Harbor Freight Trailers

[Jimbo]

I've been trying to decide how to do the walls. I am thinking about 1/4" ply/extruded poly insulation, 1/4" ply in a sandwich. I may even go 1/8 ply. Glued and screwed, it should be strong and lighter than my original idea of using 1/2 ply for the sides. I have a couple of road trips to make over the next few weeks so I'll probably pick up lumber next month when things slow down.

I think I made the right decision to stick with the 1175# trailer. I pulled a big jetski with my truck last week and it didn't do as well as I would have liked. Much more and it won't be a pleasent tow at all. So... My finished product has to be light in order to work with my 4cyl S10. I almost traded it in this past week but couldn't bear the thought of getting hit with another first month depreciation on a new car so soon. Especially since I just bought the S10 back in November.

[Mark Mckeeman]

Hi,

I’m having similar thoughts on sandwich construction, see my post in general discussion-foam sandwich construction.

In order to be lighter than ½ ply you are going to have to use the 1/8 ply sandwich, since two pieces of ¼ equal ½. Of course for the same weight you get an insulated wall.

For the large radius curves on your profile I suspect that the top would have to be laminated in position which creates a bit of a problem for applying pressure during the glue cure time. Weren’t you going to try vacuum bagging?

Mark

[DanD]

They looked like they had been shipped under the truck rather than in the truck.

I just purchased the 40597 trailer from Harbor Freight in Atlanta. The manager of the store told me over the phone that he only had one in the store but the crate and boxes were broken open. He said he had no idea if anything was missing but he knew all of the rails were there. I talked him into selling it to me for $199. He threw in another coupler and set of safety chains from another trailer they were piecing out. Since I had already budgeted $349 for the trailer, I ended up buying a spare, tongue jack, and pile of clamps ( never have enough of those ) jitterbug sander, and 4 heavy duty casters for another project. Still spent less than $300. Off to a great start on my teardrop.

Got the trailer home and to my surprise, nothing was missing.

I was glad "they looked like they had been shipped under the truck"......

[Larwyn]

They looked like they had been shipped under the truck rather than in the truck.

I was glad "they looked like they had been shipped under the truck"......

Picked my trailer up at the Harbor Freight in College Station, TX. The boxes were in good shape except they were all open and retaped. But all the parts were there.

Just uploaded a pic of my mod to use a center mounted tounge jack on the trailer in my personal album on this group. Using a 2 3/8" hole saw on 1/8" steel without a drill press has to be done very carefully....!!<G>.

[Arne]

batans were mentioned in one note (thin strips of wood). Can someone tell me where these are available.? I want to use some in my building process. I could try and cut them, but that would be long and tedious..

By the way, I live in the same town that the guilimot (sp) kayaks are made, by Nick Shade, I believe....... would he be a good place to start?

[Arne]

Contacted Nick and he gave me a name for the batans.....

[robert]

Arne if the battens are 1/4"x1 1/2" then it's lattice at lowes they are in with the stain grade trim go to lowes an ask the guy at millworks then tell them were it should be then go look for it yourself you will have better luck. robert
p.s. you want the untreated.

[Eric Adams]

If your a patient buyer you can pick up one of the #1800 Harbor freight trailers for a sale price of $299. I had heard that they sell it that cheap but I didn't see it any cheaper than $349 on the web, I had been waiting for about 2 months and checking the web site regularly and then I got a HF sale ad in with my junk mail and there it was #1800 trailer with 12" wheels for $299.

What was the item# in the sales paper?