A friend just bought a beat-up trailer. It has mobile home tires on it that are down to the threads.
Is there another tire/wheel that will substitute? Or is he better off just finding some more MH tires?
jt8
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Replies
If he's planning on using it on-road much, might consider swapping hubs to get a more standard bolt pattern, or even an axle swap. Either would give more choices in tires. As I recall MH rims are weird size, like 15.5 or something like that. Axles were primarily "get there" deals and not really designed for constant use. Expense was always a concern when building the darn things. Also depends on what you're hauling. Backhoe is not the same as a coupla tree stumps!
PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
I agree with switching out the axels, wheels and tires if he's going to use it for anything more than just an occasional utility trailer.
"Affairs on the border cannot be judged by standards that hold elsewhere."
I seem to remember something about MH's changing tire sizes a while back. Something about having higher loads with the new type. I suspect his are the old type.
jt8
Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. -- Ann Landers
the up side is that... from experience those tires will hold anything i don't know the load rating but... seem they take like 90psi... and they seem to last forever if the axles were installed square with the trailer... that and around here you use to be able to buy em all day long for about $40ea tire & rim... to get the same load range I'd think you'd need to go to a 4500lb axle which would be a 6 or prob 8 lug wheel ... you might end up with$1000 in axles, hangers, springs, wheels tires ect... thats if you can install em yourself...
i think I'd buy new (used) wheels & tires with a couple spares and be $$$ ahead without creating another "project"
pony
Unless I'm missing something here, there's no problem. MH tires aren't legal for equipment trailer use but are the same size and mount. I've interchanged use on my equipment trailer that has 8 wheels, 4 axles, and 47,000# gross weight. None on it now and won't be again, but they work.
Your friend just needs to visit the tire store. They'll fix him up. Watch that load rating.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Peter's right, they're an odd size, 14 1/2 or 15 1/2. They're also something like 10 ply. My tire guy couldn't get them but suggested I go to the mobile home transport guy. Nowadays, they deliver and set up the homes and pull off all the rubber, sometimes even the axles. No longer mobile.
I bought two wheels, used only one time, with tires mounted for $80. The guy had a shed full of them. He dug around until he found matching treads.
I've got an old single-axle trailer with a MH axle. Load capacity is tremendous.
Try the MH set-up outfits before you scrap the whole axle or re-hub it.
Greg