Find someone with a welder and weld along all the seams and overlaps and
then hit them with some paint to prevent rust.
When I got my 40x48" Harbor Freight kit I assembled it in the house with
hand tools. I did it on a known flat floor and got it all straight and
perfectly diagonally measured then I tightened all the bolts down and towed
it to my friend Mike's shop to start welding the 1" square tubing wall
uprights onto it. The external box dimensions are 40" wide by 48" long by
26" tall. Internally it's big enough for eight 225 width tires up to 25"
tall with some room to cram tools and stuff between them.
In that short drive to Mike's shop the frame "tweaked" due to bad design and
crappy Chinese hardware that wouldn't hold it together tight enough. We
didn't notice it until it was already too late and now the walls and roof of
my trailer have a very slight tweak to them. No biggie but.........
Also, there have been reports of the tongue ripping out of the rest of the
frame rails and if you look at it there's only about 4 bolts that hold the
tongue in place. It really is cheap pot grade steel. Again, find that guy
with a welder and weld every overlap and seam together. We also didn't like
the super-flexy 3 sided (no bottom side) tongue deal so we welded a piece of
2"x1/4" thick cold rolled steel along the entire length of the bottom of the
tongue. Man that REALLY stiffened it up. All said, if I had to do it over
again I'd build it totally from scratch with 2x2" frame rails.
Get the "bearing buddy" hub center caps with the zerk fittings in them so
you can grease them periodically. There are also some (marine grade?) that
have spring loaded indicators which let you know when it's time to re-grease
them. Toss that crappy mayonnaise-like Chinese grease away and go buy a tub
of good black moly-graphite bearing grease and really load them up. Give
them a few squirts of grease before each long trip. Don't be shy with the
grease. I don't think you can over grease these loose leaky bearings.
ABSOLUTELY go buy a spare wheel/tire and don't worry about carrying spare
bearings if you use good quality (and plenty) grease. The lights and wiring
that came with mine were total crap so I went to Wal-Mart and bought good
quality American made Peterson lights and wiring. Wal-Mart also has a ton
of other neat trailer accessories like a handle for the tongue to make
moving it by hand easier, spare tire mounting kits, coupler locks and
retractable wheel/stands.
Oh, and my trailer tows rock steady at up to 115mph behind my Neon. ;^)
The springs are a little stiff for my light payloads since the trailer is
rated for 1000 lbs and I usually run less than a 500# load (including the
trailer's weight) and it hops around over road bumps at city speeds. I may
"soften" the springs a bit next year and possibly flip the axle on top of
the springs to lower the trailer 2".
Be prepared for longer stopping distances with a heavy trailer and worse gas
mileage. Strong side winds will also get your attention.
I enclosed my trailer with .060" bright shiny aluminum panels and a ton of
rivets and it sits about 3" higher than the trunk of my car. Any higher and
it would occlude my rear vision.
Good luck, take your time and spare no expense. Buy once, cry once. Always
buy the best and you'll never be disappointed.
Eric Linnhoff in KC
#69DS TLS #13
'98 Neon R/T
<eric10mm@qni.com>
"Weaseling out of things is good. It's what separates us
from the other animals....except weasels."
Homer Simpson
-----Original Message-----
I went with a NuWay 4x8 trailer kit
Aside from the
>obvious things like a big tool box, pressure-trated decking, tie downs,
>etc., what do I need to be looking into getting?
|