HF chassis: making it a bit stronger

[nikwax]

After an unfortunate encounter with a Bulldog jack, one of the tongue struts (HF calls them Connecting Rails) on my chassis was a bit rotated. The cross brace (HF calls it Spare Tire Carrier) was a bit bent as well. After sorting the Connecting Rail, I decided to replace the cross brace, and while I was about it, install a second brace in the second set of mounting holes (directly below the primary ones).

I call HF and ordered up two braces. With shipping, the total bill was under $15. Now I have two cross braces, one above the other, one mounted to the top of the rail, the other to the bottom. This should add a measure of stability to the Connecting Rails, which are taking a bit of rotational force when wheeling the trailer on the jack.


HF is very very good at spare parts BTW, the best of any vendor I've encountered in terms of availability, price, and ease of access.

[bobhenry]

"Nobody" and I and a few others chose to reinforce the tongue with a length of square tubing and extend the tongue a bit for better handling. I highly recommend it and it makes a much stronger place to mount the jack

[LDK]

you could weld some thin 2 inch wide plate iron in the tongue channel like I did.

[wannabefree]

I too ended up replacing the axle after a spindle bent. Also lengthend and strengthend the tongue and replaced the tires after one of them threw the tread on the same trip.

Altogether my $260 HF trailer has cost $900. Not good economy.

[urban5]

I also ordered the second spare tire carrier/ cross brace and did the same. as the topic starter. I also agree with slowcowboys take on building a strong HF frame.

The actual frame member deminsions and style is not the problem with the HF trailer. The problem is that you are getting what you pay for. I believe that, that is inferior steel. I also own a harbor freight based tear, and so far have had no issues, but I have experimented a bit and the metal is not as strong as some scrap I have sitting around that is C channel in the same deminsions.

Wannabefree makes a good point also that to make the HF trailer a sturdy trailer you do need to shell out some money. Am I still glad I used it? I think so, the price was right, and I am handy so strengthening will not cost me much, but it will need to be strengthened.

Also like slowcowboy said, in order to add the stronger axle he needed to add some support in the form of steel angle. This is cheap to do, but it does require work and time. I think that the HF is not intended to carrier a heavier axle than it has, because when I look at the pure physics of it, and the stress you put it through (or at least I do offroading) there is more weight being leveraged and bounced around. With out strengthening it the extra weight will tear the trailer apart. Like MJ said once the trailer is barely worth carrying stuff to the dump in.

If I had the room, and a welder ($400), then I would have built my own. There is a great break down of what it costs to build an actual trailer by Mike the forum owner, and yes it is a good deal more than a HF trailer, but the quality is a good deal more also.

I realize I have gotten a bit off subject here, but I believe it needs to be said that while a HF trailer will work, it is not ideal. If you started with an HF trailer, and realize that now as most of us have, then it is still not to late, it can be strengthened, and needs to be.

So I guess in a way I agree with both sides of the argument. Slowcowboy has done some things with his trailer I would have not thought it would hold up to, but just know that it is not "stock" either. (which he has never claimed it is). People seem to misunderstand his point that an HF can be a good base to make it stronger if you are willing.

I for one did not have the money to build it right the first time, but I am building it right over time.

Sorry to hijack the thread.

[urban5]

Oh yea, Bobhenry what size is that tongue exstension you added? Is it just 4x4x1/8"?

[bobhenry]

Oh yea, Bobhenry what size is that tongue exstension you added? Is it just 4x4x1/8"?

2x2x3/16 It runs under the trailer to just in front of the axle.
I wanted to run it front to rear but my buddy ( the welder)
talked me out of it.

If my frame was totally stock I would definately run it all
the way to the rear. This way the load and towing stress
is shared with all the crossmembers. As a bonus you can
then sleeve the rear with some 1/8 flat stock and have
a 1 1/4 class 2 type receiver by simply drilling a hole for
the pin. My welder buddy made me a beautiful class 3
2" receiver for other end of the tear.

I think the tongue length is 15" longer than it was in the
stock position and it made for much improved tracking
and it backs up so much nicer.

At just over 65 MPH I would get a little dance out of the
trailer with the stock tongue. That is now gone and it will tow well
at 80 MPH (well I had to know)

I have done this same modification on my 40 x 48 HF
frame under the chuckwagon. It runs front to rear and
was simply drilled and bolted with 2 grade #5 3/8" bolts
at each crossmember. It has also been done on the barn
by welding the new 2x2x1/4 tongue to each cross member
under a namco 5x8 flat bed trailer.

If you think of the tongue as a teeter totter as you load
the ball this is pushing the front half of the tongue up.
The front trailer member becomes the fulcrum point and
the rear of the tongue is reacting opposite and is pulling
down on the crossmember it is attached to. My donor trailer
that the barn is built on had been badly overloaded by the
previous owner and the crossmember at the rear of the tongue
was bent down almost 2" . If you think about it there is a hugh
mechanical advantage at work here. There is almost 48" of
tongue length out front of the fulcrum point and only 18" +/-
to the rear. That is a 3.5 to one mechanical advantage. So
30# of tongue weigh is now 100 +/- of down force at the
other end. If you were to see an impact load of say 100#
that is 350# at the rear. By lengthing the rear half to match
the length of the front this advantage disappears.

I have seen two failed tongues one of which left a 1/8 mile
trail of food , coolers and camping gear on the interstate.
The other was less dramatic but left a $350.00 hole in my
fellow campers wallet to get it rewelded on the side of the road.

I am ranting on and one here but it is an important issue with me
I do not want to find myself in either one of these situations.

I'll go set down and shut up now !

[TimJones]

Did like the hf tongue look, so I changed mine too. 2by2 al tubing all the way to axle hf plate turned upside down ,new coupler and rewired lights wire runs through tube.