How to Determine Which Replacement Hub for Homemade Boat Trailer  

Question:

Expert Reply:

For a replacement hub, you'll want to match the inner and outer wheel bearing numbers of the existing hub to those of the replacement. You'll also want to choose a hub with a grease seal that's compatible with your spindles, and if you're wanting to reuse the same wheels and tires, you'll also want to choose a wheel with a matching bolt pattern. For tires, you'll want to choose tires whose combined weight capacity exceed the weight of the boat and trailer.

I'll link to an article that explains how to determine the wheel bolt pattern but in a nutshell, you'll measure the center to center distance between two adjacent wheel studs. I've listed the relevant measurement and its corresponding bolt pattern for 5 lug wheels below:

• If the distance is 2-5/8 Inches, bolt pattern is 5 on 4-1/2
• Distance is 2-3/4 inches, bolt pattern is 5 on 4-3/4
• Distance is 3 inches, bolt pattern is 5 on 5
• Distance is 3-1/4 inches, bolt pattern is 5 on 5-1/2

If you have the existing bearings, look at the side of the bearing cages for the stamped reference numbers. For a 3500 lb rated axle, he inner should be L68149, the outer should be L44649. If the markings aren't there, you can use a digital caliper like # PTW80157 to measure the inside diameter of the bearings. If the inside diameter of the inner bearing is 1.378, your inner bearing is a L68149. If the ID of the outer bearing is 1.063, the outer bearing is L44649.

If you don't have the bearings, measure the surface of the spindle where the inner and outer bearings ride. The diameter of the spindle at that point should be about the same as the bearing inside diameters mentioned above.

Next, you'll want to measure the surface of the spindle where the grease seal rides, which will tell us which grease seal is needed. If the above bearing measurements match up, and surface of the spindle where the seal rides is about 1.72 inches, then you have a typical 3500 lb idler hub.

If that all checks out, I'd recommend the # AKIHUB-545-35-G-K galvanized replacement hub. I'm assuming you have a 5 on 4-1/2 bolt pattern because that's the most common by far, but if any of the bearing and seal dimensions or the wheel bolt pattern I discussed above doesn't match up, let me know and we'll continue looking for the proper replacement.

For leaf springs (which aren't universal), you'll want to measure the center spring eye to center spring eye distance, and choose your replacement 3500 lb springs based on that. If the eye to eye dimension is 25-1/8 inches long, then the 3500 lb replacement spring we offer, part # e54SR would be the proper replacement.

expert reply by: Mike L

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