Looks like a mobile home axle and wheel to me.

 

8x14.5”. Used to be common place. The wheel is called a Dayton wheel and is held in with wedges under tension… they can be dangerous although 99% of the time, the single wheel arrangement is completely safe… still what you do when removing them is loosen those bolts and tap the wedges with a hammer. They may pop, and the bolts will hold them from shooting out. More than likely the wedges will loosen with the bolts but you always want to be careful

 

What you are describing is more often than not, a trailer wheel/axle set up. These were/are commonplace on homemade trailers.

 

It looks like these are Dayton style wheels. They are the "old school" semi wheels.

Just my $0.02

 

Skip to 26:15 on this video.

 

Th

That video looks like these wheels are a pain in the butt to mount properly.

 

Here's another set on a trailer, one I've had for 25 years. Note the differences, the "domed" wheel has electric brakes, the spoked one does not. If your trailer has repurposed moble home axles, make sure the wheel bearings are in good shape. They can take a good load, most are 4000 pound or better rated.

 

If you re also new to towing trailers be sure you always load the trailer tongue heavy (weight in front of the axles) to reduce chance of fishtailing.

 

After some more research and all the excellent posts so far, (THANKS!!) mine are the Dayton wheels. Found a couple of videos too same one Larrybl suggested. My axles are 8ft outer rim to outer rim and the traller is very well built but no name plates . Axle tubes are 3" so will be either 6,000 or 7,000 rated as I understand it. Since I got home, it has been thunder storms so I'm stuck inside for the eveneing. Rain all day tomorrow too so have to wait a bit to inspect bearings and other stuff. During the 1 hour haul with the Bush Hog, stoppee a couple times to check on the wheels. All 4 reamained cood to the touch, and no odd noises. Need to get Lights first, got a LED kit from TSC to start, then next is to get it weighed at the local CAT scale and get it registered with the state and a permanent plate.

I've always rented trailers and in the last 2 months hauled 3 cars each trip about 90 miles, and one Ford 8N. Since moving to the country, UHaul's are not that convenient around here as they are a long drive away just to get one and often do not have much selection on hand here. And then this trailer came up on an auction and I got a good deal.

Weathered Oak deck is still very solid. Has anyone had luck oiling their wood deck? I've seen others who mix used oil with acetone or kerosene and apply it but not sure that is more trouble with being slick or not. They claim is soaks in just fine. But that's a later thing after lights and painting.

 

Weathered Oak deck is still very solid. Has anyone had luck oiling their wood deck? I've seen others who mix used oil with acetone or kerosene and apply it but not sure that is more trouble with being slick or not. They claim is soaks in just fine. But that's a later thing after lights and painting.

I buy this stuff online, and do my wood trailer deck every 3 years. The trailer is stored outside.

This stuff stinks awful, so I know it works. My main concern is damage from carpenter ants and other insects. This keeps them away.

I usually power wash the deck, then spray this stuff on with a one-gallon pump sprayer. Then work it in with a deck stain pad on the end of a pole.

It stinks for about a month. And if you get it on any metal parts, the metal can be slick for a while.

I've also used it on landscape timbers, with the same good results.

Cal

 

i use to have a wood deck single axle i mopped with strait used motor oil was never slick at all i dont own it any more just need to do it on a nice hot sunny day takes awhile to dry

 

Was that on treated wood or untreated?

 

Take a 2 gallon hand sprayer and diesel and/or diesel and used motor oil mixed and expose to hot weather if just a equipment trailer. Hot weather will let the wood take (soak in) on the treatment faster.

 

Thanks to Forkz, Forest Gump, and Bodjick L for the replies on the oil treatment of the deck.

RT3360, Mine is dry and is untreated 1.5"x 7.5" Oak planks, but mostly still solid. There are gaps between of /2 to 3/4 inch so they do not rot from debris or water retention. Being dry, I think it will just soak up the oil.

