Caravan Wheels and Bearings

We've been discussing some of the finer details with numerous (not just one, but several) caravan manufacturers about having the same wheels for the van as the Navara, and they all suggest that I change the hubs on the Navara to Ford hubs, so I can fit larger ("off-road") bearings in. They say that if we put 114.3x6 stud pattern wheels on the van, they'd have to go to smaller bearings.

That's where I was coming from. Hopefully they weren't all spinning the same yarn to me! I do realise that Ford hubs seem to be the standard and they probably don't like deviating from that, but you could see that there'd be more room for larger bearings in the Ford hubs so it made sense.

how much does the van weigh tony and is it single or dual axel?

The new vans we've been looking at are ALL tandem axle (won't haul anything else, the stability of a dual axle trailer far, far surpasses single axle) and weigh between 2500kg and 2900kg (laden).

They all said they could come down to the Navara's stud pattern but would have to compromise on the bearings (seemed to be an issue with them). I'd love to hear differently.

Don't think you'll have an issue with 750kg on each wheel bearing, Although I know your a fussy old bastard so it's your call but I know I'd much rather have the same stud patern on my trailer and my car

Yeah that's precisely my thinking. It means with one spare under my car and two spares on the back of the van, I can risk going further than I otherwise might have.

I think it's more likely the Ford and Holden hubs (and more commonly Ford) that they like to use. They probably use the excuse of "they're stronger" to justify why they shouldn't go to any extra effort. And note well - one of the dealers that said this was flogging the Lotus caravans and in most other respects (the AGM battery internally stored was another issue) I had no problems with what they were saying. I didn't, at the time, think too much was wrong with the advice about the hubs.

I ought to point out that the guy from New Age Caravans - from the factory, not a dealerperson - didn't have a problem matching the hubs to the Navara. This guy also said that AGM batteries - even though they're sealed and the Australian law allows them to be stored in an unvented enclosure - would prefer to have them vented to the outside air (which is what the Material Data Safety Sheet from the FullRiver Battery Company says about their AGM batteries too).

I might move these posts to a new thread, we've strayed a little off topic!

This is a discussion started in another thread that I've moved here.

Pretty much what I was thinking, good luck with it either way

The local bearing place we use in ballarat sell hubs for trailers, When i inquired about putting different hubs on my 6x4 trailer to match the hilux when i had it they told me the hubs they had (landcruiser pattern)would still run the holden wheel bearings

Using wheels the same makes sense..I went for Landcruiser bearings and 150mm PCD IFS stud pattern in the end to match my Landcruiser. I have another trailer which I run Ford slimline bearings in because they carry more weight than the Holden stuff as you've mentioned. Also run Hilux rims and LT tyres..Hilux is same stud pattern as Ford
I also run 12" electric brakes rather than 10" as the trailer --single axle is rated at more than 2tonnes uses an independant "Simplicity"made outa Melbourne

good luck with the choice

For what it is worth, The Boss(I'm safe blaming her here as she was driving at the time) just destroyed a wheel hub on our single axle 1.6T (ATM) Camper Trailer. Tyres are 275/70R16 the same at the Nav.

Turns out the stud pattern is "off road" (5 stud) in that it is larger than the normal 5 stud hubs the trailer guy carried in stock, BUT the bearings are standard ford ones. In fact, after a new one fell apart when I was replacing the unbroken hub, it turned out they were the standard ford pattern trailer bearings sold at Repco. I purchased two cards (seal, larger, smaller and pin) yesterday.

Discussing the bearings with the guy who did the repair/replacement of the broken ones, his 2c was that this had the benefit that they would be easy to buy replacements, but if they had turned out to be "off road" bearings, we could be stuck for days waiting for them to turn up.

Back to the issue of the same stud patterns on motor and CT/caravan, I've just decided that it might be easier to just add another spare, or two*for the Nav, rather than pay a pile of money to have vehicle or CT adapted to match the other.

Also, one of the things I would do, is to swap all wheels to steel rims. When we had a tyre puncture last year, we had to go to another town with special machine to take the tyre off the alloy rim as the guy was worried about breaking a piece out of the alloy rims.




* I'm looking at the replacement rear step that allows you to have two spares on swing arms.

This may be of no use but perhaps if you contacted a chassis manufacturer like G & S or Preston Chassis, they may be able to assist. Very few of the caravan manufacturers build their own chassis anyway.

I have always found G & S quite helpful.

The current owners of Roadstar began as chassis manufacturers and make their own chassis so maybe you could pick their brain, even if you are not interested in their vans.


I really can't understand why an axle flange cannot be drilled to the Navara stud pattern, fit 12" brakes & run parallel bearings.

Good luck

places like active fabrications can manufacture and drill hubs to suit any stud patten, with holden, ford or parallel bearings. In 10" or 12". they biggest thing to consider when matching wheels is the offset of the rim, trailer wheels use a 0 offset and as a result it makes it much easier to correctly gauge wheel arch size and axle length

My trailer has composite bearings, (H inner-F outer) elec drums and D40 stud pattern.