The "Other" Harbor Freight Trailers
By David "Shorty" Routh
www.ShortyPen.com

Written for DuckWorksMagazine.com
This article was written after I read Chuck's article about the Harbor Freight 8' x 4' trailer he recently purchased.

Over the past couple of years, I seem to have gone through one of each Harbor Freight trailers that they carry. The folding 4x8 one was the least favorite of mine because the folding mechanism made it rather flimsy feeling, and I found that without adding a deck or other structure, the whole frame would flex if you stood on one corner of it.

I next tried their regular boat trailer. It was very adequate, came with everything you "need" to carry boats. Customer purchased the boat I had sitting on it, so it promptly left my hands.



After going through many other trailers (some are below), I ended up going back to the regular harbor freight boat trailer. The thing that really kicked it up a notch for me was this plywood box I made for hauling stuff. It fits between the fenders so all I have to do is remove the aft bunk board and drop the box in. It is held in place with cargo straps.

The trailer is rated for 600 lbs, but the springs look identical to the ones used on the HF trailer which is rated for 1100 lbs. I do a lot of projects in my yard that needs bags of concrete, and often haul 800 lbs of concrete per load. I have also carried up to 1200 lbs, but find it hard to push that weight thru my yard by hand, so backed down to 800 lbs.

I have put many, many miles highway and local miles on my HF trailer and am very impressed with it's performance for such a cheap and simple bolt together kit that it is.

Easy Assembly Steps
The best way I have found to assemble Harbor Freight trailers is to build them upside down, with all the parts propped up on 2x4's. This gets all of the parts off the ground so you can put a box wrench on the bolt head (which is now between the floor and the trailer frame), and use a socket wrench on the nyloc nuts, which is now facing the sky. As for whether to put the nut facing upward or down -- I consulted an aircraft enthusiast friend of mine, he said the rule of thumb is to always put the nuts on the bottom, so that if they fall off, you still hopefully have the bolt in the hole, holding stuff together.

Being the minimal spirit kind of guy, I kept looking at that really little one and gave it a try next. The tongue that comes with it is ridiculously small, so I purchased a long piece of square tube steel as a replacement tongue. Since everything was bolt on, it was easy for me to make this change. I made a very simple set of bunk boards that bolted on top of the frame bed, and tried using it without a winch post. That didn't work very well, so instead of spending $30 on a metal post, I made a winch post from some 2x4 and plywood. It worked very well. The only thing I didn't like about it, was one day when I was backing it down the boat ramp empty, it caught on a piling to the side of the ramp and the whole frame twisted sideways. Wasn't really a problem to fix, I just kicked it a few times and it was pretty much back to normal. I was able to keep this trailer for several more boat sales, but eventually a customer purchased it and I was back to HF to try their next one.



Occasionally, they have their galvanized PWC trailer on sale for $275, and I ordered one in. It took literally 6 months to arrive! When it finally did, I put it together and tried a new approach. I made it with a flat plywood deck, several cross beams below the deck for support, and replaced the tongue. I made a couple of different box looking cradles for boats, these would simply bolt onto the deck when I wanted to use them.

Also I installed a set of fence post stakes along the perimeter and made the surrounding gate so that I could carry gravel, dirt and other messy stuff. That was a lot of work, and I should have just made a plywood box that bolts onto the flat bed. I hauled several loads of gravel and rock with the gates installed, and then swapped them out for the the boat cradle. Then a customer came along, and that trailer was gone.

I was getting tired of bolting together trailers, so I resigned myself just to purchase trailers from now on, I opened an account at a local trailer manufacturer and now when a customer takes one of my trailers, I just go pickup another. The one I have been sticking with is a small galvanized one that has a very simple square angle iron bed. It has a couple of bunk supports, and I can move around to use different shaped bunks depending on what type of boat I am carrying.

One day at the lake, I saw a really neat trailer that was custom welded up entirely of angle iron. If I could weld, I would try to make something like this one.

Also as many have suggested before, through all of these trailers I have used a 2x4 "light bar". Mine has a couple of improvements, I attached 2 of the "pull thru jaw" cargo straps so I could quickly tighten it down, and I put a couple of hooks vertically on top of the 2x4 so I could put the straps across the top of the board to secure them when the bar was not in use. Without a place to attach the straps, I found that they tangled up very easily. Very useful for hauling home newly purchased boats that do not have working lights, but now that I am done selling used sailboats, I have reverted back to just using the regular lights on the trailer that have a good seal with a drain hole at the bottom.

The trailer that now catches my eye the most at Harbor Freight is the little $249 one that has a metal bed. That metal bed would save me some time building my own, would stabalize the frame a bit, and the diagonal cross supports back to the tongue would greatly enhance it's strength. Might have to get one of those and give it a try.... :)