Harbor freight trailer will break and crack over time. ?????

[starleen2]

Stressing over perfection will rob much of the pleasure and convenience that a TD can provide for some people...

A sad, well known, but never mentioned fact is that in many cases an imported trailer from Harbor Freight is of higher quality than the materials and workmanship on the rest of some amateur home built camping trailers.

Well said Larwyn

[Arne]

I agree, at least about the 1,740# trailer.. The C channel it is made from is extremely strong.

If not using nylock nuts, I would use loctite red on regular nuts, and it is good to go..

[eamarquardt]

........there are many new people who take the postings of this board as gospel..Len

Couldn't let this one slip by. Anyone who takes any post on this or any forum needs to have their head examined.

Some of the thoughts expressed on this forum will get you killed or worser.

My favorite is the where the individual who kept tripping the GFI by their patio with power tools. Solution: Remove the GFI. Problem solved! For the moment!

The "Darwin Award" program exists for a reason. Some deserve it!

A pretty down to earth fellow once said: "Trust but verify". Sage advise.

Cheers,

Gus

[len19070]

Lets have one real first hand story about a HF freight Trailer that flew apart While being used under the Manufactures guidelines.

Lets see some pictures, a few stories, a little Blood...some gore and a little more than an opinion or hearsay.

Let the original guy come forward.

Show what he/she's got.

But What about the Frame You purchased from Harbor Freight??

That's what we're talking about.

How old it?

Is it holding up well?

How many miles is on it?

Has the paint faded like others have reported?

Has it broken in half?

And if so were you using it as recommended?

Anybody...Tell us your personal experience with this product flying apart while running down the road.??

Please.

Anybody, anybody Beuller, Beuller

Happy Trails

Len

An entire Day and no solid Proof of these Trailers are "Flying apart as they go down the road"

Actually 3 days.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this Myth, barring any blatant disregard for the Manufacturers recommended restrictions....

Is Busted

So go forth New Builders and fear not the Harbor Freight Frame. If ye buildith light and with the manufactures guild lines in mind, yeah shall ye not fear the flinging of important parts, nor the division of it from its self from you Frame

If I'm wrong Please let me know. I'll post a retraction.

Happy Trails

Len

[Endo]

So go forth New Builders and fear not the Harbor Freight Frame. If ye buildith light and with the manufactures guild lines in mind, yeah shall ye not fear the flinging of important parts, nor the division of it from its self from you Frame

[len19070]

........there are many new people who take the postings of this board as gospel..Len

Couldn't let this one slip by. Anyone who takes any post on this or any forum needs to have their head examined.

Some of the thoughts expressed on this forum will get you killed or worser.

My favorite is the where the individual who kept tripping the GFI by their patio with power tools. Solution: Remove the GFI. Problem solved! For the moment!

The "Darwin Award" program exists for a reason. Some deserve it!

A pretty down to earth fellow once said: "Trust but verify". Sage advise.

Cheers,

Gus

Yep,

Just like the guy that told everybody here that if you hook up a Charge line from your tow vehicle that it will make 24 volts and burn up both the Tow vehicle and the Trailer.

If I understand what everyone here is saying, you are going to connect a wire to a second battery to your existing one to charge the trailer battery?...sure the battery will get a charge, but at the same time your turning your cars electrical system into 24 volts!...even if you use a relay and fuses, you can ruin an ECM better known as a computer that runs your engine.

The guy also qualified by saying that he wire's houses....110VAC 12VDC what ever it takes.

Happy Trails

Len

[Dan & Julie CO]

You guy's got me Thinking So I went out to the Garage to look at my nearly road worthy Teardrop and S**T my Tearsdrop spontaneously combusted all on it's own I havent even had it on the road yet
Thanks Guy's I really Dodged a Bullet
P.S. Lockness and Bigfoot are real "Seriously" Don't Mock Me!!!!!

[BPFox]

If you own and pull trailers long enough you are bound to have a problem or two. Most often it's wheel bearings and that is almost always because of bad maintenance. While I do not own a HF trailer, I would not hesitate to purchase one. That said I have had two on the road failures to trailers I was hauling. One was a trailer I built and one was a trailer I purchased.

I built my first trailer starting with a used axle from a snowmobile trailer. After ten years of service I had a spindle come off while traveling 55 mph down the highway. The weld had failed where the spindle attached to the axle shaft. I have no idea how old the axle was and there was no way to determine in advance (short of x-ray) that this failure would happen. So there I am, stuck on the side of the road with a trailer full of my daughters stuff as I was moving her down to Michigan State for school. So I did what I had to do, I left the trailer on the side of the road and drove 30 miles to the nearest Lowes and baught a new trailer. Problem solved.

My next trailer failure happened with a 5x8 'Red" trailer from Quality Farm and Fleet. This was a tilting trialer that used to haul line striping equipment around. One day I felt the trailer bouncing up and down. When I looked back, sure enough the trailer was bobbing up and down. I pulled over and found that the bracket the the tongue pivots on when tilting the trailer had broken free from the frame. Since the trailer had never been overloaded I assumed this was a deffective weld right from the get go. After making a temporary road side repair I returned to the shop where the bracket could be rewelded.

The bottom line here is you can have failures no matter where the trailer comes from. Home built, custom built, over built, store baught you name it. The reality is trailer failures are pretty rare. But the only sure way to avoid them is to not own a trailer.

[Arne]

While I would not take one note as gospel, there are enough replies that I would usually trust the consensus...

