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Post by WrkrBee on May 2, 2021 14:46:46 GMT -5
Trying to be a good RV owner, I decided to rotate the trailer tires. Tires needs to be run to go through sidewall flexing, tread belts need to be flexed, and the tire needs to go through the heating and cooling cycles for flexibility. Since we got the 2017 trailer from an older lady, I was sure the spare has never been used. Issue is, the spare has a steel wheel (thin) and the regular wheel is aluminum (thick). Once you pull the spare off, get it mounted on the trailer, you need to put the regular wheel on the carrier. Not gonna happen. The carrier bolts are too short and the carrier nuts have to go into the aluminum wheel recess. With a little thought, Venture should make the carrier bolts longer and use long nuts, that will have flats outside of the recess, when tightened. Glad I wasn't on the road when I found this out. If I have a damaged tire, I want to be able to put it where the spare was. Not in the tow vehicle or the camper. Common sense. And the spare tire nuts should use the same size socket as the lug nuts. Common sense.
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Post by touaregtowr on May 3, 2021 18:59:23 GMT -5
We have a 2017 168 VRB we purchased last summer used. At the time I checked the spare wheel/tire on the rear bumper. It was a matching aluminum wheel and tire to the 2 wheel/tires on the axle. Bolts are long enough on our carrier for the aluminum wheel.
I suspect your previous owner may have had a flat and ruined the wheel. They put the spare on the axle and purchased a steel wheel/tire for the spare as it would have been considerably cheaper than a new aluminum one.
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Post by WrkrBee on May 3, 2021 19:10:18 GMT -5
We have a 2017 168 VRB we purchased last summer used. At the time I checked the spare wheel/tire on the rear bumper. It was a matching aluminum wheel and tire to the 2 wheel/tires on the axle. Bolts are long enough on our carrier for the aluminum wheel. I suspect your previous owner may have had a flat and ruined the wheel. They put the spare on the axle and purchased a steel wheel/tire for the spare as it would have been considerably cheaper than a new aluminum one. If the first spare was mounted on an aluminum wheel and mounted on the carrier, then the existing carrier bolts should fit the current aluminum wheels. They do not. What type mounting nuts do you have on your carrier? Do your aluminum wheels have a recess at the mounting hole?
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Post by touaregtowr on May 4, 2021 14:26:41 GMT -5
I agree, I don't see why the bolts would have been changed. Here's 2 pictures of our wheels, all three wheels are the same. I can't take a picture of the spare as the trailer is at our seasonal site, 3 hours from home. The nuts on the spare/carrier are a different size from the wheel nuts. As such I carry 2 different size sockets. Our previous trailer, 2013 Jayco was the same with 2 different size nuts. I found out when we had a blowout on the road. Crazy!
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Post by WrkrBee on Jun 6, 2021 8:12:43 GMT -5
I hade to make something to get around this issue. I did not realize how rare 1/2"x20 hardware was. I ended up with 2 1/2" x 1/2" x 13 bolts, I had to thread to the head. I welded 3 each 1/2" x 13 nuts together and chased the threads, to make the long nuts. I can mount the original wheels, on the spare tire carrier, if needed now.
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