Howdy I'm helping my daughter build a Mini Coffee Truck and I would like to upgrade the wheel and tire size to carry some extra weight. Will a 13" or 14" wheel fit without modifications? Any thoughts? Thank you
Your better bet might be to see if you can source 12-ply tiny tires from Japan. Most of the 13 and 14-inch tires that will fit without lots of modifications, don’t have the highest of load ratings.
Anything more than 1,000 lbs or so isn't going to be good for the truck itself. Not sure that's how much she will need but seems like a lot for a coffee truck.. If you go to a 155/65r14 then you can get a tire that will take 44 PSI and support about 1,000 lbs each
I’d look at keeping the added weight down as much as possible. There are some good videos on youtube about making foam cored cabinets for van conversions, which you might want to checkout.
Thank you both. We have been working on keeping the weight down as best as possible but some of the equipment and water will be the most weight. The canopy structure will be minimal and the interior finishes will be a light weight panels. I'm trying to not have modifications to the suspension if possible. I will check out a heavier rated tire from Japan. I'm not sure where to start any thoughts? I will definitely check out the videos about the van conversions. Thanks for your help.
On my van I run 155 X 12 8 ply tires, max load 1235 # @ 65 # pressure. See "TORQUE" as the name on them. Don't know if these are available in the states. Fred
This summer we had issue with our pool and had to replace the liner. We decided to buy a water tank and a gas pump instead of paying for water transport. The water tank has a capacity of 200 gallons. I was able to fill it to about 190 gallons per trip. The water alone weight 1584 lbs. If I do the math: 190 gallons of water, the weight of the empty tank, the honda pump, the plywood bed-liner, all the added weight of the custom dump bed.... I am over 2000 pounds. I did beef up the rear frame when I built the dump and added sumo springs to the rear suspension. I was obviously not driving on public road and at low speed at all time. I had one steep hill to climb and was able to do it on low gear second speed. I was above the rating of the tires but they always include a large security factor. I would not run that sort of weight on the road but these trucks can handle way more than what they are rated for.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/293632259355 These tires have a Single tire load rating of 88, or 1235-lbs. The stock tires have a load rating of 77, or 930-lbs. I’d still try to build any cabinets, etc. as light as possible. This guy has a pretty good method.
That is interesting and good information. We are choosing the equipment needed so i have the total weight of the equipment and water. I don't think we would even get close to what you were carrying. Thanks for the info.
