New wheels and tires for the trailer - so long bias ply!

[haknslash]

New wheels and tires arrived today! Looks a lot better than the galvanized saw blades. Can't wait to see how the new radials will feel!

I bought everything from recstuff.com. 2 14" aluminum wheels, radial tires, stainless steel "ez hub" caps where the ends pop off for hub lubing instead of knocking off the whole cap, mounted, inflated and balanced shipped to my house in 4 days for $340 and some change. Not bad IMO considering it will look much better than stock plus ride and wear better.

They come nicely wrapped from recstuff...



Caps came in their own box also nicely protected...



New shoes...











Out with the old...



And in with the new! Had to see how it would at least look heh. Going to mount them up on Friday and hit the lake!

 

[Seadeals]

Very nice! I got the same rims years back. I loved the center caps you show; but they were just shy of fitting over the trailer buddies on my MFI trailer when pumped up properly. I made the mistake of pulling off the trailer buddies, installing a standard trailer hub cap and trying the cool looking center caps for one season. At the winter tear down lots of water had contaminated the grease and a couple bearings were showing significant wear from the prior winter. I replaced bearings, races and seals, got new trailer buddies (since the old ones were tired) and I painted the exposed part of the hubs silver so it all just looked much better. I am sharing in case anyone else is tempted and has interference. You really need the positive pressure of a bearing buddy of some type to keep water out especially if dunking the trailer after a haul to the ramp.

Here is a pic showing one with and without the shiny center cap (stock with new rim on rear).

Here is what I ended up with.

 

[2kwik4u]

I like the new wheels. Looks nice with the black hull and fender.

These are on my list of upgrades for the winter when I'm not spending money on beer/ice/fuel

 

[haknslash]

Well I ran into the same little problem with the nice caps as @Seadeals did with his MFI trailer. The caps really need to be about a 3/8" longer. Sucks but not big deal. To fix it I'm going to bring the caps into work on Monday and get the ends cut off or opened up and rounded smooth in our tooling department. That way I can see if I can use the rubber bearing buddy cap slide into the stainless cap . Until then I'll just roll without the beauty caps and will have the hubs exposed like the stock wheels were so I can use my boat this weekend. So note to anyone ordering these caps you'll need to modify them in order to make them fit and you won't be able to use the chrome end cap but rather reuse your Bearing Buddy rubber cap inside the stainless cap.

 

[haknslash]

Bought some new chrome lug nuts to go with the nice new wheels. For those maybe wondering the thread for the lug bolts it is 1/2"-20.

The hubs actually don't look too bad exposed without the stainless cap. I'm still going to modify the caps but not bad looking with the black inlay blending with the black hubs, fenders and hull.

 

[dietz]

Is there a ride diffetence?
...curious about what the advantages are in ditching the bias ply?
Thanks

 

[2kwik4u]

Is there a ride diffetence?
...curious about what the advantages are in ditching the bias ply?
Thanks

I'm also curious.

I don't like how hot my bias plys get when towing long distances (over 50 miles), and I don't like how badly they flat spot when sitting for more than a few days. I think the sidewalls are just too soft, so I'm hoping that the Radial ST's will cure those issues.

On my last boat that had much larger fenders, I swapped to an LT tire and the improvement in ride and tire wear was significant.

 

[Seadeals]

@haknslash, I am a little worried that if you use the center caps with an open end around the buddy it will fill up with water every time you dunk the trailer and hold water around the bearing buddy and hub face. Maybe you could drill a few drain holes around the circumference of the center cap near the hub when you do the other machining; but it may still cause more trouble than it is worth. The "trailer buddy" used on MFI had an option for a chrome cap instead of the rubber boot, so I was able to make it all silverish instead of the black. It already looks WAY better no matter what you decide. Things rusted up pretty quick when I ran the center caps.

