Harbor Freight trailer build

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backlander

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:builder: Day one. The humble beginning. This could take a while, I haven't decided how to do it yet but this was the start. Now the function and design have to be decided.
 

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I am sure that whatever you come up with will be great, I had the best time making my little trailer, fun stuff... My only opinion is to try to make it aerodynamic..Box shapes don't do so well in the wind..You want it to cut through the wind as best as you can. :fishin:
 
:builder: Your trailer is what inspired me to build one littlebeaver. I have had this plan to stay at least one night in every state park in Arkansas to start with so it has to be useable for that as well as a touring type trailer for trips :moped: . I agree with your idea on aerodynamics, not only saves on fuel, but looks cool too. I have a lot of aluminum angle iron and sheet aluminum left over from my late model dirt track racing days. I built all my own cars, ground up including engines. I think it will be a fun project. Hmmmmm, I wonder if I could build it in the house. :beg: It's a thought, good ol A/C. :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
 
On the Harbor freight trailer I moved the neck piece up to the next set of holes, making the tongue length longer by about 10" or so, if you do that you will need to redrill a few holes...good luck and I can't wait to see it done..
 
I got one of those trailers too. Nice little deal.

I also extended the tongue, not because anyone said to but because it looks much better going down the road.
It handles like it's not even there except for some slight "tugging" feel on the bumps.

Is your's 8" or 12" wheels?
 
I looked at both and went with 8" wheels for several reasons, $40.00 cheaper, frame and everything else is same and I'm looking for some nice alum. rims for it. If I stay with 8", theres only about 15% difference in rollout between it and the 12" when you measure the difference in actual tire height and you would have lower center of gravity. I am also going to extend the tongue probably to a 40" and go to one leaf spring and LED lights.

On another note, Dan, I want to order a patch and decal. The money will be included with the "donation" I'm sending in a couple of minutes. Thanks, is that OK


(edited to remove personal info-aapple)
 
I just bought old shoreline motorcycle trailer cheap had to do some bondo and paint and clearcoat. It had short tounge bought 2in x 2in changle to lengthen tounge to 40 in. It had very old 8in tiers on it but wheel well was made for 12in tiers . Cheapest 12in tier with rim was at harbor freight but when I went to buy them painted on rim was a 55 mph rateing on them and they wanted to do some DOT paperwork ????? I changed my mind and went to walmart they had the tiers and rims that were hiway rated. Thats what I went with plan to use the interstates this summer. Trailer tracks good with no wag with 40in tounge. Oh trailer size is 48in long and 40 in wide 16 in deep with luggage rack.
 
yeah, they did the same with the trailer I bought, put the tire serial numbers on DOT paperwork but not on certificate of origin. They won't ever show up on title. The gvwr on paperwork with these tires is 1080 #. Payload capacity of 870 # and I don't think I would ever get close to that. Anyways, I looked at some high speed tires today and doing some searching for some alum. wheels. I can sell these that came with it real fast around here. I just couldn't see paying an extra 40.00 for the same trailer with 12" tires because I plan to replace the originals with better ones anyway, hopefully that look like the 9 spoke goldwing wheel that's on the bike. Sounds like nice trailer you got there
 
When I built mine,I also went with the 8" wheels for the same reasons.(Low center of gravity,and rolling weight) but upgraded to a good highway rated tire.I dragged that thing through 8 states with no troubles. But rather than lengthening it,I narrowed it about 6".

It fit the car top carrier I had better,did not hang out so far on the sides and tracked/towed awsome.It accually pulled better than the purpose built one I have now, which makes me regret caving in cosmetics. :doh:

The present one is OK,But that homemade H-F one was a great trailor.
 

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Nice looking trailers. I assembled the trailer today loosely to get some measurements, (in the house with the A/C :smilie_happy: I decided to build a new 89" tow bar which will run from the rear cross piece all the way to the coupler. This will give me an axle width to coupler ratio of 1.75 which is whole lot better than the factory 1.117 I changed the springs to main leaf only, flipped the locator pin and underslung the axle to lower it some more. I looked for long time for the best prices to build one from scratch but you can't buy the pieces anywhere near as cheap as just buying the whole trailer. This thing listed for 220.00, was on sale for 190.00 and I went out the door with it for 162.00 and that included sales tax. Can't beat that kind of deal.
 
Markland trailer hitch was mounted just under rear fender when I bought 80 gl1100. Part of hitch was fabricated with electrical couduit and just u bolted to vetter frame. Ball was about 5 to 6in above rear axle. I bought 14ga i/2 id and 3/4 od tubing and heated and bent to clear shock mounts and rear axle so I could attach to muffler mounts. Had to bend back in to meet up with hitch tubing. screwed 5/8 bolt in new tubing ends to create treads to help hold to hitch tubing also used i/4 in steel to fabricate mount to muffler hanger. welded to tubing. All this lowered ball to axle height. Now tounge is level and will not take weight off front wheel or put to much weight on back wheel. Also made box for cooler with angle aron used crome diamond plate on bottom 40 in tounge leaves plenty of room between cooler and back on bike.With trailer loaded with camping gear and cooler loaded I have around 35 lbs of tounge weight. I used the tubing so it will be easy to take a part to get to back tier also Markland h itch had 2 braces to vetter box frame now I have them on each side plus what I added to muffler mounts on each side. Now I have 3 attachments on each side should hold. I hope!!!
 
The PO gave me a homemade hitch for my 1200 when I bought it which I later put on. Made from square tubing and uses u-bolts to attach to front and rear lower saddle bag bars. It has a 1 1/4 receiver built into it and has a drop down slide in with 1 7/8 ball. The drop down really puts it down low. Here's a pic.
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Ok. Scratch the full length tow bar, not enough room for upward travel of underslung axle. Tomorrow, it's move the axle forward four inches to get the weight distribution closer to right. All this ciphering is giving me a headache, naught times naught is naught, right granny ? :headscratch: Ow, granny that hurt. :Doh2:
 
Long day, hot and tired. By the way, Chinese steel and American steel sizes just don't gee/haw so you have to improvise. Anyway, It's all together, squared, tongue lengthened but axle is staying in original location for right now. Overall trailer length went from 76" to 98". Tongue length went from 28" to 49". Box length will increase from 48" to 64". Level trailer height from floor to bottom of rail is 9.75 inches.
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