I need a trailer rim made. Any ideas?

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Maverick5207

Maverick5207

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Recently I posted a thread about the weight of the trailer that my houseboat sits on. I have one more issue that I'd like to get past. I don't have a spare for this trailer and this rim hasn't been manufactured in 50 years.
It's a very odd rim. It's just a mobile home rim. Those rims had a different mounting method. The "donut" rims have no center. Mobile home rims are easy to find. I can get them for free. The 14.5 size is unique to the mobile home industry and there are gozillions of them. What makes the rims on my trailer unique is that the original manufacturer of the trailer welded a center piece to the rims so they look and mount like any other rim.
There were only 251 of these trailers made so that means there were only 1200 ish rims made 50 years ago.
What I'd like to do is find a company that could make a couple of rims for me.
I'm in the Phoenix area so it would be great if something could be done locally but I've looked all over and haven't had any luck so far.
Would you guys know if someone that can either make a new rim or better yet, just take some mobile home rims and add the center to them?
I'm kinda stuck with getting these exact rims as the trailer is made for the boat and larger tires would mean if have to raise both the boat and fenders. I'd like to keep the center of gravity where it is. Also, mobile home tires are rated m higher the normal trailer tires. 2335 lbs at 110 psi.
Any ideas?1000001921.jpg
 
Havalina said:
I would call etrailer or any other trailer company and ask them for options and solutions. They usually deep dive to the degree of ad nauseam every time I call them. I am not sure how well the mobile home hubs would hold up.
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Agreed on the hubs. They weren't meant for long term use. I did however use a mobile home axle on a boat trailer that I built and I had that boat for 8 years. Never an issue.
I'd prefer to get 2 rims made of possible.
 
A member of our horse club is a professional steel fabricator, welder and steel artist in Phoenix. I will call him today to find out if he can help you out.
 
If the trailer is in pretty good shape another thought might be replacing entire axles with new everything, including disk brakes.

I replaced my triple axle steel trailer with a duel axle hot dipped galvanized I had made at Dilly Trailers in Texas. 5,000LB axle capacity, so same as the 3,000LB X 3.

You of course may not need galvanized if you're only gonna do fresh water.

Just my 2 cents....Also......It's fun to see you having fun with your new baby!

(y)
 
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The rims are special but the lug pattern should be conventional. I figured out my boat trailer Had the same lug pattern as my Saturn.I went to the junkyard and bought 2 temporary.Use spares for 5 dollars a piece. Should last a long time under a ten foot aluminum boat. I would be very surprised if you didn't have a conventional lug pattern. If not I suspect you could find a hub with a conventional lug pattern that would fit on your spindles.
 
mobilerat said:
The rims are special but the lug pattern should be conventional. I figured out my boat trailer Had the same lug pattern as my Saturn.I went to the junkyard and bought 2 temporary.Use spares for 5 dollars a piece. Should last a long time under a ten foot aluminum boat. I would be very surprised if you didn't have a conventional lug pattern. If not I suspect you could find a hub with a conventional lug pattern that would fit on your spindles.
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Yes, the lug pattern is a standard 5 x 5.5 with a 3.75 bore but it's the rim size and therefore the tire size that is the issue. I can't go up in tire size for several reasons. The boat would have to be raised on the trailer to accommodate the fenders which would have to be removed and re-welded to the trailer all to accommodate the larger tires.
The biggest reason I don't want to do any of that is this....... 14.5 inch mobile home tires have a much higher load rating than any other trailer tire. There is a reason they used the mobile home tires so I'm sticking with the same setup as the original manufacturer.
 
Maverick5207 said:
Yes, the lug pattern is a standard 5 x 5.5 with a 3.75 bore but it's the rim size and therefore the tire size that is the issue. I can't go up in tire size for several reasons. The boat would have to be raised on the trailer to accommodate the fenders which would have to be removed and re-welded to the trailer all to accommodate the larger tires.
The biggest reason I don't want to do any of that is this....... 14.5 inch mobile home tires have a much higher load rating than any other trailer tire. There is a reason they used the mobile home tires so I'm sticking with the same setup as the original manufacturer.
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That makes perfect sense.Didn't think about it from that angle.
 
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