This will be a work trailer hauling the X500 and other equipment as needed, certainly not a hangar queen. I'd just like to be sure it is mechanically sound and road worthy with a new paint job eventually. I have about 10 gallons of used oil destined for the recycler about 20 miles away, but if I can put a little of it to good use on the deck, all the better.

I like the idea of soom dilution to help the soaking a bit.

Who 'd a thunk an old auction trailer would be so exciting??? 🤷‍♂️

 

Thanks to Forkz, Forest Gump, and Bodjick L for the replies on the oil treatment of the deck.

RT3360, Mine is dry and is untreated 1.5"x 7.5" Oak planks, but mostly still solid. There are gaps between of /2 to 3/4 inch so they do not rot from debris or water retention. Being dry, I think it will just soak up the oil.

Save yourself the trouble. Those planks will outlast you, if they have the chance to dry after a rain or snow. Staying wet and having lichen and fungus grow on them is the fast way to rot. As long as they get air circulation they will be fine untreated. The old trailer I posted earlier (just the wheels) has an old oak plank deck. I've had the trailer over 25 years and bought it well used, the title says it was made in 1980 and it originally hauled a race car to and from the drag strip (original owner). He said when I bought the trailer it was the original deck. It's a bit worse for wear now, needs wheel bearings, I haven't had it on the road in several years as I have a newer and longer trailer to replace it. Some of the decking is showing signs of decay because it sits under some trees at the edge of my property.

 

If you want to see a mess, apply lots of oil or diesel and then tow the trailer behind your vec for few miles on a dusty dirt road before the oil soaks into the wood. How do I know this one.

You say it is dry oak. Usually dry oak will last a long time without treatment, but diesel will penetrate faster better. If it soaks in too fast or not enough then later mix in some oil. The dry oak will usually have lots of sometimes small weather checks, small cracks and you are mainly trying to repel water that would soak in
Sometimes just parking/storing a trailer over soil/dirt that stays wet or damp will cause the bed of the trailer to rot faster from underneath, especially trailers that are close to the ground such as horse trailers.

 

Good point on the dirt road thing. Might try diesel only at first see how much it soaks up.

 

In my opinion, diesel evaporates too much. I’d do a mixture of oil and kerosene or oil and diesel. Thin it enough to soak in and enough oil that it stays put. I don’t mean to be contrary but that is my experience.

 

In my opinion, diesel evaporates too much. I’d do a mixture of oil and kerosene or oil and diesel. Thin it enough to soak in and enough oil that it stays put. I don’t mean to be contrary but that is my experience.

 

Sorry! I’m out at our hunting camp and have poor service. For some reason messages go 2X sometimes.

 

All day sorting out the spaghetti wiring on this old trailer. Uncovered the original sheathed cable that has enough length to reach the truck's flat 4 connector. Got a new flat 4 connector at TSC and soldered it to the wires inside the sheathed cable. Testing with a 12v charger found the old oval tail lamps actually work!! Break for dinner then will haul the truck up to the barn and test it out for all light functions. At this point running, turn and stop lighting functions. Enough to get me to the weigh station about 23 miles away. Also checked the bearings, still lots of grease but were one notch in the casle nuts too loose. Reset them and they seem fine. While under there, one of the dual axles actually has electric brakes. Maybe that can be restored in the near future. Ah well, next is light test, then off to the weigh station, then the secretary of state for a plate.

 

I haven’t heard anyone mention using Linseed oil. When I was a teen many many moons ago, we treated the flooring in the corn crib and grain bins to preserve the wood. Any thoughts on using that on the treated wood on a trailer?

 

Your trailer as dual 5k+ axles, but a flat-4 connector? I would suggest redoing the wiring to use a 7 way and get the trailer brakes working, unless you plan on using it to haul around a single GT at a time...

 

We did all our farm truck beds with straight used motor oil. Several of the trucks were used to haul cattle, so they usually had several inches of saw dust and cow poop in the beds for a couple months out of the year. Do not remember ever having a rotten board that needed replaces on any of those trucks. And they all sat outside year round.

