Thread: Changing trailer wheels/stud pattern

OK , I promised that I would post pictures of the RRC/D1 to D2 wheel adaptors when I got them. They cast $426 including FEDEX freight of $100.
I now have them and have modified them successfully , although with difficulty to fit D2/D3/D4/RRS /38A wheels to ALKO 10 inch electric brake drums with parallel bearings.

The first problem I had was that the seller in UK did not have any D2 adaptors and seemed disinterested in obtaining them. This meant that the hub centric spigot on the D3 adaptors that he supplied had to be ground off or turned down the fit the smaller diameter of the D2 wheels. I didn't want to modify the wheels as it would reduce their value. This was a crap job as the aluminium used is very hard and I had to grind and cut for hours. I cut the spigot off the first one, but for the second one I just used my air die grinder to reduce the diameter. ( for several hours)

The next problem was that although the bearing housing fitted inside the adaptor , the dust cap didn't. ( I had assumed the dust cap would be a smaller diameter than it is.)
The centre hole in the adaptor was 55MM and the diameter of the dust cap is 64MM, so I had to grind 4.5 MM out, which also took hours.

Luckily I had a spare hub to work on. This was one that Camec had sent me with small UNF studs and replaced.They said to keep it as it was too expensive for them to have me ship back.
The height of the bearing housing and dust cap turned out to be just right so that a wheel could be fitted.

After I ground for what seems days , I was able to tighten up the adaptor and the wheel to the hub to check clearances of the dust cover to the adaptor and the spigot to the wheel.

I decided on 10thou as minimum clearance and used engineers bearing blue to find high spots, and a feeler gauge to give final clearance, so that there would be no side pressure on any nut and the assembly would run true.
Neither of the adaptors could be truly described as hub centric but there is about 10thou all round on the one with a hub spigot, but hey many cars were not hub centric about 20 years ago, RRC for one.

If you had access to a lathe the machining of the hole to fit the dust cap would be much neater, but although I am not an expert, I doubt whether you would fit a tool between the studs to machine the spigot, and I would not be taking studs out of aluminium.

So there you have it. For D3 etc owners wanting D3 etc wheels on a camper trailer with parallel hubs this is probably the simplest method.
If wanting D3 rims on a new trailer, maybe this is also the simplest way.

wheel adaptors 001.jpg

wheel adaptors 002.jpg

wheel adaptors 003.jpg

Regards Philip A
One thing I should never lose an dust caps.LOL

Couldn't you just use disc hubs that are from a commodore and put larger studs in?

I guess you mean fit new axles. If you have an independent suspension, you will have to find a welder good enough to weld on new axles in exactly the same position as your old ones, and independent suspensions have usually 2-4 degrees toe in which is adjustable.

I haven't found an aligner on the Central Coast who knows how to align trailer suspensions. They just look at you blankly.

I thought about welding in a solid axle then cutting off the middle bit, but boy you would need the stars aligned to find someone who could do that so that the suspension had the correct alignment with the load applied.

IMHO my solution I believe is the least cost at the end of the day and the least risky.
I sometimes question my sanity in the things that I do to have the insurance of a second spare.
Just keep remembering that this is a solution to address the problem of the parallel Bearing ALKO hubs. If Ihad light duty axle with holden or Ford bearings it would not be a problem , but Ford and Holden light duty axles are only rated to AFAIR 1500KG while the recommendation for off road is at least double the rated load.

Regards Philip A

Funny I measured the slack in the nuts to the holes in the wheels and it is 30thou, so my 10thou clearance is probably hub centred.LOL on one wheel anyway, and the adaptors are nearly hub centred, if you consider the dust cap as the hub.

BUT of course that is minimum 10thou, but still when I placed the wheel on the adaptor, the nuts just slid in without touching the holes.
I have 2 wheels at the tyre place having tyres fitted so maybe tomorrow the big test .
Regards Philip A

D3/D4/RRS rims won't fit any standard trailer hubs unless you machine the centre hole square, or machine the outer part of the bearing housing of the trailer hub, the D3/4/RRS rims centre hole is tapered, where as the D2/P38A are not, for a better fit you will need centralising rings, all the LR alloys are centered by the centre hole, not the nuts and studs.

Looks like you're coming along well with your project Philip, I gave in with fitting my D3 alloys and fitted steel rims to my new hubs I suppose I could have re-fitted either my BMW X5 rims back on or my D2 rims, but it was just so much easier to fit steel rims

Baz.

Looks like you're coming along well with your project Philip, I gave in with
fitting my D3 alloys and fitted steel rims to my new hubs I suppose I
could have re-firred either my BMW X5 rims back on or my D2 rims, but it was
just so much easier to fit steel rims

The only real reason that I have alloys is that I was able to buy a set of 4 early D2 16inch alloy rims for $105 on Ebay. LOL., While steel rims are like hens teeth.
While I know that all D2 /D3 etc rims etc are hub centred, this is really for NVH reasons as the stud holes have to be accurately machined anyway ( although they do have 30thou slop on D2).

I seem to recall that ADRs now call for it but why , I don't know. maybe more modern cars have lightened the wheels so much that they fail the swerve durability test without the centre spigot from fatigue .

I measured the runout from the drum surface to the inner rim and the biggest difference was about 0.5MM. I will measure the runout with a dial indicator when I fit the rims to the trailer, but I don't expect a problem.

Runouts of 30thou are really insignificant when you are talking wheels as tyres would vary much more than that after one heavy brake application! and I seem to recall that D2 wheels are not that round anyway.
Regards Philip A

Yeah the D2 rims are not really an issue and were fine on our camper without the centric rings, but I was hoping to fit my spare D3 rims to the camper, but that was not an option, firstly I wasn't all that keen on wrecking a good set of D3 17" alloys, very rare these days and none of the engineering places wanted to machine the hubs, something about safety concerns long term

The risk of them breaking studs on the car if I needed to fit them as emergency spares, was a concern, maybe OK on a camper as they are pretty light, but not on the car, especially if towing, anyway hope it all goes well with the big test.

Baz.

OK here are before and after shots of the trailer with RRC alloys and thetrailer wheels 001.jpg

trailer wheels 002.jpg D2 alloys.


The spare winch was a challenge as it is a Toyota ? chain winch with a big spring thingo on the bottom that would in no way go through the wheel hole as it was about 69MM in diameter.
I had a brainstorm and went to the hardware shop and was able to buy a teeny weeny shackle rated at 330KG . I cut the bottom chain link and inserted the shackle with the bolt through the shaft of the spring keeper, so I can undo the shackle if I want to remove the spare,without having to fit the spring and plate through the wheel hole. I will wire up the shackle bolt.
To make doing up the shackle bolt easier I cut a coil from the spring as it only needs to hold 30KG now not 50Kg . I think it is there to keep the assembly tight if the spare loses pressure.
I checked all runouts and the max is 30 thou on one side and maybe 15 thou on the other. Good enough for me.
Regards Philip A