nuts with nylon inserts versus lock washers and jamb nuts

I'm the OP and I would think a Harbor Freight trailer is even more cheaply made than most of Home Depot stuff. And on the box the trailer came in, it says Made in China.

I hope my axle doesn't fall off!!

They also say no more than 55 MPH. Can I take that to mean no more than 60?

Nothing is too safe for our kiddies. They should require 3!

Hi, Overkill is better than underkill, LOL!

-snip-

It won't blow apart at 56. or with 993 pounds in it. But if it does, it's your ass, not theirs.

FWIW- mine has about 2 years and 5000 miles on it. Once I did some really bad math in my head and put 4000 pounds of cement blocks in it. I'm glad I only had 5 miles to go as it pulled like a wet rug--- but it didn't bend anything.

Recently I made 16 trips of 80 miles one way. Empty one way- about

Use *good* wheel bearing grease. Check it often. [I haven't had any luck finding 'bearing buddy' caps that fit the Harbor Freight trailer] I've checked the bolts a couple times. Haven't found a loose one yet.

Jim

If it trails properly, you can probably push it a little beyond the 55 mph. It will probably do better when loaded than empty. An empty trailer can easily start to wag back and forth or start a serious bounce. I had that happen with an auto hauler trailer once (doing less than 55) and it ripped the ball off the hitch. (Thank heaven for a good safety chain.)

PS: Not everything made in China is crap. I bought a tile saw made in China from Harbor Freight a couple of years ago and it has been a great buy.

re: Nothing is too safe for our kiddies. They should require 3!

Right, and then put an 8 YO in a plastic car going up to 30 MPH with a

Trust me, 2, 3, or even 6 nylon nuts on the steering assembly kingpin will not make the car any safer since that part of the car has never, ever been the cause of an accident.

=A0Most

ed text -

We use nylon insert nuts torqued to up to 168 inch pounds and loosen and tighten them on fairly regular basis. It takes many, many cycles before we can't tighten them anymore. On the other hand, we've had some that can't be torqued even once, but that's very rare.

I used to use one of those "little red trailers" - the foldable style of the type sold at HF, although mine came from K-Mart. Many of the nuts on the trailer were nylocks, which made it pain to assemble, but it held up for a long time.

I'd load it with 500 - 600 pounds stacked 6 feet high and towed it for hours at (at least) 65 MPH on a regular basis. Never had an issue.

Kept the tires properly inflated and repacked the wheel bearings once a year, typically before the spring race season.

I eventually got an enclosed trailer and sold the open one, with homemade side walls, for $25 more than I bought it for, after 4 years and thousands of miles.

Very important. Thanks a lot.

I'll buy that. I sort of whined about how cheap it is to forestall others telling me how cheap it is.

LOL.

It didn't actually say to check after 200 miles like I think I said. It was after 20 miles. Somewhere it said every 20 miles -lol- but I haven't found that again.