so, after hijacking M.colley's thread (sorry bout that), I thought i'd better go ahead and make a trailer thread of my own. here it goes....


So my wife and I wanted to get a trailer so we could haul more stuff without feeling too over packed. We have 2 softails, a 99 and an 03. The 99 will be used for shorter legged stuff with the saddlebags and a tour bag. So we wanted a trailer for the 03, and after some sticker shock, we decided to go with the Tag A Long from Harbor Freight. the money we saved will be put towards more trips.

So we got the trailer at our local HF on sale with a coupon for $293. Read a TON of articles, emailed a bunch of other riders, and got all the info I could on the mods I needed and wanted to do. All total, I finished my trailer for right around $575. Not too bad since the next lowest priced trailer was about $1000. Here's what I did...

First up were the bearings. No grease in there whatsoever, so I replaced with Timken's and repacked with Mobil grease. also replaced the grease zerks with American stuff. While on the wheel area, painted the wheels black, adjusted air pressure to 25lbs, and added chrome golf cart hubcaps.

As some of the other people who own these trailers have mentioned, I removed 1 of the leaf springs, and covered the mounting bolts with rubber hose and the other mount point with rubber matting. there is no squeaking or rattling whatsoever when I hit bumps.

I bought a 6' section of tube steel, primed and painted it, and after installing it decided it was a BIT too long. So I cut 1' off it, added a cooler rack, and all was good.

on to the lighting. I drive a semi for a living, so I got some Optronics halo's. They have a halo ring for the running lights, and the LED's kick in for the brake/turn. I got the sawzall and got rid of the factory mounts. I measured out some holes in the rear, and cut some plastic with my trusty Zip saw, and installed the lights. I purchased a Kuryaykn plug and play wiring harness which comes with a 5 wire harness (stop, r turn, l turn, running, and ground), so I changed the harness in the trailer to match. Routed the wires up thru the trailer, and zip tied them in place.


just hooked up the trailer today and went on a 200 mile shakedown run. NO wiggling of the trailer at all! trailer pulled perfectly and tracked straight and true. Had it loaded up with 75lbs of wood, and no problems to report.

As I said in the beginning, we just wanted a simple (cheap) trailer that we would be using for 3-4 times a year and the HF Tag A Long fits the bill PERFECTLY!!

 

Looks good. Been pullin a trailer for years, makes long trips much more enjoyable. You know what they say: Happy wife, happy life! Really like those hub caps, where did you get them.

 

Looks good.

 

got 'em on Ebay. got 8" wheels, so I searched for 8" hubcaps, got results for golf car hubcaps and got 4 of them for $42 to my door. took about 5 min per wheel with a Dremel and a grinder bit, but now they fit like a glove!

 

will be painting the top over the winter to match our bike, so I'll let ya know how that goes

 

Good luck with it, enjoy!

 

No worrries on the hijack lol. Your trailer looks good. I'm debating on using the HF Tag A Long or the HF 40x48 with 12" wheels flat bed for my project. Is the cargo carrier on yours the "side open" variety?

I've got my hitch installed and I'm doing the wiring harness today, so I'm getting closer to starting on my own project. Regardless of which way I go on the trailer I know I'm going all LED on the lights, gonna light that sucker up.

Martin

 

Necessity it the mother of invention and frugality is a trait that all wish they had. Nice job on you project. Be prepared for all the "you can't pull a trailer with a scooter" negativity :>(

 

That looks like a very good mod, especially putting good lighting on it.

Good that you check bearings. I've checked bearings on stuff from lawn mowers to airplanes and found a lot that had very little grease, and a few that were just bone dry - on brand new parts. I suspect that trailer wouldn't track quite as well if a wheel locked up...

 

We also have the harbor freight trailer. I would like to suggest that you strap the lid down. On a trip back from the three sisters coming through houston on evening we narrowly missed a dead dog on the road. The next thing I saw was a car came up beside of us giving us the Florida gator hand sign. Looking back at the trailer we saw the lid open at highway speed. Like I say I miss the dog but the trailer didn't. We enjoy the camping out of the trailer. Happy trails