car tires on a 16' Casita

[woodse]

Just bought some beautiful wire wheels with some 215/70/15 and think they would look great on the Casita. Any one know of concerns with using car tires on a trailer?

[floyd]

Originally Posted by woodse

Just bought some beautiful wire wheels with some 215/70/15 and think they would look great on the Casita. Any one know of concerns with using car tires on a trailer?

First major concern is offset. Your Casita came with zero offset wheels.
If the wheels are for a rear drive car or light truck then they are likely to have negative offset... if front wheel drive, then positive offset. this should be measured before installing them to prevent damage to the trailer.
Next would be the section width of the tire, to be sure that it is narrow enough to fit your wheel well.
Next there is wheel width... many custom wheels are wider than the 5 to 6" width common to trailer wheels...Measure to be sure of fit.
Next would be overall tire diameter, therein lies a potential rub!
Then of course there is the bolt pattern which I assume is 5 on 4.5.
I will leave the admonitions about "P" rated tires on trailers to others, since we carried our race car on a trailer with them installed for over a decade without incident.

[woodse]

Thanks for the reply, I had considered the wheel well rub and am planning on installing a new axle this spring. I had not considered the inside sidewall clearance and need to consider the hub distance. I have an issue with the age of my trailer (89) had a rise in the frame so casita had to install a leading arm. I want to do a trailing arm and will need to fabricate some frame work.

Interesting how passionate some are in response to the P VS ST tire debate. From what I have just read I am going to use the P rated at 35# psi.

[Andrew Gibbens]

In addition to floyd's long list, you can add:
The centre bore on the wheels may be a smaller diameter than the part of the hub it has to fit over.

[LukeP]

Originally Posted by woodse

Just bought some beautiful wire wheels with some 215/70/15 and think they would look great on the Casita. Any one know of concerns with using car tires on a trailer?

As Floyd eluded to, there will be some varying opinions and experiences on using trailer-specific tires. You can read plenty of threads on this forum about the very topic - I read thru them all last Spring - there are good considerations to think about. You can also read about this topic on boat/trailer forums - same topic, different recreation!

If you have 15's, you have more quality options for trailer tires than I had in 13's, if that's ultimately your choice. A boat I bought last fall has 15" P-tires on the trailer - quite squirrely - and I can't wait to change them out to ST to see if that helps. Will see!

[Rene]

Can't blame one for wanting to save a few bucks and use some passenger tires in good shape. BUT I definitely prefer trailer tires despite them being more expensive and possibly hard to get in a pinch. I have seen a lot of trailer owners parked at tire shops waiting for days sometimes for a tire to come in. Trailer tires have a much higher pressure up to 50# and along with that less rolling resistance. I only have two tires on my 1700 boler and they each have to carry 1250#. My TV has enough trouble towing the trailer without dragging it along on mushy passenger tires. I have an old passenger tire as a spare but its just for limping along to the next tire shop.

[Donna D.]

Jonathan, how old are the tires that came on the fancy wire wheels? Every tire has a born on date and since tires rot from the inside out, a tire may look perfectly good and actually be a flat or blow out waiting to happen. Something else to consider.

[rdearing]

Why would you want to use wire wheels? Wires came into use because the lower wheel weight. They are very poor dealing with loads of any kind.
VERY BAD idea. If you want looks that can handle a load, look into forged alloys.

[woodse]

Has anybody out there ever hear of a wire wheel failure?

[Paul Braun]

Look for trailer wheels and see if any manufacturer sells a wire rim. I did not find anyone. Why are you pushing the envelope? There seems to be a number of strikes against your desired combination. I think the tires would be enough to discourage me and now some uncertainty regarding the wheels.

Contact Dayton Wire Wheels and see what they say.

[woodse]

Has anybody heard of a wire wheel failure?

[Donna D.]

I have, but not on a trailer... it was on a hot rod. It was an older, old-fashion wire wheel... the kind where the spokes have to be "trued," like a bicycle rim. It was out of round and at freeway speed, blew a tire. Fortunately it was on the back, not the front so my friend was able to steer to the shoulder. I would think it's possible a travel trailer may take more of a road beating than an $50,000 hot rod... at least more gravel or dirt roads (like getting into some campgrounds). As cool as I think they'd look... especially if matched to the tug.... it's not something I'd consider putting on my trailer when there are better wheels for use. YMMV

[rdearing]

I wonder what your insurance company thinks about wires. would be nice to know before rather than after.

[Greg H]

Originally Posted by woodse

Has anybody heard of a wire wheel failure?

No, I used to be in a low rider car club and I did build a couple of low rider trucks. Although I never used wire wheels myself many people were using the Daytons and the only complaint was that they were hard to keep clean. As far as carrying a load I think almost any car or truck is going to weigh more than any fiberglass rv.

[Donna D.]

IF you are determined to use wire wheels, education is good. I hope you find these links of value:

Rebuilding spoke/wire wheels this is a PDF

Hendrix Wire Wheel info about Dayton's too.

[woodse]

Their capacity ratings do exceed that of the Casita and I doubt that I could ever impose a greater lateral load than that imposed by a front wheeled drive V8 accelerating in tight corners.

[woodse]

Very helpful, these rims are perfectly true and won't require adjustment.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Jonathan, how old are the tires that came on the fancy wire wheels? Every tire has a born on date and since tires rot from the inside out, a tire may look perfectly good and actually be a flat or blow out waiting to happen. Something else to consider.

I learned this lesson the hard way in December. New tires on the trailer 4 years ago - checked them over before the Nov/Dec trip and they looked on the outside really good & they had no air loss issues etc. Darn if one of them did not decide to start coming apart from the inside in the worst possible location! Only one tire store for 300 miles........ the fellow at the tire store showed me a newspaper story that indicated you should not expect to get more than 4 years out of any tire that has spent time sitting around - even though my trailer had sat a lot less than the average in the tires 4 year life it still rotted from the inside.

[honda03842]

Carol,

I wonder if that's part of the reason we've had good luck with our Marathons, because our tires hardly ever sit for long.

[Carol H]

It probable is Norm but mine hadn't spent a great deal of time sitting either or not at least by many RV standards. When the trailer is parked for extended times (longest sitting around was about 2.5 months of the year) its parked inside, not outside on soggy ground and its not out in the sun - it kind of surprised me when the tire went as it really did look to be in good shape.