Harbor Freight 870lb trailer

[leftyz]

Anyone have any experience with this, the cheapest of trailers?

I just bought one using a 25% off coupon, it came up to around $150 shipped.

I bought it planning on gifting it to my Dad, he has an old welder/generator, that I hope will fit on it and not be too heavy. The only other thing I'm really worried about besides those possible issues, is if the trailer + welder will end up too top heavy. We live in a very hilly rural area, and I would expect it to get pulled up and down dirt roads and out in the fields.

Anyways, I figured for the price I'd give it a shot... What do you think?

 

[sands35]

I use one as a tire/tool trailer for my track day car. Works well for what it is. You will want to wire in a ground wire for the lights. It (at least used to) use the chassis as the ground - which promptly failed the 1st day out.

Get the one with 12 inch tires. You will want to order a spare set of wheel bearings as they are not common sizes.

The only real inconvenient part is that the wheel base and tongue are really short, so backing up is near impossible, but it's small and light enough that pushing it around by hand is easy enough.

 

[leftyz]

I use one as a tire/tool trailer for my track day car. Works well for what it is. You will want to wire in a ground wire for the lights. It (at least used to) use the chassis as the ground - which promptly failed the 1st day out.

Get the one with 12 inch tires. You will want to order a spare set of wheel bearings as they are not common sizes.

The only real inconvenient part is that the wheel base and tongue are really short, so backing up is near impossible, but it's small and light enough that pushing it around by hand is easy enough.

I have already ordered it.. I don't think it'll get pulled on the blacktop roads too much, we can wheel it in the back of a truck if we have to go too far.

It is this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/870-lb...inch-wheels-and-tires-42708.html#.UyM_goWmX8Y

Thanks for the tip on the lights, I'm not even sure we will use them!

 

[lisiecki1]

A friend has one that was purchased for an older, quite large, generator. The trailer is more than adequate for the load, but the tongue was a pile of twisting ****.

He replaced the tongue with a piece of .125" 2x2 tubing and it's been fine since.

 

[leftyz]

A friend has one that was purchased for an older, quite large, generator. The trailer is more than adequate for the load, but the tongue was a pile of twisting ****.

He replaced the tongue with a piece of .125" 2x2 tubing and it's been fine since.

That's good to know, thanks!

I was originally going to try to fab something up, I may still do something for a utility trailer. I was thinking of stealing the rear tires from a go-kart frame and slapping something together, but when I saw the price for one of these it seemed like it was worth it to try.

 

[lisiecki1]

That's good to know, thanks!

I was originally going to try to fab something up, I may still do something for a utility trailer. I was thinking of stealing the rear tires from a go-kart frame and slapping something together, but when I saw the price for one of these it seemed like it was worth it to try.

FWIW the tongue on this trailer was like a piece of flanged c-channel. If they have changed the design to use a piece of tubing instead it may not be as bad.

 

[Chaz]

For the money they're a good trailer.

 

[Walterchang]

We bought the 1100 lbs version, Pretty nice for what it is. We had a grounding problem too. Add your own grounds and you'll be good to go.

 

[ibedayank]

http://www.harborfreight.com/950-lb-capacity-foldable-4-ft-x-8-ft-utility-trailer-with-8-inch-wheels-and-tires-42709.html

I bought this one 15 years ago and so far has traveled through 5 states and multiple 100mile plus trips and so far only had to replace the tires once. Do not overload them and will last a long time. And regrease bearings before putting it togather with good bearing grease. Stock grease was like peanutbutter

 

[c4cruiser]

I used a version of that trailer for hauling my race slicks and a tool box. It worked great for that purpose.

But I would suggest upgrading the wheels/tires to the 12" size. You will get a little more load capacity and you can haul the trailer at freeway speeds with no issues.

When I bought my trailer, it came in a box so I spent an afternoon assembling everything. While the nuts and bolts were OK for assembly, I wound up welding the corners of the frame together and the center crossmember. I also upgraded the lights to LED versions so I didn't have to mess with swapping out the turn signal flasher on my car. And definitely provide a good frame ground for the lighting!!

The other thing I replaced was the safety chains. The chains that came on the trailer were way too light so I bought some heavier chains.

I pulled the hubs off and cleaned and re-packed the bearings. There wasn't a whole lot of grease in there and they probably would not have lasted 6 months if I hadn't done that. The bearings and races are a standard size so buy a set and keep them on the trailer somewhere.

I bought a spare tire and made a bracket to have it underslung at the front part of the frame. I also bought a tongue jack with a wheel. That made it easy to push the trailer around for storage.

 

[48fordnut]

c4 we found the same thing on the bearings. a friend uses one behind his motor cycle. I thought of gettin one to haul my jon boat. Some wood rails for the length of the boat, 10 ft.

 

[leftyz]

I talked to my Dad about it and he seemed to think it was a waste of money since the welder has an eye hook on top and he's got a loader to lift it into a truck if needed. Then I noticed I got an email from paypal saying I didn't have enough for the credit card transfer to go through so I guess I'm not getting it after all. *shrug* thanks for the input anyhow.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

If you choose to go through with this in the future, purpose dedicated trailers like this can be useful. I'd recommend a tongue jack at the minimum and either jack stands or drop down jacks in the back corners to give you a stable three point stabilized platform. They can be *very* tippy otherwise when parked and a live load.

 

[leftyz]

Thanks Dan, I had planned on a tongue jack for sure, I wouldn't think that we would want it sitting at a sharp angle for long periods of time, but extra stability in the rear sounds like it would be a good idea too.

 

[southalabama]

Ditto above. Repack bearings before using

 

[sands35]

If you choose to go through with this in the future, purpose dedicated trailers like this can be useful. I'd recommend a tongue jack at the minimum and either jack stands or drop down jacks in the back corners to give you a stable three point stabilized platform. They can be *very* tippy otherwise when parked and a live load.

When I go to the track, I bring 2 jack stands. One for the track car and one for the trailer. I shove it under the tail end of the trailer so it doesn't flop around.