Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2013 20:33:15 GMT 10
I just used my new Carastow caravan parking wheels on my tandem axle 22ft Viscount and thought that I'd let you know how well it went.
In case you don't know about this product they are temporary hubs and tyres that you swap over for your normal caravan road wheels to reduce the height of the caravan so it can fit into your garage. They are not designed for road use, or for speed, but limited to low speed driveway use. As the tyres are solid rubber, with no air I reckon you could probably do a bit of damage to your van if you used them at speed.
I needed a little bit more clearance to get the van into the garage than I could get by letting the air out of the tyres so the Carastow wheels seemed the best solution.
I purchased mine through eBay from a tyre dealer in Geelong, who couriered them to Melbourne for only $35. Here is the link to Bay City Tyres listing:
www.ebay.com.au/itm/190806680152?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2283wt_1135
I spoke to Nick from BCTyres a few times about the wheels and the most important thing is to get the stud pattern right. Being an old Viscount my old wheels were a Holden 5-stud pattern.
The holes for the studs are an elongated shape so there is a little bit of flexibility with the bolt positions. They are supposedly a "universal" 5 stud pattern design, but Nick said that in his experience they work for about 95% of 5 stud wheels - for some vans the stud are right but the brake cylinders are too big to fit the hub over.
I toyed with only buying two wheels, and just putting them on the rear axle and let the height of the towball keep the front brake cylinders off the ground, but thought this may lead to problems if we needed to move by hand, so I splurged and purchased 4 wheels.
I ordered them on a Wednesday afternoon, and was hoping for a Friday delivery, but they arrived Monday. They appear to be a good quality product with a solid, smooth rubber tyre around an off-white powder coated hub. The tyre has a slight bevel to one side and I assume this is to help with turning? There is no tread pattern so it looks like a little F1 tyre.
The tow vehicle is a Nissan Patrol 4x4 with a fairly high towball. Got the van backed into the driveway, then put a large trolley jack between the axles and changed the wheels over to the Carastow wheels on one side, and then hit our first snag.
The driveway has a slight slope upwards, the towball was quite high, and with the Carastow wheels on, the rear U-bolts around the suspension and axle were touching the ground. I had recently had some work done on the suspension and new U-bolts were fitted which projected a few centimetres below the axle.
For the other side we moved the trolleyjack around to the rear of the van and used the long edge beam as the jacking point, as there was not enough clearance (or concrete driveway) on this side.
Same problem with the U-bolts for the rear axle touching the concrete. Decided to back it up anyway as the U-bolts seemed to be just touching the concrete, not resting. Anyway after a bit of cursing I managed to add some neat parallel grooves to the length of the concrete driveway, and get the caravan up the length to the garage door.
Despite the top of the roof hatch now being a few centimetres below the underside of the beam over the garage door (whereas previously it was a few centimetres above) I decided to disconnect the tow vehicle as I didn't want to continue my U-bolt concrete driveway grooves into my new garage floor. So I was very pleased about buying four wheels, not just two.
By lowering the jockey wheel to its lowest position the U-bolts are now off the ground, and high enough to slide a piece of cardboard under, but not high enough to fit a finger under!
I think before I push the van in by hand I will borrow an angle grinder and shorten the bottom of the U-bolts.
So what I learnt about BCTyres Carastow wheels;
1) Allow a bit of extra time if you are having them couriered - and you need to be home to sign for the delivery (or pick them up yourself from Geelong). I am sure that there are other tyre dealers who sell them if you hunt around.
2) Check the diameter of your brake cylinder with Nick to make sure the Carastow wheel will fit over.
3) Check the underside of your van for projecting U-bolts etc that will be a lot closer to the ground with these low wheels, especially if you have a high tow vehicle.
4) I wouldn't recommend buying only two wheels for a tandem axle van - I think it may be unsafe, and if you have any slope you will have problems, like brake cylinders dragging on concrete.
In case you don't know about this product they are temporary hubs and tyres that you swap over for your normal caravan road wheels to reduce the height of the caravan so it can fit into your garage. They are not designed for road use, or for speed, but limited to low speed driveway use. As the tyres are solid rubber, with no air I reckon you could probably do a bit of damage to your van if you used them at speed.
I needed a little bit more clearance to get the van into the garage than I could get by letting the air out of the tyres so the Carastow wheels seemed the best solution.
I purchased mine through eBay from a tyre dealer in Geelong, who couriered them to Melbourne for only $35. Here is the link to Bay City Tyres listing:
www.ebay.com.au/itm/190806680152?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2283wt_1135
I spoke to Nick from BCTyres a few times about the wheels and the most important thing is to get the stud pattern right. Being an old Viscount my old wheels were a Holden 5-stud pattern.
The holes for the studs are an elongated shape so there is a little bit of flexibility with the bolt positions. They are supposedly a "universal" 5 stud pattern design, but Nick said that in his experience they work for about 95% of 5 stud wheels - for some vans the stud are right but the brake cylinders are too big to fit the hub over.
I toyed with only buying two wheels, and just putting them on the rear axle and let the height of the towball keep the front brake cylinders off the ground, but thought this may lead to problems if we needed to move by hand, so I splurged and purchased 4 wheels.
I ordered them on a Wednesday afternoon, and was hoping for a Friday delivery, but they arrived Monday. They appear to be a good quality product with a solid, smooth rubber tyre around an off-white powder coated hub. The tyre has a slight bevel to one side and I assume this is to help with turning? There is no tread pattern so it looks like a little F1 tyre.
The tow vehicle is a Nissan Patrol 4x4 with a fairly high towball. Got the van backed into the driveway, then put a large trolley jack between the axles and changed the wheels over to the Carastow wheels on one side, and then hit our first snag.
The driveway has a slight slope upwards, the towball was quite high, and with the Carastow wheels on, the rear U-bolts around the suspension and axle were touching the ground. I had recently had some work done on the suspension and new U-bolts were fitted which projected a few centimetres below the axle.
For the other side we moved the trolleyjack around to the rear of the van and used the long edge beam as the jacking point, as there was not enough clearance (or concrete driveway) on this side.
Same problem with the U-bolts for the rear axle touching the concrete. Decided to back it up anyway as the U-bolts seemed to be just touching the concrete, not resting. Anyway after a bit of cursing I managed to add some neat parallel grooves to the length of the concrete driveway, and get the caravan up the length to the garage door.
Despite the top of the roof hatch now being a few centimetres below the underside of the beam over the garage door (whereas previously it was a few centimetres above) I decided to disconnect the tow vehicle as I didn't want to continue my U-bolt concrete driveway grooves into my new garage floor. So I was very pleased about buying four wheels, not just two.
By lowering the jockey wheel to its lowest position the U-bolts are now off the ground, and high enough to slide a piece of cardboard under, but not high enough to fit a finger under!
I think before I push the van in by hand I will borrow an angle grinder and shorten the bottom of the U-bolts.
So what I learnt about BCTyres Carastow wheels;
1) Allow a bit of extra time if you are having them couriered - and you need to be home to sign for the delivery (or pick them up yourself from Geelong). I am sure that there are other tyre dealers who sell them if you hunt around.
2) Check the diameter of your brake cylinder with Nick to make sure the Carastow wheel will fit over.
3) Check the underside of your van for projecting U-bolts etc that will be a lot closer to the ground with these low wheels, especially if you have a high tow vehicle.
4) I wouldn't recommend buying only two wheels for a tandem axle van - I think it may be unsafe, and if you have any slope you will have problems, like brake cylinders dragging on concrete.
