Thread: D3 Rims on a Boat Trailer

With Track Trailer showing a max axle load of 1600kg, the brakes needing to be larger than 10" is the only obstacle which could be overcome if there's a 12" drum available with a centre hole small enough to be used with 120mm pcd, assuming the brakes are electric. 11" mechanical or hydraulic brakes are available, but not electric to my knowledge.

I've discovered that the HD hub/drum combination's boss dia of 104mm wont allow the D3 rims to fit, being only 73mm at the mounting face.

The D2 Bore is 64.1 and the D3 is 72.56.

My research to date has suggested that the bore seats into the hub and takes the forces and not the bolts so this logic would suggest the wheels would not be safely interchanged between car and trailer. Perhaps I missed something.

OK we have commitment ...

1. RRS Rims and Tyres from eBay... Excellent deal for four ten spoke rims with three good tyres and one barely legal. This has its own problems as they look better than the D3 rims... emotion v budget...
2. 13 Wheel nuts from British Off Road and yes they are an alloy based on expensium but I haggled with iPad open at eBay in hand.
3. Three bolts for the spare wheel from the Nut and Bolt guy on Deshon Street.

Then... last week I called Al-ko again and got a different less helpful guy who reckoned it was all too hard to do what I am doing.

I will be calling back in the morning to check the hub end cap dimensions and threads. This time I will chance getting the original guy and get the codes etc. and write them down.

I've ordered blank ASTSS parallel bearing 1600 kg hubs which will be machined, drilled and fitted with 14 mm studs to accept my BMW rims. The hubs are similar to ones available from AL-KO but have a smaller diameter boss that requires less machining. A spacer of a yet to be determined thickness will be used to fit genuine LR rims due to their hub-cap hole being closer to the mounting face than the BMW rims.

I thought that Vehicle Components might be more interested in bespoke hubs but not so.

My last email response from AL-KO follows. Chicken and egg problem where there's no demand from trailer or van builders because the hubs aren't available because there's no demand.

At this time there is very little demand for the product you describe, should the market indicate there is a need for this in such volumes that makes the production viable ,I am sure we would consider it.
I am sure you understand we supply oem’s on a national basis and are not equipped to take on one off jobs.


Leo Sargent
State Manager NSW.

Originally Posted by Graeme

I've ordered blank ASTSS parallel bearing 1600 kg hubs which will be machined, drilled and fitted with 14 mm studs to accept my BMW rims. The hubs are similar to ones available from AL-KO but have a smaller diameter boss that requires less machining. A spacer of a yet to be determined thickness will be used to fit genuine LR rims due to their hub-cap hole being closer to the mounting face than the BMW rims.

I thought that Vehicle Components might be more interested in bespoke hubs but not so.

My last email response from AL-KO follows. Chicken and egg problem where there's no demand from trailer or van builders because the hubs aren't available because there's no demand.

At this time there is very little demand for the product you describe, should the market indicate there is a need for this in such volumes that makes the production viable ,I am sure we would consider it.
I am sure you understand we supply oem’s on a national basis and are not equipped to take on one off jobs.


Leo Sargent
State Manager NSW.

I got the same email when I asked about 120PCD hubs with 14mm studs, I replied with;

Who drives a Bedford or HK holden these days anyway and you still make imperial products in a Metric world, you do realise that even Holdens are all metric now don't you, and, have M14 studs, it's 2012, not 1965.

He replied again, I'll put up what he replied when I get home, it was a very strange reply

I'm always amused about the sizes trailer manufacturers use, 9/16 Land Cruiser studs what Land Cruiser uses 9/16 studs

Baz.

Leo Sargents last reply to my inquirey

"May be you have stumble across an unfilled niche market"


Baz

Is this what they call on-the-job training? Sadly I am confirming the information in other posts.

Learnings from today's little outing to Al-Ko.

1. Boss (see I'm using technical terms now) is too long and would need to be machined to fit.
2. Hub is 150mm diameter which is not quite the size of the contact area of the inside of the rim.
3. Combined advice suggests that a 200mm hub is the right choice but the Boss diameter is too large to fit.

Option to take a set of blank 150mm hubs and have them machined by about 5mm and then return them for bearings and an axle. There is enough meat to trim a few mm off and still fit the cap and bearing. The issue is still the contact area of the rim and hub.

I also asked about putting a disk brake rotor on the hub as a two piece setup with longer studs and they do not supply this for their slim line bearing setup (aka the closest one to fitting the rim). I optimistically suggested putting a custom made blank spacer and was informed this is more than a bit unlawful.

Is the answer some sort of spacer as everything is just so very close to working?

Any thoughts?

Spacer plates are not allowed in Queensland (at least). See page page 73.

Reasons for rejection:

Spacer plates are used between hub and wheels (except where fitted by the vehicle manufacturer).

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/Sa...2b_feb2004.pdf