Posted by jeickhof on Friday, March 03, 2006 at 6:57PM :
In Reply to: Trailer wheel question posted by Bob on Friday, March 03, 2006 at 6:06PM :
The lug nuts and studs are designed to carry the full rated weight of the particular axle. Wheel center fit is more of a convenience to lining up when installing the wheel rather then an actual load bearing surface. Tyhe main thing when enlarging wheels and or tires is to make sure you will still not be exceeding the rated axle loads and the 'offset' of the center of the wheel should not be more than 5% off the original, otherwise improper wheel bearing loading may occure and cause early failure of the wheel bearings or races. This is a major problem when people arbitrarily replace stock width wheels with wide wheels on vehicles..the geometry of the wheel bearings and their load center is thrown off and failure will inevitably occur especially when the vehicle normally carries extra loads.
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