Knurled's Perfect Trailer Thread

Huckleberry wrote: Is there any reason to actually buy the HF trailer? With all the work you put in - it's not that much of a stretch to fabricate the whole thing.

That depends on your state of residence. Some states make it such a PITA to title/plate a home-built trailer that buying a HF trailer makes sense.

I wouldn't say it's true and I wouldn't say it's false, but I might know some people who bought the HF trailer kit just to get the VIN plate and associated paperwork.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Maybe, technically, not much of a stretch, but you still would need to buy an axle and hubs, and tires, and the towing-specific bits. By that time you're right on close to what the trailer would run you, if not over. And then you need to make the actual trailer out of "whatever".

I had been thinking about making my own trailer for quite a while. If there's anything I don't like about this one, it's that it is too tall, or rather, there is too much wasted volume under the deck. Reminds me of the time I parked my Subaru GL next to a Jeep XJ and realized the vehicles were the exact same size except mine didn't have all that airspace underneath it.

But I did the math and just shut up and bought a trailer. The icing on the cake is that the trailer is a Known Factor as far as engineering strengths/weaknesses is concerned, and titling/registering the trailer is much simpler, it already has an official empty weight and a serial number. Ohio likes serial numbers on things, and trailer registration fees are by empty weight.

Picking up an engine the other day, the decking started to collapse. I screwed some Strategic Blocks of Wood to the decking as engine supports, and the screws pulled right through the rotted wood. Ugh.

I had to replace the trailer wiring anyway as it sort of corroded apart, and doing this required removing the deck. So off came the Contico box (three of the six nuts were MISSING) and we see this:

Yuck. Serves me right for exposing it to the elements without weather sealing the wood.

I replaced the wiring and rear lights with the recall lighting kit. Kept the side lights because the LED side lights required a separate ground and I didn't feel like messing with that, plus they weren't the subject of the recall. Interestingly the original wiring was JUST long enough that the connector could reach just forward enough to let the tongue land on it if you dropped it. The new wiring was way overlong, so I ziptied the connector to the topside of the tongue. Now the tongue cannot physically land on the wiring anymore!

Replacement decking was just the cheapest 3/4" plywood that Home Depot had. I think it was $17 for each 2'x4' sheet.

Most of the nuts for the old decking were missing, too. It was mostly held down by gravity. I was able to scrounge up enough 3/8" nuts to secure the box with all six fasteners and the decking has 11 out of 12 locations populated. I'll be mare careful to keep a close eye on those fasteners in the future, that's for sure.

Estimated 1000-1100lb of "stuff" on the trailer. (Two mostly complete Mazda 12As, one fully complete rearend incl. brakes, and the box is completely full of strut inserts and strut housings and brake parts and axles) Towed just fine although it was quite tongue-heavy (guesstimate 200lb on the ball) and the back of the car was also jam packed with stuff, so dips and yumps made things get a bit bouncy. Found that if I kept the speed over 80mph through the hills in Tennessee and Kentucky, the engine wouldn't go into boost.

Noted at the final fuel stop that the wheels now have a bit of negative camber. Well, I never repacked the bearings since I put it together (how often do you repack car bearings?) and the last time I checked, about 5000 tow-miles ago, they were a bit loose, but I opted to leave well enough alone rather than make a change right when I was leaving.

I should probably investigate the bearings. Or maybe I just bent the axle, either permanently or just because I'm right about at the trailer's weight limit.

At least it'll corner better with the neg camber.

I'm glad the trailer hung in there long enough to get you home!

In reply to paranoid_android74:

From Michigan? It was a "barely" thing.

From Alabama? The trailer was fine, I'm glad I hung in there long enough to get me home.

Nylock nuts?

I lashed a 2' square chunk of 3/4" plywood with a 3" exhaust clamp's U-bolt to the tongue and some wood screws to the decking, so I could do this:

Two 12As, one 3N71 transmission, a complete RX-7 front suspension minus strut housings (note strategic blocks of wood to keep it from sliding down), and the Contico box has another 3N71 and was packed to the top with starters, brackets, manifolds, bits, bobs, and other stuff.

The car also had a pair of transmissions, and the strut housings/brakes/rotors that went with the subframe, and basically was full from the bumper to the front seats. And also the passenger footwell was full of stuff.

Rear suspension (Mitsu Mirage-spec KYB AGXs, Volvo V40 "heavy duty" springs) is on the bumpstops. Trailer has more suspension travel because it doesn't HAVE bump stops.

