Tall skinny tires for use on a off road trailer

[holyford86]

I just picked up a 93 ranger 4x2 longbed, bed is mint, PO is keeping the cab. They were going to junk the frame and bed but the bed is mint so I did some trading and ended up with it. I'm going to make a trailer out of it, I'd like to be able to hitch it to the truck in my sig with less than a 4" drop reciever so that means I'm going to need to put some tall tires on it. I'd like to put some narrower highway style tires on it. So far it seems that a 235/85R16 would work well (roughly a 32x9.5) are there any other readily available sizes that fit the tall and narrow bill?

 

[Boggin]

you can still run smaller tires just put a lift kit on the trailer!

 

[brinker88]

Body lift with a set of 34x10.50x15 super swampers

 

[fordmandan87]

trailer tires at tractor supply are 205-75-15 with a 5x4.5 bolt pattern tire roughly 27 in tall and 8 in wide

 

[holyford86]

you can still run smaller tires just put a lift kit on the trailer!

I planned on it, going to put a block lift in it, and I think it has a junk shackle too so it may get extended shackles as well.

Body lift with a set of 34x10.50x15 super swampers

I'd rather not have to use those, even though i'm going to use it offroad it's going to see a fair amount of on road use as well,

trailer tires at tractor supply are 205-75-15 with a 5x4.5 bolt pattern tire roughly 27 in tall and 8 in wide

it's got 235/75R15 tires on it now

 

[02RangerXLT]

Body lift with a set of 34x10.50x15 super swampers

I gotta wonder why you would use super swampers on a trailer... I could understand if they were bald, but if they had some tread at all on them it would be a bit of a waste to put on a trailer don't you think?

I suggest a tire that is the same as the one that is on your pickup... that way, if need be, you can use the trailer tires as spare tires for the pickup if something goes wrong...

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Plan the bends on the frame so that you have the hitch where you want it. Use cardboard templates to get the angles you need. It's not hard once you draw it out. I did my truck frame trailer like that, and left enough room to mount a tool box between the truck box and the first bend of the tongue. That way I didn't have to dig for tools when I needed them.

Richard

 

[strvger]

without going to commercial truck size tires, that's about the tallest/skinniest you can get. i'm running 215/85x16 on my ranger, 31" tall and skinny. sounds like a nice project. have fun and post pics for sure!

 

[holyford86]

I gotta wonder why you would use super swampers on a trailer... I could understand if they were bald, but if they had some tread at all on them it would be a bit of a waste to put on a trailer don't you think?

I suggest a tire that is the same as the one that is on your pickup... that way, if need be, you can use the trailer tires as spare tires for the pickup if something goes wrong...

I'm looking for something that's roughly the same diameter so I can do that if I need to.

Plan the bends on the frame so that you have the hitch where you want it. Use cardboard templates to get the angles you need. It's not hard once you draw it out. I did my truck frame trailer like that, and left enough room to mount a tool box between the truck box and the first bend of the tongue. That way I didn't have to dig for tools when I needed them.

Richard

How'd you lay it out so you knew the angles you needed? I'm going to keep this one pretty short as far as the tongue goes, I've got all the tools I need in the truck already

 

[holyford86]

without going to commercial truck size tires, that's about the tallest/skinniest you can get. i'm running 215/85x16 on my ranger, 31" tall and skinny. sounds like a nice project. have fun and post pics for sure!

That's what I was thinking, I figured that was about all I could get for tires that fit the bill Definately planned on doing a small writeup on it.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

How'd you lay it out so you knew the angles you needed? I'm going to keep this one pretty short as far as the tongue goes, I've got all the tools I need in the truck already

It's been a few tears. IIRC I used aluminum L-trim [ you could use cardboard folded], cut a slice, bend it to the required angle at the length you need. Run a pencil down the slice, then you can open it and cut on the pencil line. Then either transfer directly to the frame or use an angle finder to transfer the pie cut to the frame. I was able to use the frame as is for height, I just had to cut a pie on the top and bottom of the c-channel and bend it in to make an A-frame. Unless your experienced, it would probably be safer to buy an adjustable height ball rather than cut the frame to adjust the height, cutting the pies to bend the frame in is alright though, as the main portion of the channel hasn't been touched [IMO].
Good luck,

Richard

 

[Tractorman]

Just a thought...but bald tires on a trailer are not that good in the mud. On our manure tankers, once the tires start getting bald they won't roll in the mud, just slide. This just makes a mound of mud that stops everything. I hate it when that happens.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Just a thought...but bald tires on a trailer are not that good in the mud. On our manure tankers, once the tires start getting bald they won't roll in the mud, just slide. This just makes a mound of mud that stops everything. I hate it when that happens.

My tri-rib tractor tires have no such problem.

And they are pretty much slicks with three ribs that run around the diameter.

 

[feellnfroggy]

trailer offroad dont need big ligs, so I would just go with a 33x10.50 bfg. you want a tire that you can air down specifically for flotation while pulling such as sand. But it doesnt need an agressive tread.

 

[Tractorman]

Then my eyes must be seeing things.