Harbor Freight trailer with 8" wheels on a long trip?

bigdaddylee82 wrote: The 4 lug pattern has been the biggest issue I've ran into when looking for upgrades. It tops out at 13" for "normal" readily available trailer wheels, larger wheels exist but are kind of pricy for a utility trailer. With 5 lug hubs you have a lot more options, but I'd be swapping the entire axle before I went to the trouble of trying to find 5 lug hubs to fit the original HF axle.

If your hubs use lug bolts (not lug nuts), I bet you could use wobble bolts to mount a 4x100 wheel. Then you can choose wheel sizes up to 19" :)

My criteria would be the value of the load (in case you blow a tire and loose control of the trailer- I have done that) plus the value of my time and effort (if you need to change one on the road)versus convenience. I am as lazy as anyone and convenience usually wins out but I sure do kick myself a lot.

I thought of turning mine into a teardrop camper and changing the axles to match my Accord 16" steel wheels and then everything would match.

But I'm dreaming..........time to sober up.

Datsun310Guy wrote: I thought of turning mine into a teardrop camper and changing the axles to match my Accord 16" steel wheels and then everything would match. But I'm dreaming..........time to sober up.

I like this idea. Build thread needed. So I can copy it

Good stuff. Due to time constraints I'll switch to 12" wheels/tires and get some high quality grease. Maybe some bearings, too. It will be a light load and 65 mph max. I'll keep the 8 inchers in case of a flat.

Update;

Decided to avoid the expense of 12" wheels and lubed up the bearings and half filled the cap with high temp lube as suggested. Bought an extra 8" wheel/tire just in case. 2,250 miles without a problem.

I wouldn't use the 8", but that's just me. I see a lot of guys have been fine with them. The first thing I did to my trailer with 12" wheels was upgrade to 14" wheels, larger tires, and better bearings. It may be overkill, but I just hate to take chances when towing. Mine is a 5x8 trailer though and I haul a large ATV and dirtbike on it fairly often.

I agree with you, Cotton, but the 12" would have raised the trailer up another 2" and I would have had to find a taller bar to raise the ball. Another $160.00 wasn't in the plans. I'm really glad it's over, that's for sure.

Realize it's a bit late tot he party, but I have a 5x8 trailer that started out as a metal frame from Tractor Supply. I then added a full pressure treated and steel box on top, so volume-wise it's equivalent to a standard pickup bed. Tires are 12", and rated 990 lbs each- at 90 psi. I thought that was crazy high pressure.

We used the trailer to move between SC and MD, and it made a bunch of 1000 mile round trips at 70 mph with no issue on those tires. One tire seemed to loose a few psi a day, so I'd top it off every trip.

The tires are probably 5 years old now, and the tread's wearing thin more than anything else. Happily, the axles are a 5 x 4.5 bolt pattern, so lots of wheels will fit. I plan on running 15" wheels from my Volvo 122 with 165Sr15's on it- at half the pressure they have over 400 pounds more load rating each.

I was thinking of buying the Northern tool 5' x 8', then I noticed the small print which said that they were only rated for something like 50 MPH. Now probably the kit is pretty well identical to the HF, so I think that it's funny that they put that (obviously ignored) restriction on there.

On another note: The Northern 5' x 8' comes in at $500. OTOH there's a dealer near here that sells fully assembled trailers of the same size with wood floors and 18" high rails around the sides for not much more. With taxes, registration and such it comes to $880. Seems like the extra money might be worth it for the hassle reduction. What do you guys think?

I built my own using largely reclaimed steel and wood. If you had to buy it all, you'd be hard pressed to beat one already made. Then again, mine has 2' high solid walls and a real working tailgate, which is handy for hauling mulch and other loose goods. So it depends what you're going to use it for.

Just take the number of the bearing and purchase a quality replacement.

All ball and roller bearings are made to the same specs. Dimensionally, not necc. material wise.

irish44j wrote: Several of the local rallycross crew have the trailers, and we make our 3-4 hour transits through the mountains at 80mph consistently. I'm not aware of anyone having problems. A lot of talk about Chinese tires, Chinese bearings, etc....whatever. The local big trailer/RV supply place around here (where I get all the stuff for my big trailer) basically sells almost entirely Chinese bearings and tires. Even the Goodyear (Marathon) tires on my car hauler were made in China (they used to be made in USA). So are Kenda tires. So are Karrier. So are Carlisle. Contrary to the popular thought, most factories in China "build to spec." HF stuff has a low spec, so their stuff made in China is often junk. Many other things are built to a higher spec, and that kind of stuff made in China is just as good as if it were made in Japan or US. Japan used to have a rep as "making cheap stuff" 30-40 years ago. Now we think of it as better quality than US in many cases. Just be selective on what you buy from China, and you'll be fine. The bearings made in China are probably made in the exact same large high-tech milling machine as the ones made anywhere else. It's not like it's some peasant hand-forming them, lol. Frankly, it's pretty hard to find trailer stuff that ISN'T made in China. There's such low margin on that stuff most companies can't afford to make it in the US and still be competitive. YMMV..but as long as you pack them well and keep the tires aired, you should be fine. 12" wheels for peace of mind would be better than 8" for a long trip, regardless of what bearing/tire you use, however. Heat is heat, and no matter the tire or bearing brand, faster rotation over long distances is going to reduce bearing/tire life.

Very few Timken bearings are made in the us at all now. In fact, OEM Ford/GM/etc bearings are Chinese. A close family friend has a huge issue with rework in his transmission shop thanks to the chinese parts showing up in the OEM rebuild kits...

Fwiw, I had a motorcycle cargo trailer with those tiny wheels on it. I dragged it all over North America behind my bike. The guy I bought it from dragged it all over North America behind his bike. Never any problems, even when cruising at near 100 mph for hours on end.

Also have an old HF trailer on its second set of tires, because the first pair got worn out from so much use. Tires never failed. Did need to replace the bearings due to water damage.

Mad_Ratel wrote: Very few Timken bearings are made in the us at all now. In fact, OEM Ford/GM/etc bearings are Chinese. A close family friend has a huge issue with rework in his transmission shop thanks to the chinese parts showing up in the OEM rebuild kits...

Very few bearings period are made outside of China/India anymore. I ended up having to settle for Indian made SKFs when I rebuilt my drill press. Seems the Japanese still make some of their stuff at home, got a nice pair of new production made in Japan Nachi(IIRC) sealed ball bearings on ebay rebuilding a marine water pump. No idea what availability looks like on the bigger tapered stuff, but probably worth a look.

My HF trailer is still running on the original wheel bearings. I have repacked the beatings one time in 12 years. I replaced the tires this year. The bearings are not the weak link. The weak link is the tires.. As they say that they are rated for 55mph. My tires had over 10k on them when I replaced them. I only replaced them for safety and peace of mind. This year