Harbor Freight Hickup

[luneywan]

Greetings,

I was assembling my trailer yesterday. But I wasn't doing a very good job. Seems I kept striping the nuts.

Now I know I'm a clutz , but I normally get most of my nuts and bolts on without much complication.

I took a good look and discovered that some of the nuts were slightly too small.

Looks like they came off a diferent machine or from a diferent factory and don't fit.

Guess I'll be buying some more nuts , But if you are building a HF trailer.........

Pip

[s4son]

I didn't use a bolt together frame so I'm not speaking from experience but, you might want to think about using lock nuts. I'm sure other folks will chime in.

Scott F.

[jeep_bluetj]

The HF trailers come with nyloks (well, at least mine did)

They're metric, so if you're replacing nuts, it's not going to be 3/8ths. (8mm? 10mm? Can't remember offhand...) And, use nylocks, or good lockwashers, or some red loctite.

[Benthosboy]

And, use nylocks, or good lockwashers, or some red loctite.

But don't forget that, strictly speaking, Nylocks are single use and aren't re-usable. After one use, the nylon insert will have a thread of sorts cut into it which only becomes looser with every use.
For sure, in our ocassionally ghastly "must-have-it-finished-before-it's-started, I want it NOW, I need it yesterday" society, Nylocks have their place but at the risk of being called old-fashioned, what ever happened to tried and tested engineering methods such as castle nuts with split pins and wiring bolt heads together?? If my old boss from my apprentice days was dead, he'd turn in his grave at the modern age

Martyn.

[mikeschn]

The wired nuts are mil spec stuff.

Here in the auto industry we use crimped nuts and positive locking nuts (i.e. metal to metal interference.)

Oh, we are talking home use here... okay, locktite, nylock, and an occassional cotter pin should do the trick.

Mike...

[jeep_bluetj]

For the purpose of holding a HF trailer together, nyloks are great. After a few months those imported bolts will corrode directly to the nuts anyway. It's a good, easy, simple solution.

For a nut on a tie-rod-end? Better be a cotter pin or a wire.

For the nuts holding a jackscrew that controls elevator trim on an airplane? That's a safety wire.

All have thier purposes. We should be thankful that the HF trailers have any kind of hardware to resist loosening up .

[luneywan]

Thanks for your support.

My trailer's nuts and bolts all came in inches. Replaced them with equivalents. Yes they are nylock. No I didn't use locktite, because I may "rearange" the trailer later.

This is viewed as an experiment, so I'm leaving everything undo-able.

Also I expect to tighten until I do undo too. Do you undo too?

All I can say is it only took two trips to the hardware store.

Tomorrow I'll start the electrics.

Pip

[bobhenry]

For those of you safty concious folk what is wrong with simply using lockwashers and then double nutting the connection. The jam nut will not allow the 1st nut to backup and the lockwasher can't hurt. If I didn't want it to rattle apart I would jamb ( Double ) nut any connection I deamed critical and I'm still here!

[Steve_Cox]

Surprised no one mentioned torquing the bolts and nuts for safety. Over tightened bolts can easily break, especially those Chinese unknown grade ones without any markings. I am rebuilding an imported kayak trailer right now, and one of the things I am doing is using grade 8 bolts w/interference type nuts, and tightening them with a torque wrench. For me, it is just part of the fun of a project like this, sure it is overkill, but the torque wrench adds to the enjoyment of the rebuild.

[jeep_bluetj]

Trailer building and Torque wrenches? Huh?

I looked, my "lincoln" trailer wrench doesn't have any torque settings

I "undo" with a grinder. "redo" with the red box again. Redo is easy. Undo causes many bad words to be said.


OOOh, I'll add a tiny bit of actual value:

Always torque U-bolts. It's very important. Use proper locking hardware for U-bolts also (I personally use lockwashers and dblnut. Most commercial trailers I've seen just use lockwashers)

[Joanne]

Don't need no lock-tite. Don't need no nylock nut. Just need my hammer to bash the treads with...

Joanne

[madjack]

Don't need no lock-tite. Don't need no nylock nut. Just need my hammer to bash the treads with...

Joanne

...Joanne, the proper technical term for that process is known as "dinging" the threads ...................

[Kevin A]

Don't need no lock-tite. Don't need no nylock nut. Just need my hammer to bash the treads with...

Joanne

...Joanne, the proper technical term for that process is known as "dinging" the threads ...................

No No No, you've all got it wrong. the correct method is "Rocktite" Ya roll the lugnuts around in the dirt then put em on the studs, they won't come loose.

[Joanne]

Don't need no lock-tite. Don't need no nylock nut. Just need my hammer to bash the treads with...

Joanne

...Joanne, the proper technical term for that process is known as "dinging" the threads ...................

Hey MJ!

I'm not sure you are right about that. My dad never said I "dinged" the threads. Of course on a family forum I can't repeat what he said I did.

Have a great evening.
Joanne

[Joanne]

Don't need no lock-tite. Don't need no nylock nut. Just need my hammer to bash the treads with...

Joanne

...Joanne, the proper technical term for that process is known as "dinging" the threads ...................

No No No, you've all got it wrong. the correct method is "Rocktite" Ya roll the lugnuts around in the dirt then put em on the studs, they won't come loose.

Kevin, that's funny!! "Rocktite". I've never heard that one before. One guy on another forum has the signature "Cross threaded is stronger than locktite" My dad had a lot to say about my cross threading bolts too....

Take care,
Joanne