Eventually we're hoping to get a 16 to 18 foot camping trailer to haul with this truck. However before we can do that, we need to swap in a LS based Vortec. In the mean time we bought a big Coleman 10'x14' tent we call the Taj-Mah-Tent. We've been hauling all of our camping gear in the back of the truck.
It works well but it sucks having to unload the truck after a long weekend of camping. Plus it's not exactly fun to load either. And there's the loading and unloading at the campsite as well.
What we've decided to do is build a trailer to haul and store our camping gear. It'll also be nice to use for hauling Blazer Bash stuff because we stay in a camping cabin for that event.
I started out with a Harbor Freight trailer. It's the "Super Duty" model, not one of the folding trailers.
Normally $500 but it was on sale for $370 and I had a 20% off coupon so after taxes I paid $300 and some coins. Honestly not sure I'd consider it worth $500, but I think $300 is a good value.
Assembly was pretty straight forward. Only issue was the wheel hubs. The bearings are just packed with a cosmoline type grease used for rust prevention. The instructions tell you to completely remove the grease and repack the bearings. The problem is they have the bearings set in the hubs with the oil seal installed. You have to remove the seal to get the inner bearing out. I wasn't successful getting them out undamaged. It's a pain to find the seals as they are metric, 30mm x 52mm x 10mm.
You'd think since it is a required step in the process Harbor Freight would keep some on the shelves and even better yet include a set with the trailer, but they don't. There are some on Amazon and luckily I was able to get some from a local supplier. This all leads me to believe a lot of people don't repack the bearing in these trailers.
I used a 1/2" thick HDPE (high density polyurethane) for the deck. It was some leftover material from a job we did several years ago. Then built an aluminum frame.
This is my second aluminum welding project. Still not the best at it, but I get it done well enough.
Then I mounted some polished aluminum diamond plate on the frame.
The diamond plate was also left over material that was already cut to 2'x8' and 2'x4' pieces. I made the frame 22.5" tall so that 1.5" of the panels extend onto the frame and cover the edge of the deck.
You can also see I have one fender mounted. I added a 1" square tube between the fender and panel. One of the complaints I found on the HF trailer was the heavy steel fenders vibrate and create cracks in the frame there the bracket is bolted.
Still have to install the lighting and build a tailgate. Little hint, I'm not using the lighting that was included with the trailer.
I think I will need to put some sort of little poles on the back corners so I can see it behind the truck. In one of the pictures above it looks pretty apparent it will be well hidden behind the truck.