I would think that with all the members on the board, at least 100 have used h/f trailers as a base (I have used 2)... so far, I've heard nothing about them disintegrating while in use.

The bearing issue is in the hands of the owner... as previously mentioned, in thousands of miles of towing t/d's, I have never had to replace a hot bearing (stock) on an h/f trailer. Or any bearing for that matter.. My professionally built utility trailer has pitted bearing in it, from being backed into the water to unload my small boat... I cleaned the bearings and even with pitted bearings, it has never caused a problem... bearings usually run hot from lack of grease or being over tightened, which forces the grease off the bearing surfaces....

I would not hesitate to use another h/f trailer if needed.

[afreegreek]

there's really no need to take anybody's word for anything. you are online with access to verifiable facts from reliable sources. you got a bearing in your hand? type in the number stamped on the race and you'll find out who made it, who sells it, what it's specs are, and who makes a real bearing to replace the POS in your hand from HF..

[eamarquardt]

I can't argue that no one has posted a credible report of a HF failure that wasn't predictable (showed prior warning such as tongue bending or whatever).

HOWEVER, it would appear that many are using some of the HF trailers to and silightly beyond their capacity (over 1500#).

In many states it is ILLEGAL (as is the case in my home state) to tow a trailer over 1500# w/o working brakes.

After reviewing the strings on brakes many feel that THEY will never have a problem because they are extra careful when towing without brakes, their tow vehicle has good brakes, and a multitude of other rationals.

FACT: Virtually all accidents involve the coming together of a number of factors in the right (wrong) combination. The care of the driver of the tow vehicle being only one of said factors. You can't control all of the factors.

If you live and drive only in Kansas (only used as an example cause its probably pretty flat there), tow with vehicle large compared to the the trailer, and the stars that cause accidents remain "out of alignment" you'll probably be ok.

I would HATE to live with my self if I were involved in an fatal accident knowing that brakes might have made a differnce. I speak from experience as I (and my family) nearly was when I towed a tent trailer w/o brakes in the local mountains with a modern station wagon that was considerably heavier (and had disc/drum brakes) than the tent trailer. We barely made it down the mountain alive. It was, to say the least, an eye opening experience.

Knowing I'd be breaking the law and risking my life is enough to convince me that a HF trailer (that can't be fitted with brakes as far as I understand em) is not a good alternatives.

If anyone needs help building a better alternative, I'll help (actually do most of the work).

There you have it again, the world according to Gus. You, of course, are free to disagree but my logic is irrefutable.

Murphy was an optomist!

Cheers,

Gus

[CJflyer]

And they lived happily ever after. The End.

[boxcar]

Slow cowboy . I am the ofending poster.......If you are going to quote me please do so in the corect context. You were Talking about modifying a harbor freight trailer for OFF ROAD use.OFF ROAD ..... And I posted that considering all the mods required to convert a harbor freight trailer to off road use it would be wiser to build one from scratch. While the H/F trailer works very well for light loads .Smooth roads and the ocational tow down a graval road . It was never intended to be towed down a washboarded road whith a full load on it for its entire life ...I will look up the origanal posts and post them here later....Boxcar.

[Shadow Catcher]

Slowcowboy, I am beginning to note a pattern (two threads that I remember), you appear to ask for opinions and when they are counter to what you have already done, tend to become upset with the messenger, and to some extent attack/become defensive. Calling some one a gomer because they did not say what you wanted to hear is unacceptable.
Enjoy what you have and as long as it fills your needs, if it breaks fix it or renew it. If the HF fails do a teardrop transplant on to a more substantial frame.

[len19070]

Slow cowboy . I am the ofending poster.......If you are going to quote me please do so in the corect context. You were Talking about modifying a harbor freight trailer for OFF ROAD use.OFF ROAD ..... And I posted that considering all the mods required to convert a harbor freight trailer to off road use it would be wiser to build one from scratch. While the H/F trailer works very well for light loads .Smooth roads and the ocational tow down a graval road . It was never intended to be towed down a washboarded road whith a full load on it for its entire life ...I will look up the origanal posts and post them here later....Boxcar.

Myth Busted and confirmed.

Lets have one real first hand story about a HF freight Trailer that flew apart While being used under the Manufactures guidelines.

Lets see some pictures, a few stories, a little Blood...some gore and a little more than an opinion or hearsay.

Let the original guy come forward.

Show what he/she's got.

But What about the Frame You purchased from Harbor Freight??

That's what we're talking about.

How old it?

Is it holding up well?

How many miles is on it?

Has the paint faded like others have reported?

Has it broken in half?

And if so were you using it as recommended?

Anybody...Tell us your personal experience with this product flying apart while running down the road.??

Please.

Anybody, anybody Beuller, Beuller

Happy Trails

Len

An entire Day and no solid Proof of these Trailers are "Flying apart as they go down the road"

Actually 3 days.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this Myth, barring any blatant disregard for the Manufacturers recommended restrictions....

Is Busted

So go forth New Builders and fear not the Harbor Freight Frame. If ye buildith light and with the manufactures guild lines in mind, yeah shall ye not fear the flinging of important parts, nor the division of it from its self from you Frame

If I'm wrong Please let me know. I'll post a retraction.

Happy Trails

Len

So go forth New Builders and fear not the Harbor Freight Frame. If ye buildith light and with the manufactures guild lines in mind, yeah shall ye not fear the flinging of important parts, nor the division of it from its self from you Frame

Happy Trails

Len