3 replies to this topic

[kseroski70]

First off, just back from a 2 week R&R. Didn't go anywhere except the local lakes (Caesar Creek & East Fork). So a shout out to the 5 other Sea Doos I saw on Caesar Creek.

For those of you who have asked about top speed, I had my 2010 Challenger SE (255HP) clocking at 58 speedo/56 GPS with just me and a half tank of gas. Let's call it 57 since neither is 100% accurate. Felt like I was flying when standing up. When balls to the wall like that it does guzzle the gas. But I could maintain 45 at half power.

Now the question. I am looking to buy a spare tire for the trailer. Currently it has ST185/80 D13's on it. Almost all I can find locally are ST175's. One Marina has a ST185 in stock, but they want $60 more for it. I couple of the tire places said ST175's should be fine on it. I only want it for a spare, but as I would NEVER mix and match on an auto, I was looking for some opinions on the sizing question.

[Kevin Leclair]

Sounds like a great time, do you have any pictures you can share?

That sounds like a great speed for 180 Challenger.

I bought our spare for the trailer at West Marine. Our trailer is for a 210 Wake so we have the tandom-axle. We also could not find a direct replacement (exact size) without spending quite a bit more money. My thought process was it is a spare so it will only be used for a short period of time so it should be okay.

Our factory tire is a 185/80 D13 (left picture) and our spare is a 175/80 D13 (right picture) so it the spare is just one size narrower. So as you can see we were in the exact same boat as you, literally (lol).

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Our challenge is now finding a spare tire mount that will work with our setup, they offer them on the custom trailer from SeaDoo but the dealer has not been able to locate that part number for me to order for our galvanized trailer. The key is it appears to be a 45/45 angle so the bow of the boat will clear it when pulling onto the trailer. Most most mounts I have seen are 45/90 which will cause the bow of the boat to rub on the tire when pulling back onto the trailer. The mount we are looking for is featured on this 2011 230 Wake's customer trailer.

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[kseroski70]

Found a D-class tire that wasn't too bad. C's came on the trailer and I was worried about the max load on the tires. If I am doing my calculations correctly I have just over 100 lbs over dry weight before the tire is maxed out. Guy from Karavan trailers only said "Yes , some concern that with full gear and fuel you would be over the trailers rated capacity" and told me which 14" would fit. Its an even stranger size because of the plastic wheel wells. Now its a mounting issue.

Longer term I will replace the C's with the D's.

I bought one of the Fulton mounts and painted it black and mounted it just behind the VIN on the trailer. That puts it 4 inches from the hull of the boat. I am going to try it right behind the winch and see if I like it better tonight.

Also added some pics to the gallery.

[H-do-O]

All you have to do is swith around your jack and put a spare tire carrier on the oppo side of your boat winch and jack. There is plenty of room there. I did this and was still able to use my swing tounge. All those tires should work. I put some large tires on my trailer when i drove from washington to oklahoma because the boat(full of my things) weighed close to 5000lbs. Of course I burned up the transmission in my murano, but that is beside the point. haha. I cut half the metal brace off under the finder just to make sure there was plenty of clearance. also raised the fender about 1 inch for clearance. The boat pulled way better with bigger tires. This is the only pic I could find of the spare tire position and the larger wheels.

Attached Files

•  spare tire.jpg   125.8KB   16 downloads