Harbor Freight Trailer Mods
by Chuck
Leinweber
Last time we talked, I
had just bought a Harbor Freight trailer for my then almost
completed Ladybug.
I wrote a review
of the trailer in these pages. Since
that time, I've finished the boat and modified the trailer to
fit.
![](../../reviews/trailer/IMGP0042.jpg)
The first thing I had to do was
to extend the tongue. As it comes this trailer is 8 feet on
the deck with a short yoke on the front ending with a hitch.
The boat itself is 14 feet, so more would have to be added on.
Another problem was the hitch itself. It was for a 1-7/8"
ball and mine are all 2", so I had to buy a new hitch.
![](hitch.jpg)
I got a cheap one from Wal-Mart.
They had two to choose from: heavy and light. I went with the
light one. They were both stamped from sheet steel and zinc
plated. It should last as long as the trailer.
I took the trailer to a buddy
of mine who is a very good welder and has the right equipment.
He wanted to just weld my new piece of 2-1/2" square tubing
to the yoke on the trailer and cut it to length. I did not want
to do that, though, as I didn't want to weld over the nice paint
job that came on the trailer. Finally we hit on the idea of
making a new plate that would bolt where the old hitch went,
and weld that to the new tongue.
![](plate.jpg)
We found a piece of 2" angle
iron to bolt in where a brace was before and took the square
tubing back to that before going forward to the new plate. In
the picture above, you can see how it all went together. I painted
it with some left over silver paint (I didn't have any red)
![](tongue.jpg)
With the jack I mentioned in
the review, it looks like this.
To carry the boat on the trailer, I now needed
to build some bunks or bolsters. Not being a welder, nor wanting
to bother my friend with this, I elected to build in wood.
![](bolster.jpg)
First I found the center of gravity of the boat,
then measured the distance in each direction to the bulkheads.
(On a boat like this, the bolsters need to bear right under
the bulkheads rather than in the middle of an unsupported area
of plywood.) Now I plotted to locations of the bunks by figuring
that the center of gravity of the boat should end up about a
foot ahead of the trailer axle to keep some weight on the tongue.
After measuring the shape of the boat's bottom at the bulkheads,
I built bolsters out of 2x4's and covered them with some Astroturf
I got from cutting up a welcome mat.
(A word about Astroturf. This is stuff vastly
superior to indoor/outdoor carpet for this purpose. It is not
spongy so it does not hold water against your boat, and it is
slippery, allowing much easier launching and retrieval.)
![](winch.jpg)
The big remaining job was to mount the winch.
Back to my friend with the welder, and this time he was happy
to simply weld a bit of the left over square tubing to the new
tongue. Then we took another little piece of the stuff and made
a holder for the little rubber bow roller and mount for the
winch itself (both of which came from, you guessed it: Wal-Mart).
The whole thing was done in an hour and made a neat job.
![](spare.jpg)
A spare tire bolted to the trailer finished the
whole thing off for $25 (from my favorite store).
![](../../../images/newline.gif)