Tire trailers....specifically the Harbor Freight kind. Learn me. Show me yours!

Decided that with the e30 ready for rallycross, might as well pick up a HF mini-trailer to haul tires/gear and make life easier. And to make it a project for fun. Tom's recent thread got me in the mood :)

I found a local who just towed one from Oregon with some stuff, so buying it slightly used (2 weeks, cross-country). It's the 12" wheel model and already has a stout wood deck on it.

Anyhow, the plan will be for it to carry 4-6 rally tires, a gearbox, and maybe a small air tank, and whatever else. But I figure I'll treat it like a fun project and do some cheap customization to make it fit my needs. I'll mostly be towing to SUmmit POint (about 2 hours from home) and maybe a few places a bit farther. Mostly highway stuff.

So inputs needed:

1. Things worth upgrading immediately? Bearings, grease, bearing buddies? Change to a larger/wider wheel/tire so I can tow safely at a bit higher speeds?

2. Ideas for racking/mounting tires securely? I have basic welding ability (very basic) but will surely try to do some things that way.

3. Show me your mini-trailers!

Oh, and this will be towed behind an e30 with a 1 1/4" hitch. Rated to 200lb tongue, 1000lb tow....so don't want to make it too heavy.

Get a spare trailer tire+wheel and find a place to mount it. Apparently it's a non-standard item, though I found mine pretty easily at TSC. And remember to pack the proper socket for the trailer lugs, it will inevitably be different than your tow vehicle lugs

Mine has two black iron pipes on the front for wheels - pipe slips through center bore, I use straps through the deck and under the tongue to hold them down (also a cable and padlock to discourage sticky fingers).

My tool box is at the rear, which is nice for access (not stepping over tongue when fetching things from box) but poor for balance in the paddock when the wheels are off.

Make sure your tool box is large enough - go larger than you think. it's much easier to just load up a trailer box than to load up your trunk, then unload at the site.

Six tires will be doable, unless your E30 is running monsters, but if this is the 4'x4' trailer the autocross folks usually use, I'm not sure how you'll get a transmission on there and keep your toolbox.

Bringing a spare transmission isn't really a concern, lol....

I'm running 185-width rally tires, so they are far from being monsters :)

Luckily, the guy I'm buying it from already has a spare for it!

I just left Chase Race and he is making a few and they are double damn nice!

Yeah, I've seen their work. But I don't want to pay more for the trailer than I did for the car that is towing it, haha...

the only issue I found was that the C channel they make the tongue out of has a real tiny reinforcement piece on it (like a 2-3" fill plate) and the tongue can get twisted or tweaked pretty easy if you're not careful; I tweaked my trying to climb around it in storage unit (box was up front) to get some tools. We ended up straightening it our pretty easily and just boxed the whole section in with some 1x1/8" flat stock, never had a issue with it after that and she's still going strong (I just re-pack the bearings annually)...

Interesting.....I will make sure to box it somewhat.

on a related note, this trailer was sold on GRM a few years back. Anyone know where the cargo box on it came from? Looks like a perfect fit!

Oh jeebus, when you said "a gearbox", I thought transmission, not storage box. Carry on.

haha.....I thought maybe you were commenting on the strength of the Getrag 420 or something

No great pictures of mine but here are a couple I have.

First setup:

Changed to this setup, which is much quicker and easier to load and also rides smoother.

Hard to see but the tires are stacked on pipes like the setup above with the metal box.

I don't have a picture of the first iteration of my HF trailer, but it was very similar to Evans first iteration, only the box and tires swapped. It worked well when attached to the car, but the hitch popped up when you removed the tires.

My second iteration. I liked this version a lot. It barely fit the 14" wheels(would probably work for 15's as well) and both boxes, but it gave me a dirty box and a clean box for 2 day events.

I now have a kart, so I reconfigured it to look like this:

The inside of the box looks kinda like this:

Works great.

I'm following this thread with great interest. 4 mounted rally tires and a 2-seater MR2 make for this great interest in a trailer. I took photos of EvanB's and one-two others at our local rallycross last year for reference.

