Changing Tire & Wheel Size To Raise The Height Of Your Trailer

Question:

I have a 18foot Wildwood lite trail that has 205/75R14 tires on the tandem axles. Can I switch to 15inch tire and rims without any issues as Im trying to get a little more ground clearance?

asked by: Bill J

Expert Reply:

In order to account for clearance issues that may occur from changing to a larger wheel and tire combination, you will want to measure a few things on your Wildwood trailer first. To start, you will want about 2-3 inches between your tires. Also, you will want 4-1/2 inches between the top of the tire tread and the inside of the wheel well to accommodate for suspension travel and maximum bump clearance.

If you switch from a 205/75R14 tire to a 205/75R15 tire like the highly recommended Westlake Radial Trailer Tire, # LHAW121, for example, the tires will have the same width, but the new tire will have a larger overall diameter of about 1". This means the tires will sit about 1" closer to each other and they will sit about 1/2" closer to the wheel well. If you have enough clearance to accommodate for this, then you can switch to the larger tires.

Keep in mind that although switching from a 14" rim to a 15" rim will raise the height of your trailer, the increments that will be raised is very minimal (approximately 1/2"). For a significant increase in ground clearance, if your axles sit atop your leaf springs, I recommend flipping the axles with our Dexter Trailer Springs Over-Under Conversion part # K71-384-00 for 2-3/8" diameter axles and part # K71-385-00 for 3" axles rather than changing your wheel size. Another option is installing longer leaf spring hangers to increase your trailer height.

I have linked a page to our current hanger offerings in addition to a product review of the Provider tire and Dexter axle flip kit.

expert reply by: Conner L

Rick K.

6/13/2020

have 5.70x8 tire on my popup.flipped axle.hard to find out what tires i can pur hase to increase tire size.

Chris R.

6/16/2020

If you have a good amount of fender clearance to work with after flipping the axle you can probably bump up to a 10" tire/wheel. A 205/65-10 like the Kenda # AM30120 will be just about 2.6" larger in diameter height. We recommend maintaining at least 4-1/2" of space between the top of the tire and fender. This size will also be about 2.4" wider - so you'll need to make sure you have some space between the frame and existing tire sidewall too.

Helpful Links

dept-pg-trailer_tires_and_wheels-gw-205%7c65~10.aspx