Replacing the pins on a HF trailer tongue

[EZ]

Do those of you who use the Harbor Freight trailers replace the pins that can be pulled to tilt the trailer? And with what? It would be easy to replace them with bolts but what I was wondering about is the looseness of the whole tongue. It clangs and thumps because it is designed to be so loose. Is there a way to tighten it up or something or is it supposed to be that way?

Ed

[An Ol Timer]

I didn't plan on ever making use of the tilt feature, so I replaced the pins with bolts. To make the fit very tight I reamed out the holes to the next bolt size so that the bolts were a tight fit. In fact they had to be tapped in place with a hammer. You could also have someone weld the joint.

[rainjer]

I replaced my tongue with a piece of 2 1/2" X 2 1/2" square tube 6' long. Then I drilled 2 more hole & bolted it with three 1/2" grade 8 bolts. It is now very solid.

[AlaskaBound]

I replaced mine with 9/16 bolts and nylock nuts. I also replaces the bolts that hold the axle supports and hitch plate with 1/2 bolts and nylock nuts. The hitch is held on with 9/16 bolts. The top ones are hard to get to, you need a 7/8 open end wrench to get inside the hitch.