NHmitch
Platinum Member
Glad that it was good reading! I agree about the overbuilds, and I was actually very surprised that some of the people put full size jeep tires on the trailers. That was a great link for the axel, and that would be a great place to price an axel to build a trailer, or replace a broken/rusted axel. That is an impressive side set up that you built for yours! I received my stake bed sides today but not until after I spoke with the Harbor Freight Customer Service in India for 20 minutes. They were terrible! I could barley hear them, and there was an echo that reminded me of some of my overseas calls from third world countries in the military. The girl just sat there, and would not answer me, and when I asked the status of my order, she said that they sent me a 7hp engine instead, and that I would have to send it back, wait for a refund, and re-purchase the item again. Then about an hour later, the correct part arrived at my door? Oh-well, I am happy that I got it. The sides are painted red, unlike the galvanized one that you have. I think that the galvanized ones were the way to go, and they probably should have galvanized the whole trailer. I'll post some photos when I have it compleatly togeather, but I was ble to attach the floor board, and I painted it with Rustoleum Restore. It took an entire gallon for the 3X4 deck, but it is hard like armor. I made the mistake of not getting it tinted, and I am going to paint the top. On a side note, one of the best buys that I have made this year, was the 3/8 click torque wrench that I bought for $10. It came with a hard case, and it has saved me already, since I had made the expensive mistake of overtightened my lug nuts on my tractor rim, and I cracked the rim costing me quite a bit to replace the two front rims, and have them re-filled. The wrench works great! 3/8" Drive Click Type Torque Wrench
Wow! Thanks for pointing that out. It's up to 480+ posts. Lots of creative work shown.
In my opinion - many of them are overbuilding what is basically a lightweight and frankly cheap trailer. Everybody wants ground clearance; in my experience it's easier to just lift the trailer by hand over the very rare obstacles you can't aim a tire over. The 4.80-12 tire version of the HF trailer is obviously better than the 4.80-8 tire model but buying a new axle to go bigger than that seems wasteful. At some point just buying a custom jeep trailer would be the better alternative.
On mine the sides are 1/4" plywood prevented from spreading simply by resting against the fenders. Likewise my side stakes are bolted outside the chassis instead of using the stake pockets. This gives me about 10% more interior space than everybody on that site who used 1x4 stakes then put 1x4 rails inside those stakes. Then a tarp liner inside that. Seems to me they wasted scarce cargo capacity using that design. You don't need cattle-pen strength, only something comparable to an enclosed cartop carrier.
Also the wider replacement straight axles I see there don't improve ground clearance as much as a torsion replacement axle would. I replaced one under a tent trailer and it wasn't expensive. I would definitely consider it if I wanted ground clearance, I think getting the torsion 'axle' up off the ground and snug against the frame is more valuable than taller tires.
To summarize - the HF 40 x 48 trailers with 8" tires have worked well for me, the first one for offroad 4x4 camping and the second one standing up to bad abuse with a 2500 lb watering tank bolted on it.
If I were setting up an offroad jeep trailer I would buy the 12" tire version but not customize it beyond 1/4" plywood walls and a spare tire mount. Keep it light!
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