That video did a fairly good job mounting that wheel, but I always started with a block in front of the tire and a block on the side to make sure it was true in both directions.
If you take the time to mount them right, their is nothing wrong with Dayton wheels. If you don't mount them right, you will hate them because they will shake your teeth out.

And those dimples he pointed out, to keep the rim from rotating on the wheel. On a drive axle if the wedges got loose under power the hub would rotate inside the rim. If that happened, the hub would cut the valve stems off. On trailer axles with brakes on them, braking could also cause the rim to rotate on the hub, again cutting off the valve stems. Cutting off the valve stems, not a good day.

 

After dinner drove the truck out to the barn and hooked up the newly solderd and wrapped 4 wire flat connector. Got good tail lights with the headlamps on but after that, went downhill fast. Left turn got the right to blink and the left lamp off. Right got the left lamp on but the right lamp off and no blinking.

Today's another day and back out to tear apart my splices and a through review of the various wire maps I made.

Even I figured out...."sumpthin ain't right here".......

 

Make sure it isn’t a ground issue. That can do funny things. You could be wired correctly, but if someplace isn’t grounding correctly it can do things as you describe.

 

I ran 12v from a battery charger through each trailer wire with the white wire connected to the negative on the battery charger. Each wire seemed to do one of the jobs. Brown lit both lamps on "low" so that is the running lights wire. Yellow lit the left lamp brightly so that was turn/brake wire. Green lit the right lamp brightly so that was the right turn/brake wire.

I think my mistake was to "assume" that the new flat connector's color coding was the same as the trailer's as I connected white to white, brown to brown, green to green and yellow to yellow. I've got to go back and trace the Ram 1500's wire definintions and match them to the trailer's definitions. Once again a victim of "***-U-Me ing" on my part. You'd think I'd have learned this by now....ugh.

 

That may be it. But I had a trailer do something similar again not long ago. Everything was hooked up correctly, but one of the grounds at one of the taillights on the trailer was corroded and had failed. I checked it with an ohm meter and I still had continuity, but I finally found that there was high resistance there so the juice found another path to ground. That’s when what lights up and how can get very interesting!

 

Working outside dodging thunder storms here, I cut all the nice weather proof rubber tape off my splices. Pulled the green and brown soldered splices apart. Aligator clipped the brown truck to green trailer and the green truck to the brown trailer, and the darned lights work in all modes. Running, braking, right, left, and emergency blinkers. Resoldered them, heat shrinked them again, and rewrapped the whold splice with lineman's 1-1/4 inch tape.

All this for two tail lights, but gotta have em to get to the certified weigh station.

Thanks for all the comments both on the wiring and on the deck treatments. Great stuff!!

 

that used oil made the wood dark looked almost like black walnut was never slick shed water like duck

 

By the way on my wire splices I hot solder each wire, use shrink tube on each wire, and finish with half laps of 3M Scotch brand #2242 tape which is a sefl fusing rubber tape. I've found that it can water proof a splce and remain flexible. After applied, you can't unwind it, you have to slice it and peel it off. Great stuff to have around the shop. Just an FYI.

 

Glad you shared the tape you used. The 3M #2242 is definitely a good choice for sealing joints. Just an FYI, I crimp mating Deutsch terminals to both sides (female on the vehicle side, male on the trailer side), plug terminals together, test circuit function, then seal with the 3M #2242 or sleeve it with shrink tubing that has the internal adhesive. That seals and holds the terminals together. However, the best alternative is to put the terminals into connectors to plug together. That allows rearranging wires if need be. The Deutsch terminals are crimped with a 4-side, rather than just 2, crimp and are sized for the wire they are used on. The crimper is adjustable for the wire size and the depth of the crimp from the end of the terminal to insure crimping correctly to the wire.

 

Weighs 1,660 empty per Cat scale. Does that sound a bit beefy for a 8x14? Tows nice, no wandering or bad habits so far.