8 inch wheels to 10 inch

[Steber19]

Hey guys, my trailer for my little boat has those little 8 inch wheel barrow wheels, the wheels dont have a hub there intergated, i hate these damn things i see no advantage to them, my stebercraft 19 footer has a tandem axel with 10 inch wheels i always thought the 10 inch were gay but after having seen the 8 inch wheels my 10 s are very manly indeed, actually ill throw another question in first the axel under my lil boat trailer dont got no leaf springs the axel is rigid mounted and its got the rubber band suspension up inside the axel tube another gay feature of my lil trailer dont even know the make but its not home made, so my question is should i grab the shitty axel and wheels and burn it and upgrade to real leaf springs with a real axel with real hubs with real wheel nut studs and real wheel nuts and very non gay 13 inch early holden rims but which will actually be very very manly sunraysia rims with real tyres that wont blow coz they cant handle doing 100 kph without flying apart like a chinese tyre on a chinese wheel barrow.

[Steber19]

This my lil boat n trailer note the trailer with extremely gay 8 inch wheelbarrow wheels

[Steber19]

While im abusing my trailer i need some further advice, ah btw this boat is the flying boat lol, now my draw bar going back to the tilt hinge is made of 2.5 inch steam pipe with a 5mm wall, a few things concern me, the through bolt for the tilt hinge is a common mild steel bolt with a common lock nylock nut there seems to be excessive flog in this end, the tilt mech is very light to use it concerns me Ive seen a tilt mech open on a boat trailer that hit a bump, the main bolt that secures this mech is rusted badly as is the spring, the trailer has good gal coating jst alil bit of surface salt reaction to deal with, one thing i hate is rust and corrosion, even the bolts that hold the rollers in place are mild steel n rusty but not stuck, the pins that hold the rollers in the brackets are crappy hollow pins with a flared end and were secured with brass split pins, the rollers are all flogged out, while the trailer has no boat im going to over haul it, stainless bolts through out, new solid roller pins etc

The winch post is not welded to drawbar its held in place by u bolts, the hitch was designed to be bolted with two bolts, mine has only one hole with a mild steel bolt, the draw bar was bent in the guts so ive cut the first three feet of it when i stripped the bits of the bent bit i found the one bolt bit, i shuddered.

So to summise my trailer seems to be poorly designed, the steel c channel is thin wall cheesy stuff but the draw bar is heavy steam pipe, non leaf suspension, rediculous little barrow type wheels, cheesy winch post, that bloody one bolt hitch scares me, ill weld the winch post on ill use hi tensile bolts x2 on hitch with nylocks and ill split pin it too, I have to make trailer ready in a hurry to go up and retrieve boat shortly but then ill drop boat off it and restore the trailer my way. Im thinking leaf springs with decent wheels.

[Steber19]

I think thats why they used the cheesy wheels so the boat is lower to launch and retrieve, the skids on the trailer the wood appears to be vic ash, the ends arent chamfered as youd normally see just cut straight with hard nylon rubbing strips, something else that bugs me so I think ill chamfer the ends I like marine carpet on my skids so Ill do that, I dont think the boat will unduly suffer by having leaf springs and ten in wheels thats why they have the break action in the trailer, I cant in good concience keep the AL-KO axel, I worry about things breaking, 

Edited March 29, 2017 by Steber19
Error

[Fab1]

I use to have a old glass boat on a similar tilt trailer in the 90's.I went from those useless 10" wheels to 14".

I found the tilt trailer almost as useless and welded it permanently in the closed position.

I had black rubber rollers on the trailer for the keel and carpeted skids. 

As long as you submerge the trailer sufficiently you will be fine.

Remember when going from 10" wheels to 14" wheels you will only increase the height from the skids to the ground by 2" not four  inches.

Those 2 mods where the best things I ever did to that rig.Besides 14" wheels/tyres are easier to source than the 10" and will help the tyres and bearings run cooler also as the rpm they're doing for a given speed will be significantly less.

Thats what I would do.

Good luck with it.

[frankS]

Steber19 I'll swap you a 2" square axle and a set of springs with hangers etc for your Al-Ko axle.

Pm me to work it out if you like and do measurements etc. you would need to buy hubs and wheels.

I will be in Canberra next few weeks so could deliver.

 

Frank