BF trailer before driving and found the lugnuts would loosen up with the aluminum wheels (not sure why?)He replaced with steel chrome wheels and went from 5 lug LRC to 6 lug and LRE tires and bigger axles......maybe thats another reason to go steel 80psi?

GordonThree wrote:I've nearly completed converting my axle from over the spring to under it and I've gained a lot of clearance around the tire. So that has me thinking of going to 15" wheel from 14" and move up to a E rated tire.One thing I'm looking at is wheels. There's the basic white or black steelie wheels that look like they get stamped out by the millions by some machine. Then there's fancier wheels, aluminum wheels, etc.Other than aesthetics, are there advantages to a wheel that costs $100 vs one that costs $25?I did just that on my previous TT. When the blowouts continued, (ST LRE tires) I then moved up to 16" rims.I suggest that you skip 15s and go straight to 16s... That opens up a vast selection of great tires. The only measurement that might prevent it is the space between the tires. Really should be about an inch. But if I could do it, you probably can too. You likely have 5 lug rims. You will need to swap your drums over to 6 lug drums. They are not that expensive, and come with new bearings, and lug nuts. Do it at bearing repacking time and make the job real easy... No need to clean up the old bearings/drums. As for the rims, I actually prefer the steel ones. If I happen to bend one off roading, a hammer can straighten it out pretty easy. Not so with aluminum wheels. Lots of times they crack and won't hold air.

One difference is that the bolt holes in steel wheels do not have a chamfered shoulder to match conical shaped bolts (as they ought to), but alloy wheels do however, you don't hear about steel wheels falling off as a result.

Huntindog wrote:GordonThree wrote:I've nearly completed converting my axle from over the spring to under it and I've gained a lot of clearance around the tire. So that has me thinking of going to 15" wheel from 14" and move up to a E rated tire.One thing I'm looking at is wheels. There's the basic white or black steelie wheels that look like they get stamped out by the millions by some machine. Then there's fancier wheels, aluminum wheels, etc.Other than aesthetics, are there advantages to a wheel that costs $100 vs one that costs $25?I did just that on my previous TT. When the blowouts continued, (ST LRE tires) I then moved up to 16" rims.I suggest that you skip 15s and go straight to 16s... That opens up a vast selection of great tires. The only measurement that might prevent it is the space between the tires. Really should be about an inch. But if I could do it, you probably can too. You likely have 5 lug rims. You will need to swap your drums over to 6 lug drums. They are not that expensive, and come with new bearings, and lug nuts. Do it at bearing repacking time and make the job real easy... No need to clean up the old bearings/drums. As for the rims, I actually prefer the steel ones. If I happen to bend one off roading, a hammer can straighten it out pretty easy. Not so with aluminum wheels. Lots of times they crack and won't hold air.I agree with 16's. 15 inch tires are becoming rare so I expect the price might become higher eventually.

Larger wheels | Good Sam Community

20 Replies

time2roll
Nomad
Aug 27, 2017
If the wheels were hub centric they would give the exact make/model of hubs they fit and the center hole diameter.
mike-s
Explorer
Aug 27, 2017
It's hard to find good pictures where you can see the seats. I'm posting links to pictures, because the ones with enough detail are also too large to post directly.

Here's a Dexstar wheel "like" redracers. You can see how the area around each stud hole is raised as part of forming the seat.
picture

And here's a different brand, where you can easily see that the holes are beveled to match the cone nuts. picture

I don't claim that's the case for all trailer wheels. China makes a lot of cheap ****. But any decent lug centric wheel will have beveled seats. The original claim that "steel wheels do not have a chamfered shoulder..." is definitely not true.
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Aug 27, 2017
time2roll wrote:
mike-s wrote:
myredracer wrote:
Maybe steel rims aren't all the same but our spare rim is like the one in the photo, which is an etrailer.com wheel and I *think* the majority these days are like that.
That's this wheel on etrailer's site. It looks like that's a hub centric wheel. You can look at the Dexstar wheel catalog, where they state
Dexstar wrote:
Smaller steel wheels up to and including some 16" varieties are normally stud piloted and will typically use a 60-degree cone nut. The cone portion of the nut mates to a matching cone seat in the wheel center...Larger wheels generally will be hub piloted and require
either clamping rings with 90 degree cone nuts to attach them to the hub or they can be mounted with flange nuts directly on the wheel.
So, for hub centric wheels, you normally wouldn't use cone nuts and the lack of a cone seat on the wheel doesn't matter. If you have cone nuts and there are no cone seats on your wheels, as your posts imply, something's wrong. And if your wheels don't center tightly on the hub, something's dangerously wrong.

wait what? You say hub centric and then quote Dexstar that up to 16" is stud piloted (stud centric).

If you look at the drum there is too much space between the stud and the hub for that wheel to be hub centric. The center hole of the wheel is too big.

etrailer 6 x 5.5 drum

That is because there ARE different drum HUB diameters and why I mentioned about measuring CAREFULLY if you are planning to use a hub centric rim.

Using a hub centric with too large of center will put too much load on the lugs..

On hub centric rims the lugs are there to clamp to rim to the drum surface not center it.

