@%$*&? Dadnabit Harbor Freight wheels

[Roly Nelson]

I wanted to make round masonite disks to hide the spokes on my new Harbor Freight 12 inch wheels, so used my 13 year old spare tire wheel, as a sample to get the right size. My lathe won't handle such a large circle, so I fashioned a centering pin on my table saw and slowly turned the masonite across the saw blade. Wow, it worked great, nice and smooth and absolutely perfectly round. However, it was over a quarter of an inch too big to fit on my recently purchased HF trailer wheels!

Not a problem, although quite a surprise. So I repositioned the centering pin to re-cut it to the proper size, using the new wheel off of the new trailer, no sweat. However, after making two of them, I found that the wheel on the other side was even slightly smaller, so had to crank it down to match it. Now, I know these disks are absolutely round, but the HF steel wheel isn't, so it had to be altered to fit within the rim. I've had nothing but good things to say about HF stuff on my trailers, but I was disapointed to find out that the wheels are some-what egg shaped. Here's hoping it won't be a problem as I traverse the interstate at 65 mph. I've got over 30,000 miles on my woodie's HF wheels and so far so good. This slight irregularity surely won't affect the outside roundness of the tire.
Roly, cranking out another one to bring to Shasta

[halfdome, Danny]

Roly, I'm wondering how that egg shape wheel would effect the wheel bearings.
Sorry, never was a fan of HF trailers.
I saw a camping weekend ruined when the bearings went out and the owner spent some time finding replacements.
Danny

[mary and bob]

I would jack up one wheel at a time so it's off the ground, put a block of wood close to the tire, and spin the wheel and see if it is out of round or wobbles. Foreign made products come with a decrease in quality sometimes!

[Shadow Catcher]

I have my wheels balanced and this would also find if they are true. I would go along with Bob, find if they are true and also check radial run-out, if not return then till you find ones that are.

[Kevin & Sandy]

I bought a HF trailer to customize and make a kayak hauler out of it. I broke one of the u-bolts that hold the axle to the spring just assembling it. (I had not began to torque it down yet.) So I bought another set of spring mount pads and 8 bolts and tossed the other ubolts in the trash. I just sandwiched the plates together with Grade 8 bolts.

Once I got that together, I mounted the wheels and gave them a spin. One had a severe wobble, BUT it turned out the hub was off! The wheel was actually pretty true. The hubs on this trailer are stamped sheetmetal on the face and very easy to get a wobble in them. A little hammer massage and a magnetic dial indicator stuck to the trailer frame fixed it.

I will use this trailer to pull my 100 lb kayak, and only go about 35 miles from home, and it should handle that. The rest of the trailer looks okay and if I got a better axle I think it would last forever, so carefully look over components when buying these.

I will admit, due to the light load I expected to haul, I did buy the lightest, cheapest trailer with 12" wheels they had to offer.

[angib]

Roly, are you fitting the disc to the outer flange of the wheel (A)? If that isn't perfect, I wouldn't be worried as it is the diameter and roundness at the tire bead seat (B) that will matter.

hf-wheel2.JPG (23.87 KiB) Viewed 570 times

[Roly Nelson]

Yep, my disks on cut to the outer rim. I checked the roundness of both tires when jacked up, and they are almost perfect. No sweat.
Roly

[mary and bob]

Will these discs be easily removable to check the lug nuts. There's the start of a whole other discussion, how tight, how often to check them, do you lube or anti-seize them. It became such a lengthy heated discussion on another trailer forum that a moderator finally locked it.

[Vedette]

Roly
You surprised me! 12" wheels??
Due to the distances you tow, I thought for sure you would be running much larger wheels on your new build.
The look sounds cool though.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi
PS
The Dam is only just over 2 months away!
We really look forward to seeing you!