Ben-hur

Coming from a military vehicle background when I see "Ben Hur" trailer I immediately think of the large cargo trailer from WW2. Primarily built by Ben Hur, but others as well. They used the same wheels and tires as a CCKW 2 1/2 truck and are extremely heavy. I know because I have the chassis for one in my list of projects. I forget that Ben Hur was a civilian manufacturer and made smaller/lighter trailers.

 

I always think of the military Ben Hur also. This is my recently restored '41 1-ton. I normally have it behind a Dodge, but decided to take it to our base camp behind my 3B this summer. Towed great, lots of room to sleep in.

 

I recently purchased a Ben Hur Model 2247 and have some questions about wheels and tires. Mine came with rotted 6.00x16 tires on a 16x5 rim with, I think, a 5x5.5 bolt pattern. Those of you who have replaced the rims with aftermarket, which size did you go with, 15 or 16, width, and which offset or backspace worked best? I'm not sure if my rims are worth saving. I'll be using this trailer for off-road travel and camping. Thank you!

 

I have a David Bradley but the issue may be the same. I decided not to go with farm implement replacement rims but that created a problem for me. The original rims had an extremely shallow 2-1/8 inch backspacing. Most rims for vehicles will have a lot more backspacing, 3-3/4 inches for instance. Which meant that with my replacements the tires were going to rub the tub so I had my axle widened. If my trailer had been in better condition I probably wouldn't have widened the axle, preferring to keep it original. But since it was so rough I didn't care. I went with 15 inch wheels.