303RLS 15 to 16 tire upgrade

[John303]

My 2017 303RLS came with 15" tires. After discovering a broken spring hanger, I reevaluated the whole suspension and decided to have Morryde install their IS; appt is at the beginning of May next year. I understand the IS will add more weight to the tires, so this seems a perfect time to go to 16" tires. This means I will need to purchase new rims and tires. I wanted go with load range G tires, but I am discovering the interplay between rim size, tire size and tire ratings to be working against me. For instance, I initially thought the Lionshead rim that GD uses, which is 16" x 6" 6 on 5-1/2, which you can see at https://www.etrailer.com/Boat-Traile...74-000008.html would work well. But the width is only 6.0", and in looking at Sailun https://www.sailuntire.ca/plt/S637st.html I see they require a 6.5" width, not the 6.0" of the Lionshead rim. To get a 6.5" rim I seem to have to go to 8 lug nuts instead of the 6 I currently have. So after going round and round, here is my question to any who might have upgraded their 15" tires to 16", what specific combination of rim and tire did you go to? Thanks!

[Canyonlight]

As posted on other threads, we did have the GDRV Factory Service Center upgrade out 5.2K axles and 15" tires/wheels to 6K axles and the 16" wheels/tires GDRV uses on factory production units (Lionshead wheels and Westlake E tires.)

Other folks (Gary & Marcy @WhittleBurner) have changed to other tire brands but I do not recall others right off the cuff. Hopefully they will chime in.

Dan

[WhittleBurner]

John, We did upgrade but we also started out new with oem 16" Westlakes and Lionshead wheel so switching to Sailuns was a non issue for us. All we had to do was replace the rubber stem. We have 6 lugs.
We have the Lionshead wheel but don't know which one. I suppose if really necessary (it's getting cold out there!) we could crawl underneath and see if we can find any numbers on it.

[WhittleBurner]

John it is okay to mount tires on different size width's if they are close. Here's a link from Tire Rack that will explain it to you.

[jbarnes4868]

I used the etrailer rims with LT tires on ours. Have put about 15k on them now with no issues.

[John303]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I will also add the following as I have been doing further research. I received this from Sailun

John, thank you for your inquiry to Sailun Tires. In regard to your questions below, yes the ST235/85R16 will fit on the 16" X 6" rim. I have attached the load and inflation table for this size.

Safe travels,

Al Eagleson ‘ACE’
Segment Manager, Commercial Tires

So Sailun seems to be OK with a 6.5" tire on a 6" rim, which agrees nicely with everyone's experience. I did uncover a couple of 6.5" wide rims with 6 lugs in case anyone is interested. The link does not seem to paste, so you may have to copy and paste. https://recstuff.com/trailer-wheels/...ategory_page=1

[Dentil]

We switched from 15" to 16" Lions Head Jaguar wheels wheels on our 2016 303. We installed 235/80/16 Goodyear Endurance with on the 6" wide wheel and have been happy with our choice so far.

[John303]

We switched from 15" to 16" Lions Head Jaguar wheels wheels on our 2016 303. We installed 235/80/16 Goodyear Endurance with on the 6" wide wheel and have been happy with our choice so far.

Dentil, when you made that switch was there any issue with the brake drum size? For instance are brake drums bigger on a trailer that comes from the factory with 16" rims as OEM? I found this rim https://www.etrailer.com/Tires-and-W...M22658HWT.html , and in looking at the back side of the rims the 16" looks like it has more surface area than the 16" Lionshead; but it is really hard to tell from the picture alone. The rim in the link touts some sort of ICF technology that improves the clamping, but I do not know if that requires a different kind of drum. I wish GD would have just put a proper suspension on from the get go...(sigh) grumpy rant over.

[Dentil]

Dentil, when you made that switch was there any issue with the brake drum size? For instance are brake drums bigger on a trailer that comes from the factory with 16" rims as OEM? I found this rim https://www.etrailer.com/Tires-and-W...M22658HWT.html , and in looking at the back side of the rims the 16" looks like it has more surface area than the 16" Lionshead; but it is really hard to tell from the picture alone. The rim in the link touts some sort of ICF technology that improves the clamping, but I do not know if that requires a different kind of drum. I wish GD would have just put a proper suspension on from the get go...(sigh) grumpy rant over.

Hi John,
The 15" and 16" 6 lug wheels with the 5.5 bolt pattern were exactly the same in my case except for a larger diameter. The hubs/brakes are the same specs on both applications. I purchased my wheels from the link below. Mine are 6" wide. I noticed the wheels you linked to from etrailer are 6.5" wide. The back of those wheels look the same to me. I'm not familiar with ICF technology. I hope this answers your question.
Dennis
http://www.trailertiresandwheels.com...r-Silver-6-5.5