 

[haknslash]

@haknslash, I am a little worried that if you use the center caps with an open end around the buddy it will fill up with water every time you dunk the trailer and hold water around the bearing buddy and hub face. Maybe you could drill a few drain holes around the circumference of the center cap near the hub when you do the other machining; but it may still cause more trouble than it is worth. The "trailer buddy" used on MFI had an option for a chrome cap instead of the rubber boot, so I was able to make it all silverish instead of the black. It already looks WAY better no matter what you decide. Things rusted up pretty quick when I ran the center caps.

My thinking was since both ends of the cap would be open that water would just flow out. The rubber alone cap is not a waterproof seal either as I've taken them off before when I was overfilling the hubs and saw water got in where it touched the grease that was overfilled.

 

[Seadeals]

In my case, the back flange of the center cap mates tightly (sandwiches) with the back of the rim opening and the face of the hub. It is effectively sealed off at the hub face and the cap flange is pressed tight enough that not much water would get out. Just take a look. If you figure it out, I have four shiny center caps in my garage waiting to copy you

 

[Seadeals]

If the entire rolled end is cut off, I can see water easily draining out the front as you drive and the road pitches, only I am curious how it would look.

 

[haknslash]

If the entire rolled end is cut off, I can see water easily draining out the front as you drive and the road pitches, only I am curious how it would look.

That's basically what I'm thinking of doing. That way there is no lip for the water to rest in. How it might look I have no idea until I try it

 

[haknslash]

Is there a ride diffetence?
...curious about what the advantages are in ditching the bias ply?
Thanks

I just got back from a short ride around town and I can tell it's much smoother. My truck hardly knows its back there now where on the bias ply tires you could definitely feel the trailer jarring off bumps and irregular road surfaces. I'll have a better idea of the differences once I hit several miles of interstate. Planning to take the boat out in a few.

 

[haknslash]

I just drove the 50 minutes down the interstate and country roads to the lake with the new wheels and tires and they drove great. very smooth!! Highly recommend switching to radials

 

[2kwik4u]

Awesome information. Glad it's working out for you.

 

[Matt Phillips]

Since you have a single axle trailer and 4 wheels, have you thought about buying a mount for one of your old wheel and tire combinations? Then put a black tire cover over it. That way you'd have a spare if you needed it. yes, having one radial and one bias ply on the trailer at a time isn't generally a good idea to mix, but it'd surely be better than stranded by the side of the road.

On another note, I've had two Yahama's and one of the first mods (after towing the boat from LA to SF area) was to change out the bias plies for radials. The first thing I did on the new one is change out the wheels/tires. Having balanced radials on the trailer is worth every penny! it tows so MUCH better and they definitely don't get as hot as bias plies. I have 14" wheels from the same store and I'm now running Goodyear Endurance D ply tires now...

 

[haknslash]

I'be always carried spare wheel and tire in the bed of my truck covered by the tonneau cover. Out of sight out of mind for ramp theives. Now I carry two spares

 

[bleudyno]

I'm thinking about ordering these wheels - Wheels

I am going to get radial tires to mount on them. The current tire setup on the stock wheels is ST215/75D14 but I see that a lot of the wheel/tire combos online have a 205/75 14 tire paired up with the wheel. Should I stick with the 215/75 tires? Any recommendations what tires to get that would be good?

 

[Matt Phillips]

Check our recstuff.com and you can get wheels from them. I then took the wheels down to my local tire shop and they mounted them. If I recall correct, the wheels were only about $75 each. And you get way more selection.

 

[Yamahaul]

I'm thinking about ordering these wheels - Wheels

I am going to get radial tires to mount on them. The current tire setup on the stock wheels is ST215/75D14 but I see that a lot of the wheel/tire combos online have a 205/75 14 tire paired up with the wheel. Should I stick with the 215/75 tires? Any recommendations what tires to get that would be good?

What did you end up with? I am in same boat. pun. about to order some goodyear endurance, but not sure if 205 or 215.