Mini wheels

[Bill]

I'm still pulling this boat on a trailer out of our hedge. It is now about 3 feet further forward. The eventual aim is to try to give it away.

Today I decided that the visible wheel had to come off to sort the flat tyre. The wheel came off OK and, although the outside of the wheel looked OK, the inside had rusted through, collapsed and cut into the tyre and inner tube. Off to the breakers who identified it as a Mini wheel, said they are like gold dust and sold me one. Everything looked right.

It won't go on. There is a grease nipple sticking out from the hub and the old wheel has a looks original notch to accommodate this. If I can find the right size spanner, I suppose I can remove the nipple temporarily.

At last the question. Did Minis have grease nipples on any wheels, or am I looking for some weird type of wheel or, more likely, a bodge?

[Bill]

In message , Bill writes

To follow up my own question, I should, of course have said Classic Mini and 10" wheels.

I've had a trawl through the pics on ebay and it appears Mini wheels have a round centre hole, trailer wheels of the same size have this little notch to allow for the grease nipple. At least one of the ebay trailer wheels looks as though someone has filed the notch badly, manually. I plan to try to get the grease nipple out tomorrow, check the wheel fits snugly over the hub and then decide to file or not to file.

If anyone knows anything about this, I'd be interested.

I can't do much or look at the actual job as I'm having to wait in for a call about returning someone from an mri scan.

[Tufnell Park]

Mini's did not have a grease nipple on the wheel hubs. The wheel you need is a special for trailers.

Removing the grease nipple is probably your best option.

[Brian Gaff]

Are you sure its a real mini wheel? Certain busses made with the back end coach built by Bluebird had two sets of wheels just like the Mini size. Brian

[tabbypurr]

an angle grinder will have that done in no time.

NT

[T i m]

So do I (although most are 400 x 8).

As do mine.

I believe they are 4" PCD, also common on 400 x 8 trailer wheels.

Yup.

But not generally 'cheap', if you are giving the trailer away?

You can probably get a new pair of wheels and tyres for ~£100 and second hand for less, *if* you can find some worth having but that's a lot if the rest of the trailer is in anything than a reasonable condition.

If it's galvanised it could well be and if it was a factory made trailer, even more so but otherwise, it might be just a few quids worth of scrap or some parts for someone to play with (hubs, suspension units, tow hitch, rollers / chocks etc).

*IF* it's galvanised or if not and in really good condition throughout, with mudguards, checked / new bearings, new / good wheels and tyres and a good hitch then it could be worth a few quid (boat trailers are for some reason) or be a nice thing to give to a good cause (Scout / other charity group etc).

The strange thing though is that you can often get a trailer with a free boat for the same price as the trailer on it's own, it's just you then have to get rid of the boat without a trailer.

I managed to give the one on the trailer I wanted to the local sailing club and they were very pleased with it (it only needed minor attention).

Cheers, T i m

[Bill]

In message , T i m writes

Well, the grease nipple is out, the wheel is on, the boat and trailer is almost fully out of the hedge. The cheap ratchet puller and a cheap ratchet strap have been invaluable, but I'd advise anyone to spend a bit more on a bit more quality.

The boat will be an interesting challenge for anyone, but the mast, sails, rudder, tiller, paddles etc. are OK.

The trailer is just 2 galvanised scaffolding poles welded to make a triangle with a non-galvanised cross beam. Now I have 2 round wheels, the suspension units seem OK. The piggy-back launching trolley is similarly a cross-beam with wheels, with a length of conduit in a U-shape to form the bit you pull or push into the water. All gloriously simple and cheap.

When I was young, I would have taken this on.

It remains to be seen whether Freecycle, Freegle or the local sailing club have anyone brave enough, as I think we are in a smokeless zone.

[T i m]

I'm not sure that would go quite as far as my little Tirfor 'Jockey' (wire rope puller) that I think has a 300kg 'pull' and that seems to be quite a bit, when you start cranking.

Well that's a little incentive for someone. ;-)

KISS generally works well for such things.

I do hope you find someone and that they do carry it through. If they can there is a lot of satisfaction to be using something you rescued from the brink. ;-)

I nearly did that tonight re Mums old Creda spin dryer ... until I noticed how rusty the inner casing was [1]. ;-(

Now I have a very clean 1962 1/10hp electric motor to play with. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] Water must have been laying in there for years as the pump couldn't actually pump it dry. What was very obvious when I stripped it down was just how nicely things were made in those days. Everything could be stripped down and most of the fasteners just undid with my Leatherman.

Same with her old Hoover Ariston 1000 washing machine main drum bearings which were still perfect and I know they had never been changed.