I haven't checked to see how much my garage will charge me for a hitch and wiring for an 87 MR2 however... (But if all else fails, I measured the rear of the MR2 and can fit 4 wheels across, strapped to the back window.)

This was mine:

Definitely get the bigger wheels. Mine had 8", so they spun really fast when doing 65 mph, and it nukes bearings. The HF trailer of the time (this was over a decade ago) used non-standard-size bearings, that cost a whole lot more than the ones the trailer stores kept in stock.

I liked having the tires on the back, it made them easier to load and they weighed less than the box so even with the box mostly empty (which it never was) the trailer still had tongue weight. Of course, this depends on how heavy your tires are -- I mentioned this to a Corvette owner once and he just laughed at me. :)

Eventually I got tired of changing tires at the event so I sold it after a few years. Now I've got a truck and a real trailer.

don't we go through this every year?

Here's mine. I wanted to be able to carry lots of different things and also wanted them to be out of sight and out of the weather. The additional frame along with the skin that is glued and riveted actually stiffens it up a lot without adding much weight. It's 1" square tube and galvanized and painted steel used for steel buildings. I added the v nose for extra space. I have a removable hinged lid that I use often. I also sometimes remove the tailgate, screw down a 2x8 to the deck and I'm able to put my yz125 in it. I also have two runners that screw down for my stand up jetski. I did mount the axle over the springs for a lower ride height. I've had mine for 5 years now and aside from lights and wiring, never had a problem.

On the 8" vs 12" thing, the difference isn't THAT much in terms of RPM. If you do the math it's 30% more, not 2-3x as alluded to here and in other places. Keep the bearing lubed and you'll be ok. I've had some leaky seals that wanted to throw out all the grease. The only reason I noticed it was the grease all over the INSIDE of the wheel. If I didn't stand my trailer up vertically in the garage I never would have noticed. Replaced the seal, repacked the bearings and it's back to normal. For the record I not only keep a spare tire, but also a spare repacked bearing set, seal and cap.

we almost need a "what can/have you made with a harbor freight trailer." thread. Bonus points for the 4X4 ft size

irish44j wrote: on a related note, this trailer was sold on GRM a few years back. Anyone know where the cargo box on it came from? Looks like a perfect fit!

Looks like bed box for a small (S10, Ranger) pickup truck.

so picked up the trailer today and immediately got down to some modifications

some modified angle iron got the tires moved forward about 2" closer to the axle. All it needs is about 10-20lbs up front to have even balance (and I plan to have more like 100lbs up there once it's all said and done.

I have some other things planned....but getting the tires setup;was sufficient for one afternoon. I need to get some materials.....have some ideas :)

also noted that the speed rating on the tires it came with are for 87mph.....makes me wonder why it is "limited" to 55mph

could you fit a motorcycle on a 4x4 trailer? Mount a chock for the front wheel on the tongue and maybe extent the rear a bit. Strap it down well and go?

I've put a Ninja in my 5x8 utility trailer and that was a pretty tight fit. This entire trailer is only 6' long (including the neck), so you'd have to do some serious extensions, and then you're at or over the weight limit on the trailer.

HF does sell some longer-deck lightweight trailers that would probably be better. A bike is a hell of a lot more weight and height than some tires and boxes....

irish44j wrote: also noted that the speed rating on the tires it came with are for 87mph.....makes me wonder why it is "limited" to 55mph

I've towed mine for 800+ miles at 80+ mph with no issues.

Unofficially...I gave mine the 100mph test before with no issues.

Jerry wrote: I'm following this thread with great interest. 4 mounted rally tires and a 2-seater MR2 make for this great interest in a trailer. I took photos of EvanB's and one-two others at our local rallycross last year for reference. I haven't checked to see how much my garage will charge me for a hitch and wiring for an 87 MR2 however... (But if all else fails, I measured the rear of the MR2 and can fit 4 wheels across, strapped to the back window.)

I put a hitch on the back of my '88 MR2. It could not have been easier. It required removing just 4 bolts to get the entire rear bumper off and then a couple more bolts to put the hitch on the bumper before putting it all back together (4 bolts)
Here are some old postings i made about it years ago:
http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=16331&highlight=hitch
http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=111924&highlight=hitch