Race Trailer: Part Deux

I have been working on the trailer a little at a time throughout the week between getting the kids to bed and putting the trash out to the curb. After getting the major sections of the trailer frame together for the last trailer related post I needed to ponder on how to get the axle pieces attached without bolting the entire trailer together and flipping it over. Of course once you flip it on its back to attach the axle and wheels, you will need to get it right side up again. This will be all the more difficult as you would have added another 40 or 50 lbs. to the assembly before doing so. Scroll on down and see how I overcame this and got the trailer almost ready to register and use. 

My solution was to assemble the axle carrier attachments to the front half of the trailer that I already had positioned upside down on top of the back half. The way I stored the project was as if it was in its folded position, but laid down on its back. This gave me plenty of room with the FZ and Ninja in the shop to keep working on the trailer. It was going well until I got to the relatively easy part of attaching the casters. You can see that they are not really attached in this pic above. The caster has a 17mm hex head attached to the caster base. The threaded portion has a 14mm nyloc nut. By Inserting the threaded end through the caster frame piece and tightening the nut the casters are attached. The problem is that I don't have a wrench thin enough top hold the 17mm hex head while tightening the 14mm nut. I tried a couple of things, but to no avail. I will set that aside and get to it later.

When it comes to these types of kits, you really need to watch the packaging. Here you can see that the axle castle nuts and washers have been wrapped in packing tape around the end of the axle and were not in the hardware bags. The cotter pins (a very vital part of the axle, I'll get to that later) were also wrapped in these. If I wasn't watching carefully, I might have thrown the pins away. I learned about axle cotter pins when I was 10 years old. My dad had a 1972 MGB project. One day after a couple of months of work he was ready to take it out for a test ride. My little brother and I were equally excited for a ride and we asked to help. This included putting on the rear wheels. 25 minutes into the test drive the left rear of the car slammed down to the asphalt and the rear wheel came flying past us. In our ignorance and my dad's rush we had forgotten the axle cotter pins. A part that cost less than $1.00 almost caused a serious accident. I only add this story in as my dad reads the blog and would be proud that I learned from his mistakes. Love you pop!

After an hour of work squeezed between eating dinner and kindergarten homework I got the axle and wheels on the trailer. Many people have documented that the axles and bearings have come with either no lube or little lube. This was not the case with my bearings. They came very well lubed up with a quality grease. Others have also said that the grease had metal shavings or other trash in it, but again after digging into the grease with my finger I couldn't find anything like that. Harbor Freight must be paying attention to the feedback and chatter on the internet and stepping up their quality control efforts. I will keep my eye on things for the first couple of tows to see how the bearings are holding up and maintain them accordingly.

The very next night I was able to get the trailer laid out so I could connect the back half to the front half. This was when I experienced my second minor setback. Once I put the back half onto the front half and supported it with a couple of jack stands, I noticed that my hinge plate hole weren't lining up on the left hand side. I loosened up the mounting bolts and tried to adjust, but quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to drill out the hole to fix the misalignment. The hole was only about 1/3 of the bolt diameter off so it was a quick fix. I got everything bolted back together with only a modicum of cussing and no wrench tossing.

Once I had all that done, I did my first trailer fold. Here she sits in the back of my shop for now until I complete the wiring and a few other miscellaneous things. The casters aren't the greatest, but if I take my time the roll smoothly around my garage floor. The tow bar had some issues when I unfolded it and locked it into position. The pins didn't want to line up properly. I was able to work them into place. I'm guessing that as I use the trailer things will settle themselves into place and work a little more smoothly.

Once the electrical is in place I will be able to tow it to the DMV for registration and plating. I also need to check with my car insurance to see if I need to modify my coverage for the trailer. I want to get a deck, a front wheel chock and some tie down points installed. With a little luck I should be able to give it its first run with the Ninja for a Veteran's Day holiday track session. That's the plan anyway. Stay tuned for the finishing touches coming very soon.

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