Larger wheels

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..