Wheel sizes and hub spacers for '73-'87 P/U

[inlikeflint]

Howdy,

I have one of those pickem'up bed trailers made out of a Chevy frame, rear axle, and 8 food bed, and I'm not sure where to find the VIN# (since that is usually in the cab)... so, I am left to speculate what sort of rear end of truck that I have.

I know it is a Chevy, the tailgate gave it away, and I know that if I want to get the right kind of real tail light covers, I have to have ones made for 1973-1987 Chevy truck. The wheel hubs have 6 lugs... so that might mean something. (I have a '96 Suburban with 8 lugs and lots of people are always asking me if I am interested in selling it... It's another story)...

Anyway, here is my dilemma;
I decided to get newer tires for my trailer. Preforably used because I use the trailer for junking, hauling, and dumping. The wheels are mismatched and kind of has a Fred Sanford thing going on. The tires are 235/75R15's and I was just going to get a set from a used tire store, and for some reason they want too much for used tires this size... so I searched my local Craigslist and ended up buying used wheels on newer steelies that were 16" ant matched my suburban's look and everything was lovey-dovey until I went to mount and then that is when I discovered that 265/75/R16 rubs on the inside wheel wells , but it looks really good, and I have the wheels, so I figured, maybe I can get some wheel spacers... (I only need two, so, I'm sure e-bay has my back or maybe an auto salvage yard might have a couple).


The question is... what measurements do I need to be concerned with? (Since my hub center is a little large) Every place I go to put in my vehicle year and model identifier tells me that I need 5 lugs and not 6... I realize that my current steelies are set out at about 5" instead of 3" like my old steelie and mismatched trailer style wheel are. I watched a few Youtube videos on how to cut the wheels out and re-weld them and I am confident that I could pull that off, but it would seem to me that If I just got a set of spacers I could just fix my problem for less than $60.00... so I decided to join this forum and see if anybody else can relate to what I'm babbling on about, and point me in the right direction.