Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

[C3]

Okay I'm ready to get this tire trailer on the road but since Nick's Muffler is no more, does anyone know of a decent fab guy around DFW that I can get to weld up a tire holding contraption for me? I'll prolly just go for two vertical posts that I can run a peg with a lock through. Anyone had something like this done and/or know what I can expect to pay? Thanks...

[amberdawn]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

How much did you pick the bare trailer up for? I'm looking into doing that for myself for the Talon. I'll also need to find a hitch as well.

I can talk to Brian here at the shop and see if he'd be able to do it maybe sometime early next month if you'd be interested. Only other welder I trust in the DFW area would be Tony Palo out at T1 Race Engineering. He's located out in Rowlett, but is a really good welder. If you're interested I can get you his information if you'd like to call him and see if he'd be up to doing it?

[C3]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

I think the trailer was around $250 new from HF...I don't remember exactly. Thanks for the lead - I think I've found someone more local who will get this done but if for some reason it falls through I'll get that number from you.

[C3]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Well with a little wandering around Lowe's and Home Depot today I came up with this - no welding required. Granted using wood is a bit hoopty, but it allows me to get up over the fenders and extend the width of the deck 8". I'm not going to be attending any trailer shows with it so I really don't care. Function is king The 4x4s are pressure treated but the top deck is bare - I'll paint them all before final assembly. I have 25" of length left on the trailer and a 48" wide deck to mount two contico tuff boxes from Lowe's on. I couldn't pick those up today b/c they don't fit in the M3. If you own a truck, expect a phonecall

On to the mockups:









Thoughts/concerns/comments?

[John in Houston]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Similar to mine... but not near as pretty

I am guessing that is threaded pipe? Get two ends (can't remember what they are called... pipe threads into them and they have 4 bolt holes). Countersink one into the bottom of the wood so that the pipe screws through a hole in the wood into the end. use the other one on top.

Mine has lasted for 4 years (1 of those in Hanchey's garage) in my ownership and 3 years prior to that in Matt Miller's ownership.

I used marine grade plywood and then varnished the crap out of it. Makes it slick as shit when it's wet... but it stands up the the elements like a champ.

[C3]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Yeah the pipe is galvanized plumbing pipe and I found those threaded ends, too.



Thanks for the varnish suggestion, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I bought 30" long pipes so that I could fit three wheels on each pipe should the need arise for me to bring two sets of tires somewhere.

[Fair!]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

...wwww... wooooodddd..... ...it burns... my eyes...

hehehe... you and Hanchey are tree killin wood tire trailer lovers. You should both build the WHEELS out of wood, too. Wagon wheel 30 inchers, dawg!

Be careful when strapping your wheels down. I built a trailer like that ages ago, with the same set-up of plywood deck/iron pipes/bolted iron flanges. Used it for ~2 years, until one panic stop on the way to a Spokes event with four 50# wheel/tires snapped the flanges both right off. I was lucky I noticed the tire stacks shifted slightly in the rear view mirror or I woulda lost them off the back once up to speed again. After that little incident I swore off wood and iron pipe material use in tire trailers. Nowadays I spend 100X the effort to build tire trailers from steel... there's progress!?

[bfitz]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

I actually had a tire roll come off once. It was my first time using the trailer, and I only had them strapped down (yes, very stupid). I saw the tires shift in my mirror and gently began to slow down. One came off and passed me, heading right up the center line. Luckily, it drifted off to the right instead of into oncoming traffic.

I'm with Fair on that pipe flange design. Can you cinch the tires down tightly? If not, it would put a lot of stress on the wood. I had good luck with a threaded rod design that allowed me to tighten them down nicely. If interested, I can describe.

Brian

[C3]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Sure, nothing is affixed yet and no holes have been drilled so I'm all ears. I was thinking perhaps to put a couple of bolts for the flanges through the 4x4s just sort of as a "safety" for panic type situations. I'm not relying on the pipes as the sole means of affixing the tires to the trailer - I also will be using ratchet straps to keep everything sucked down to the deck.

[bfitz]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

The angle iron and threaded rod made a sort of U-shaped assembly. The bottom portion was angle iron and was attached to the bottom of the deck. The uprights were threaded rod (1/2" IIRC) and were welded to the angle iron with some nuts (through a hole, so the welds were just to fix everything in place). There were two small holes in the deck to allow the threaded rod to pass through.

To cinch down the wheels, I used a PVC reducer that fit the wheel center-bore and some big disc of PVC that I found in the same section. It fit perfectly in the large end of the reducer, was about 5/8" thick, and had holes in it with one in the center that large enough for the threaded rod. Tighten it all down with a couple nuts, and you don't have to worry about straps. For some level of theft prevention when traveling, I had some bars welded to nuts that I would thread on top, and the two bars had holes that would line up for a padlock.

I normally carried just four wheels, so I had two stacks of two. But, when I needed to carry six, I could extend the threaded rod with a coupler.

Brian

[John in Houston]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

As a follow-up:

1. I used 2.5" PVC around the pipe to better match the wheel bore. I used that expanding foam stuff (Great Stuff?) to fill the void. Has held tight for 4 years now... and that includes me storing the trailer on it's end with all 4 wheels still mounted to the trailer.

2. I use 4 eyebolts bolted to the trailer frame to strap the wheels down to the platform once they are on the pipe locators.

3. I also have a Stanley lock that snakes down one of the tubes, around the trailer frame, and back up the other tube to lock the wheels to the tires.

[Paul]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

I will vouche for Johns trailer. It is one of the best versions I have seen.

[C3]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Thanks for all the input everyone. Sounds like the main concern is not ripping the bases for the poles out of the bottom of the plywood deck. I'll make sure to reinforce the back side of the base attachments real well. I also bought some screw-in eyelets to put into the 4x4s so that I can use those to anchor the ratchet straps. I should hopefully post some finished pics this weekend.

[Dean!]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Thanks for all the input everyone. Sounds like the main concern is not ripping the bases for the poles out of the bottom of the plywood deck. I'll make sure to reinforce the back side of the base attachments real well. I also bought some screw-in eyelets to put into the 4x4s so that I can use those to anchor the ratchet straps. I should hopefully post some finished pics this weekend.

For the toolboxes on my tire trailer (the whole tire-cage thing is aluminum tubing though) I used some steel "backing plates" on each side of the wood. I figure if that is how they reinforce safety belt harnesses and that's what was a recommended procedure in the SCCA handbook so that seat belts didn't pull through the sheet metal - it must be a pretty strong way to fasten things.

So you'd have your pipe flange, then a metal plate, wood, then a metal plate, and you sandwhich it all together with stainless bolts.

[C3]

Re: Harbor Freight Tire Trailer Modding - Help

Well it's 95% together. I changed a few things after the final mockup. First, I removed one of the 4x4s from underneath the decking to save some unneeded weight. Second, after mocking it up with two of those Contico tuff-boxes from Lowe's I decided to only go with one. I did mount the one off to the RH side of the trailer so that I would have room to add a smaller toolbox, or strap down a cooler, or something like that later on.

I put two coats of sealant on the top deck and one on the 4x4s even though they were already treated, so hopefully it should last a while. All of the hardware is galvanized. You could lift the entire trailer using just the deck, so it's pretty sturdy. Can't wait to get it on the road. Pardon the crappy low-light camera phone pics: