Howdy, y'all.
I've got an el cheapo utility trailer that came from Harbor Freight as a kit. It came with two tires, so it doesn't have a spare. They sell a spare for $40, but it seems to me I'd be better off if I could put a pair of junkyard-pulled wheels on it, thus giving me two heavier-duty tires and rims and two spares (the original tires and rims, that is.) Well, I pulled a tire to measure last night and found that the rims are 4 on 100mm, so lots of older foreign cars use the same bolt pattern. However, backspacing/offset is going to be an issue. The hubs on the trailer are pretty close to the chassis, with about 1-1/2" clearance between the factory tire and the chassis. Factory tires are 12 x 4.80 on a rim with what looks like 0 offset. So, a garden-variety 4-100mm rim off of a front-wheel drive import is going to be too deep due to its 30 or 40mm of positive offset. I've looked but haven't yet found anything RWD with negative offset that would work. I'll keep looking, but in the meantime I've gotten to wondering about flipping rims around backwards. It really sounds like a dumb idea to me, but I was hoping somebody out there might say, "Nope, it's perfectly fine. Just don't do it with a car or a heavy-duty trailer." The two things that I see going against it (aside from the fact they aren't designed to be used backwards) are (1) that the lugs center the tire going on the right way and may not center the tire or seat properly with the rim backwards, and (2) that some rims (especially alloy wheels) aren't going to fit backwards, though I have seen some steel rims that I am sure will fit. Feel free to tell me this is a boneheaded idea. I'm pretty well convinced of that myself, but I've already learned a good bit trying to figure this one out so please throw in some facts and opinions for me to ponder. Thanks,
Darren
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