Tires and Wheels Help

ALCamper · 11-12-2017, 05:19 PM

Hey guys, hopefully this is the right place to post this. I have an '83 1751 which has been sitting for some time and I need to replace the dry rotted tires. Since the camper has been sitting for so long, I want to replace the wheels as well in the event the current wheels are most likely warped. The tire size is 175/80R13 on a 5 lug wheel, but when checking the bolt pattern it looks as if it coming up as a 5 on 4.75. However, there are no tire and wheel combos in that pairing. The right size has a 5 on 4.5 pattern, and the 5 on 4.75 has a much larger tire.

Did I mismeasure, or do I go with the tire and wheel combos that are seemingly paired correctly?

**JohnB** · 11-12-2017, 06:35 PM

It seems the ST175/80R13's comes in load range C and D. The tire OD and width are the same across both. See here

https://www.carlislebrandtires.com/o...adial-trail-hd

Carlisle calls out the tire takes a 5" rim. But I can't seem to find a 13", 5" rim.

Dexstar make 4.5 wide rims for the 13" tire. It may be they mount then on 4.5" rims.
http://www.dexstarwheel.com/products.pdf

But the bolt circle has to be sorted out. Like you said, 5 bolt on 4.5" bolt circle seems to be more common.

Do you have 2 5/8" studs centers or 2 3/4" when measuring in a straight line at the radial spacing as shown here? ? see here item 2
https://www.etrailer.com/faq-wheel-bolt-pattern.aspx

In order for that to work right, you have to measure the center of the wheel stud OR bolt OD to bolt OD OR bolt IS to bolt ID in a true straight line. Put your tape measure on a solid number like 1" as a starting place verses the clip end of the tape to eliminate some error and then just subtract 1" from the final number.

Hope this helps

John

SunlineFan may be along shortly, he has had to deal with some of the older campers before and may know about the wheel stud bolt diameter.

BenB · 11-12-2017, 06:47 PM

That is the same factory size as my popup, I think its on a 5x4.5 wheel, that is what most five lug trailer wheels are. Having worked in the car industry for a long time I have seen that 5 lug wheels are commonly improperly measured. Even lugs are easy, 4, 6, 8 its just the center to center distance. 5 lugs are measured outside to center as shown in this image.

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ALCamper · 11-12-2017, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenB

That is the same factory size as my popup, I think its on a 5x4.5 wheel, that is what most five lug trailer wheels are. Having worked in the car industry for a long time I have seen that 5 lug wheels are commonly improperly measured. Even lugs are easy, 4, 6, 8 its just the center to center distance. 5 lugs are measured outside to center as shown in this image.

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Awesome info, thank you so much! I think I am going to just go with the 4.5" and hope for the best. Will post an update when I find out for sure

ALCamper · 11-12-2017, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

It seems the ST175/80R13's comes in load range C and D. The tire OD and width are the same across both. See here

https://www.carlislebrandtires.com/o...adial-trail-hd

Carlisle calls out the tire takes a 5" rim. But I can't seem to find a 13", 5" rim.

Dexstar make 4.5 wide rims for the 13" tire. It may be they mount then on 4.5" rims.
http://www.dexstarwheel.com/products.pdf

But the bolt circle has to be sorted out. Like you said, 5 bolt on 4.5" bolt circle seems to be more common.

Do you have 2 5/8" studs centers or 2 3/4" when measuring in a straight line at the radial spacing as shown here? ? see here item 2
https://www.etrailer.com/faq-wheel-bolt-pattern.aspx

In order for that to work right, you have to measure the center of the wheel stud OR bolt OD to bolt OD OR bolt IS to bolt ID in a true straight line. Put your tape measure on a solid number like 1" as a starting place verses the clip end of the tape to eliminate some error and then just subtract 1" from the final number.

Hope this helps

John

SunlineFan may be along shortly, he has had to deal with some of the older campers before and may know about the wheel stud bolt diameter.

Wow, this is a lot of great info! Thank you so much!!

**JohnB** · 11-12-2017, 08:06 PM

H'mm, BenB brings up a good point. 5 lug is not an easy thing to measure. I had a foggy memory he brought this up before, just I forgot it....

Etrailer uses bolt to bolt centers and then applies it to a distance which is not the bolt circle diameter. They have to tell you in a chart.

BenB's method uses a technique that does an approximate direct measurement to the bolt circle diameter which is what you are trying to figure out and not have to know the bolt to bolt center distance. I can see this method being easier and more accurate to use with a tape measure which can hang on the end of the stud and then read the center at the opposite stud. There is less error in this method then trying to read the 2 centers while you are wiggling around trying to read both ends at the same time.

Technically, both methods are not right (exact). But they get you close enough to tell if it is 4.5" or 4.75" bolt circle diameter.

To confirm and show this I created the 5 lug pattern using 1/2" wheel studs on both a 4.5 and 4.75" bolt circle measured out to 4 decimal places.

See here. Neither are exact, but the differences between a 4.5 and 4.75" bolt circle are large enough you should be able to figure out which is which.

Hope this helps

John

**Sunline Fan** · 11-13-2017, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

SunlineFan may be along shortly, he has had to deal with some of the older campers before and may know about the wheel stud bolt diameter.

Unfortunately I don't know what the bolt pattern is on those. I have seen people mount newer white spoke trailer wheels to them before, so unless they put new axles on, there must be a common one that fits.