Two different approaches.
mike-s
Explorer
Aug 27, 2017
time2roll wrote:
wait what? You say hub centric and then quote Dexstar that up to 16" is stud piloted (stud centric).
Read more carefully. Dexstar says "normally," not always.
If you look at the drum there is too much space between the stud and the hub for that wheel to be hub centric. The center hole of the wheel is too big.
I was taking his word about there being no cone seat. Looking again at the etrailer page, it says "Uncoated stud holes are beveled to offer better clamp force retention". And, if you blow up the pictures, it's even easy to see that! So, that wheel is beveled for the cone nuts. But, he said that wheel was "like" his spare - so hard to say what he actually has. The seats aren't always as pronounced as in the image I posted, sometimes it's like they used a countersink to put the proper bevel on the edge. But any wheel which is stud centric should have bevels on the lug holes.
time2roll
Nomad
Aug 27, 2017
mike-s wrote:
myredracer wrote:
Maybe steel rims aren't all the same but our spare rim is like the one in the photo, which is an etrailer.com wheel and I *think* the majority these days are like that.
That's this wheel on etrailer's site. It looks like that's a hub centric wheel. You can look at the Dexstar wheel catalog, where they state
Dexstar wrote:
Smaller steel wheels up to and including some 16" varieties are normally stud piloted and will typically use a 60-degree cone nut. The cone portion of the nut mates to a matching cone seat in the wheel center...Larger wheels generally will be hub piloted and require
either clamping rings with 90 degree cone nuts to attach them to the hub or they can be mounted with flange nuts directly on the wheel.
So, for hub centric wheels, you normally wouldn't use cone nuts and the lack of a cone seat on the wheel doesn't matter. If you have cone nuts and there are no cone seats on your wheels, as your posts imply, something's wrong. And if your wheels don't center tightly on the hub, something's dangerously wrong.

wait what? You say hub centric and then quote Dexstar that up to 16" is stud piloted (stud centric).

If you look at the drum there is too much space between the stud and the hub for that wheel to be hub centric. The center hole of the wheel is too big.

etrailer 6 x 5.5 drum
mike-s
Explorer
Aug 27, 2017
myredracer wrote:
Maybe steel rims aren't all the same but our spare rim is like the one in the photo, which is an etrailer.com wheel and I *think* the majority these days are like that.
That's this wheel on etrailer's site. It looks like that's a hub centric wheel. You can look at the Dexstar wheel catalog, where they state
Dexstar wrote:
Smaller steel wheels up to and including some 16" varieties are normally stud piloted and will typically use a 60-degree cone nut. The cone portion of the nut mates to a matching cone seat in the wheel center...Larger wheels generally will be hub piloted and require
either clamping rings with 90 degree cone nuts to attach them to the hub or they can be mounted with flange nuts directly on the wheel.
So, for hub centric wheels, you normally wouldn't use cone nuts and the lack of a cone seat on the wheel doesn't matter. If you have cone nuts and there are no cone seats on your wheels, as your posts imply, something's wrong. And if your wheels don't center tightly on the hub, something's dangerously wrong.
Ron3rd
Explorer III
Aug 27, 2017
The fancy alloy wheels look better. Up to you if it's worth it
Huntindog
Explorer
Aug 27, 2017
GordonThree wrote:
Thanks for pointing out the width issue, didn't dawn on me while I was dreaming of better tires.

update: so yea, there's not even enough room for a tape measure between the tire and the inside of the fender / wheel well... so anything that increases the width isn't going to work. range D might as well stick with 14".
Would a different offset rim help any?
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Aug 26, 2017
myredracer wrote:
Maybe steel rims aren't all the same but our spare rim is like the one in the photo, which is an etrailer.com wheel and I *think* the majority these days are like that. Possibly a bit hard to see in the photo but the area that mates up against the drum is flat steel with holes drilled or punched in it for the bolts with no taper to the holes.

The one in your photo is what you'd typically see on an automotive steel wheel, except that steel wheels on cars isn't that popular now.

mike-s wrote:
myredracer wrote:
One difference is that the bolt holes in steel wheels do not have a chamfered shoulder to match conical shaped bolts (as they ought to), but alloy wheels do however, you don't hear about steel wheels falling off as a result.
??

Trailer wheel are usually lug-centric, and do have lug seats to match the conical nuts.

Rims with chamfered lug holes are Lug centric.

Rims that Etrailer sells are HUB CENTRIC.

Two different setups and the lug nuts for Lug centric cannot be used for a HUB CENTRIC rim and lug nuts for Hub centric cannot be used for Lug centric rims.

Hub centric rims require lug nuts with a FLAT surface AND REQUIRE that the CENTER of the rim fit tightly with the HUB of the drum (measure carefully).

When ordering one must specify lug or hub centric otherwise you most likely will end up with the wrong lug style.

By the way, I bought my 15" painted rims from my local tire shop, the price was CHEAPER than ETrailer when adding shipping costs..

Cost me a whopping $35 per rim Vs $50 per rim at Etrailer.

One other thing, you MUST specify the BACK SPACING, not all rims have the same back spacing and getting that wrong may result in the tires being shifted in towards the trailer or out away from the trailer..

As far as OPs issue with steel or aluminum, I am not a fan of aluminum, pain to clean and hit a pot hole hard enough can break aluminum..

Steel will bend but that is better than having aluminum shatter to pieces..
GordonThree
Explorer
Aug 26, 2017
Thanks for pointing out the width issue, didn't dawn on me while I was dreaming of better tires.

update: so yea, there's not even enough room for a tape measure between the tire and the inside of the fender / wheel well... so anything that increases the width isn't going to work. range D might as well stick with 14".