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Subject Topic: Size of Trailer wheels Post Reply Post New Topic
PersonCrabtreeengineer
20/8/2012 at 2:27pm
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Folks I have been reading threads on the size of trailers wheels, all good comments but unfortunately missed the underlying problems.
I am a CENg & at one time made trailers for a living. Indeed I wold usually use old car type hubs, wheels & suspension systems, & these would frankly give sterling service.

The underlying problem with the smaller type of commercial trailer is indeed the size of the wheel & the type of bearings used.

An 8 inch wheel has a tyre size of 16 inch diameter giving a circumference of 4.19 feet. With a mile having 5280 feet, this means that at 60 MPH this wheel has to turn at 1260 RPM.

Compare this to the average small family car which would turn at around 916 RPM to achieve the same speed.

Now this difference doesn't seem much but over a 5 hour road trip it means your trailer wheels turn 103,200 more turns than you car wheels.

Add this to the fact that most small wheels use sealed parallel bearings as opposed to open tapered bearings which get more grease & are adjustable it is no wonder that the smaller wheels are going to need new bearings more frequently.

By comparison, one of my trailers made with second hand car hubs, which had probally already gone round the clock before I used them on a trailer, never needed a bearing replacing. A new commercial trailer with small wheels & parallel bearings is going to be very lucky to see out three years without a rumble bearing.

Nothing against small wheels, but do understand the limitations as one can not avoid the physics.

Regards

R





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Roger


Personianclose
20/8/2012 at 7:44pm
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How would you rate the 8 inch wheels on the Raclet Solena, Roger?


PersonCrabtreeengineer
20/8/2012 at 8:16pm
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Ian, whilst I don't know the specifics of that design, all small wheels will suffer from increased revolutions for any given mileage when compared to larger wheels. This is a fact of life.

In my opinion open caged tapered roller bearings will give increased life expectancy as they get the potential benefit of an increased grease capacity & can also be adjusted for wear.

With parallel sealed bearings, whilst they are indeed sealed to keep crap out, this limits grease capacity & they can't be adjusted. Hence once any wear starts it rapidly gets worse.

Hope this helps

R

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Roger


PersonBoston600
21/8/2012 at 8:48pm
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Is there anything to stop me putting bigger wheels on my trailer. I have plenty of clearence around the mud guards?


PersonCrabtreeengineer
21/8/2012 at 10:52pm
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This is something I have done in the past when I built boat trailers. I sourced hubs to take the weight & then sourced the largest sized wheels that would fit the hubs.

This gave the benefit of reduced rotational speed on the bearings, a larger choice of tyres & potential for increasing tyre life.

I also used open caged taper roller bearings in the hubs with bearing buddies installed, which are really essentially for bearings being continually immersed in water.

If you are considering doing this make sure you do have clearance on your mudguards including allowance for loading & road movement.

Also remember that as you increase your wheel size you will lift the trailer up, hence your tow hitch height shall also change slightly.

Regards R

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Roger


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PersonCrabtreeengineer
23/4/2013 at 9:29pm
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Guys if any of you are running Erde 122 trailers & are having problems with stub axles either wearing, bent axles or damaged threads, well I have some new stub axles in hardened EN8. £40.00 a pair. Contact me for details. Regards R

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Roger



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