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zuffen
23rd Mar 2010, 09:34 PM
I purchased a 16' Hobie cat on a trailer (around 25 years old) with a duratorque axle and cast alloy 10" wheels. The wheels don't bolt to a hub rather direct onto the axle.

The trailer is in excellent condition but the tyres are history. They are worse than those on my wheelbarrow!

I'm looking at replacing the wheels with Commodore rims and the appropriate hubs.

I'm assuming it is more than likely the bearings are Holden bearings.

Any thoughts??

pipeclay
24th Mar 2010, 07:41 AM
Is it possable to get the bearing numbers,this will mean removing them from there hub,even if you cant find the numbers if you take them to a bearing supplier they can measure them and let you know what they are.

Yonnee
24th Mar 2010, 12:34 PM
Hey Zuffen, aren't Cat's fun? I had a 12' Kitty for a while, and she was a handful.

Those 10" rims are a pretty common set up for a lot of light weight boat trailers. 99% of the time will have Holden front wheel bearings in them. (If you want to check, they should be LM11949 outer cone, and LM67048 inner cone... Cups replace the last two digits of each with "10".) The only major drama is if you ever get a flat tyre, changing it on the side of the road is a little messier than just undoing some wheel nuts. But if you have a spare, already greased up, then it shouldn't take any longer. And how often would you really get a puncture with a trailer so light weight? The tyre's more likely to bounce straight over a screw than have it embedded in the tyre... that's if your car hasn't got it first.

If you're still wanting to change them, then here's a few checks you'll need to do first.
- The overall diameter of a 14" or 15" tyre will significantly raise the trailer as well as being really close to whatever guards you might have fitted now.
- The offset of the Commodore rims compared to the current 10" Alloy means you might have trouble with clearances to the chassis/guards/boat hull.
- If you're only wanting to change them to a hub and wheel nut arrangement instead of integral bearing wheels, then consider either a 10" rim from an early Mini or Suzuki or there is a 10" Alloy available specifically for boat trailers with early Mini stud pattern.
- Tyres are still readily available as there are still Mini's, Suzuki's and boat trailers around with this size tyre, both in passenger and light truck.

zuffen
24th Mar 2010, 04:39 PM
Gents,

Thanks for the input.

I had an H16 in the early '80's and the 10" wheels drove me nuts. I tow the boat at 100-120kh so the little 10's are working real hard.

I have the Commodore rims and tyres so for the cost of a set of hubs I can be looking good.

The axles are bolted to the trailer so I'll insert a 50x75/5mm section in between the trailer and axle to raise the trailer (it drags it's bum on any bump) and give more guard clearance.

If the mudguards are too small I'll replace them with some I have in the shed.

I sometimes tow with a vehicle where the tow ball is over 800mm from the ground so the higher I get the trailer the better. The boat is only around 120kg so loading it isn't a problem and I don't need to back the trailer into the water.

If I do this I can swap the 10's onto my old H14Turbo trailer and see it out the door with the boat. The old trailer hasn't had any wheels or hubs for almost 10 years so this will get it mobile.

Thanks again.

Yonnee
25th Mar 2010, 08:04 AM
Cool.
I know what you mean with the rims and bearings working harder, but they're still within spec. But peace of mind is a consideration too.

So, the only thing left to check is the offset.
Stand the Commodore rim up, and with a tape measure or ruler, touch the rim where it would meet the face of the hub, and note the measurement at the inside of the tyre. Then check the measurement from the chassis to the tip of the axle (best to remove a wheel). From the tip of the axle to the face of the hub is 2", so factor this in. With any luck, this measurement will be more than the one with the rim by 40mm or so.

However... If the offset is too close, all is not lost. Pop down to the wreckers and pick up a pair of Commodore Disc Rotors. You can either put them on as they are, or have the disc area machined off, but they will push the wheels out by around 30mm or so.

Or, change to HQ / pre AU Falcon rims, and this will do similar.

zuffen
3rd Apr 2010, 08:13 PM
Yonnee,

Thanks for the extra information.

Sorry for not responding sooner but I've been in Thailand with my wife whilst our sons were in Military Camp.

I picked up some new hubs today and I'm picking up some Commodore rims on Wednesday to try them out.

If they don't fit I'll chase down some old HQ rims.

Again thanks for your help.

zuffen
8th Apr 2010, 08:47 AM
An update.

The bearings were Holden and Commodore wheels fouled the axle pivot.

I'm getting some HQ wheels and all should be well.

One point.

The HQ uses a 5 x 4.75" (a20.0mm) PCD and th eCommodore has a 5 x 120mm PCD.

Whilst the either vehicle's wheels will fit on the other's axle they are not a true swap.

If you ran the HQ wheels on the Commodore axle you would run a real risk of snapping the studs off as the nut will bind on one side by 0.45mm and bend the stud

Amazing what you can learn from Googling "Holden PCD".

Yet to look into pre-Au Falcon rims..

Yonnee
8th Apr 2010, 11:08 PM
An update.

The bearings were Holden and Commodore wheels fouled the axle pivot.

I'm getting some HQ wheels and all should be well.

One point.

The HQ uses a 5 x 4.75" (120.6mm) PCD and th eCommodore has a 5 x 120mm PCD.

Whilst the either vehicle's wheels will fit on the other's axle they are not a true swap.

If you ran the HQ wheels on the Commodore axle you would run a real risk of snapping the studs off as the nut will bind on one side by 0.45mm and bend the stud

Amazing what you can learn from Googling "Holden PCD".

Yet to look into pre-Au Falcon rims..

I think we've covered it here too.

The pre-AU rims will give you a similar off-set result to the HQ, but Ford stud pattern is entirely different again; 5 x 4.5" (114.3mm).

Are you using trailer hubs? Can you swap them from where you bought them for either HQ or Ford?

zuffen
11th Apr 2010, 09:22 AM
Yonnee,

Yep I'm using new trailer hubs with HQ bolt pattern.

I'll pick up some HQ wheels and it should all work out.

I actually mounted the Commodore rims inside out to move the trailer. Worked well. I loctite'd the wheel nuts on to feel a bit better but it wasn't far.

The tyres on the rims are 205x50x15 and they fit under the guards with room to spare as I inserted a section of 75x50 between the axle mounts and the trailer chassis(and no I didn't use "Bunnings bolts" I used Grade 8 bolts). This will stop it draggin it's bum on every speed hump. These trailers with 10" wheels were made for dead smooth roads.