Funny event: Was messing with the instrument panel data center when I hit a yumpy bridge gap. Backing up a bit: Unloaded, I can juuust make out the trailer box in the mirror through the slit between the rear wing and decklid. Fully overloaded like this, the entirety of the trailer box's lid was visible above the wing. Back to present. I'm flipping the dahs display from instant MPG to outside temperature or something, and I hit a WHUMP. Back of the car bounces up (no suspension travel, you see) and I feel a backwards jolt. In that moment, I take my eyes off the dashboard and up to the rearview mirror, just in time to see the trailer bounce up and completely fill the rear window. Then the trailer SLAMS back down (you think?) which kicks the back of the car up again, this time with a sideways element, and did I mention that we're on a narrow bridge in heavy traffic and we're going 75?

The whole rig settled down pretty quickly, and as a bonus, the tractor-trailer driver who had been tailgating me slowed down and changed lanes I didn't see anything falling off so I kept on going.

At the next fuel stop, I noted that one of the main ratchet straps had tore halfway through, so I supplemented it with another one. And now I have a bit more negative camber on the right trailer axle. Trailer tongue attachment points, though? Still solid.

I should post a picture of it but I have the same little trailer used for hauling gear/tires to autocross, but then I modified it into a swiss army knife of trailers. I welded pockets on the side so I could drop 18" high sides onto it for hauling dirt or bags of leaves. Then I went further and made a flip down tailgate that also acts as a ramp and added a channel to the top of the hitch that holds a motorcycle tire in place, so now it can haul my motorcycle, too. The bottom of the ramp(when flipped up) is plywood for holding dirt in but the top is expanded metal so air goes through when going down the road. Of course, when the sides and tailgate are pulled off with quick release pins, it still hauls tires and gear for autocross.

Do it! That is kind of what I'd like to achieve minus the motorcycle toting.

I forgot to mention. I noted during the trip that the trailer bounced a lot when this heavily loaded. I stopped at the first rest stop and noted that the tires were hot to the touch and only had 20psi. (I haven't checked tire pressures since... I assembled the trailer) The tires are rated to 60 (!!!) at 750lb/tire, and I had an air pump with me, so I pumped them up to 45psi mainly because my pump sucks. Besides not looking like rolling on flats anymore, the trailer bounced and swayed significantly less.

Who'da thunk it, pneumatic tires need the proper air pressure to function correctly.

I also noted that the tires are getting some pretty bad longitudinal cracking. Well, they are old enough that if they were car tires I'd think about replacing them, even if they do have maybe only 6000 miles on them.

WOW new tires are expensive. Checking around the local sources for 12" trailer tires, tire/wheel combos are in the $60-100 range each and bare tires are around $45 each.

Bear in mind that I did buy the whole trailer for around $200. What's that commentary upthread about building your own vs. DIY?

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It's usually cheaper to buy a wheel/tire together from HF for the trailer than it is to buy a tire elsewhere.

Local sources are probably mainly selling to boat owners at boat prices.

Here's a pair of brand name 4.80-12 in load range C (990 lbs) for $50 delivered.

https://www.amazon.com/Carlisle-Sport-Trail-Bias-Trailer/dp/B00EZMSQXW?th=1

I will edit this post later when I rehost this image, but I done been spotted hauling the trailer.

Trailer was most recently used to haul home a twin distributor 12A and accompanying 4 speed ribcase transmission.
  Just like the smoothcases, the ribcase fits in the Contico box just fine.

This was also Oktavia's Last Ride.  That witch is no longer mine and now will serve to wreck someone else's life.  (It's a good kind of wreck, I swear)  I needed it one last time because teh S60R does not yet have a trailer hitch.  Putting a hitch on it requires trimming the R-specific rear bumper, and there is a whole lot of nervousness involved here.

Anyway, relevant to this thread, I got in the mail today a notice that the tires on the trailer are being recalled.  So, um, good thing I procrastinated on buying new tires, I guess.

Knurled said:I'm also probably never going to exceed 50% of its load rating, as well.

I've modified my trailer a bit since you last saw it.  I still have plans to setup some level of modular system to continue hauling tires and the box, but right now, it's effectively a rolling roof rack best used with the car that has no roof.

Having just purchased another Miata and buying another Miata Friday...I will likely be prioritizing the additional modifications to get the trailer into dual-duty usage soon.

I am only replying to this thread to see if I can make it to page three.

And we're back in business!  For now.

In reply to Knurled. :

My account was broken and thus, broke any pages my account was associated with on GRM.  But it's fixed now!  My bad.

I'm trying to recall now how I broke the forum four and a half years ago...was it over my profile picture?  I think that was it.  I want to change it again now, but I don't want to break things this time.