Wheels and bearings for larger sailers

The two seater class five our scouts have and the two seater LLF mini I built both use 8" alloy boat trailer wheels all round. These have the tapered bearings integral to the hub and are much more than strong enough for the job they do with up to a 750kg rating per pair of wheels limited by the tyre rating. The axle stubs to suit the tapered bearing size were cut off old trailers. ( holden LM series bearings 19.05mm (3/4 ") outer bearing, inner bearing 31.75mm (1.25"). A much heavier set up than plastic rims, guessing several kilograms a wheel / stub heavier though the six ply highway rated tyres could be replaced to reduce weight. More drag on the bearings than the fallshaws have as well. New seals have a lot of drag, old worn seals run much more freely. Oiling or very lightly greasing the bearings helps reduce friction too. A 1" parallel / tapered bearing set up as used on trailer axles to suit Mini minor wheels would be a bit lighter and up to the job if you can mate them to wheels. The 4 x 4 inch pattern of classic mini hubs can fit golf buggy wheels and some ATV wheels otherwise redrill the hub to a different pattern. We have been using a pair of 18 x 8.50 x 8 golf buggy wheels on home made 4 x 4" hubs using a pair of 6304 bearings for the rear end of various minis 5 years now and it has been reliable though the extra weight of these wheels causes a noticeable decrease in acceleration, once underway top speed is pretty similar. With the bolt on arrangement for the rear axles on the LLF Mini it is easy to experiment with whatever wheels you have at hand. Our first two minis used wheel barrow wheels which worked reasonably well with pilots below 40kg ( or two children on together) but never worked well and eventually failed when the adults jumped on.