Bob's Tiny House Pipe Dream: April 2014

This super duty utility trailer is designed for carrying heavier loads. Add your own planking to create a heavy duty hauler!

Trailer bed tilts all the way to the ground for easy loading and unloading
Heavy duty steel frame with baked enamel finish
Frame has built-in slots for stake siding (stake sides not included)
Three leaf spring suspension
Includes: coupler, safety chain, wiring harness, trailer light kit, and license plate holder
Overweight Item subject to $89.95 additional Freight Charge
An additional lift-gate charge may apply.

Comments about Haul-Master 1720 Lb. Capacity Super Duty Utility Trailer, 48" x 96":

I bought this trailer to haul Harley's around. I have two, a 1988 FLHTC and a 1993 XLH. I also ride with a bunch of folks with Harleys. I had considered buying this trailer a couple of years ago but, kept putting it off. Last Thursday one of the guys broke down ten minutes from my house and it became a real hassle. I decided that I needed to go ahead and get a trailer.

I bought this one as it gets good reviews and has more than enough weight carrying capacity. I put it together, sans the plywood top in about three hours of work. Here's what I learned: As other people have suggested, lay out the parts first. This speeds the process way up. There are 20 and 25 length bolts. They are very close so, compare in advance. I would note that I assembled this trailer by myself. It's completely possible, in fact, easy to do so with a bit of heavy lifting.

Mine came in two boxes. The long skinny one is very heavy. You'll need help or a hand truck. I have a hand truck. Also, I used a air wratchet to put the trailer together. If you dont have air tools this will take twice as long to assemble.

After you have laid out the frame pieces they go together quickly with an air wrench. If you're using an air wrench, start all of the bolts and nuts in a section (2 4x4 sections), top and bottom first, then tighten them down. It will go very fast. This trailer is not a folding trailer. Once I got the frame assembled I flipped it over and installed the springs and axle.

People say that the bearings need to be repacked. The bearings are packed with grease but, the hub assemblies are dry as a bone. The grease in the bearings looks like the standard HF axle grease. I use this on the chassis on my motorhome and it works fine. All I did was add a significant amount of high quality grease into the nub assembly so that when the grease in the bearings heats up and runs out that grease will be there to flow into the bearings. In the literal sense I didn't "re-pack" the bearings as I suspect very few do.

The grease seal on the inside of the hub will probably be damaged if you try to remove it so, I left the inside bearing in place and just added some good quality grease. The wheels spin beautifully and I don't see any real potential for problems in the near future.

The tires are 2 ply tires that require 80 PSI. From the box they had 20 PSI. Make sure you service them. Some folks say they plan to get better tires. I may in the future but, for now I plan to keep the HF tires. I plan to two my FLHTC to Sturgis in 2014. All I'm going to do before that trip is check the bearings and get 4 ply tires. It's 1650 miles one way. One warning, the lug nuts were barely on so, don't tow this thing without checking those.

Some folks have welded the frame together. I have no plans to do this. It doesn't seem to need that.
I read that people struggled with the fenders. The instructions kind of indicated that you install the fenders while the unit is upside down or before you flip it to install the axle and hubs/wheels. What I did was install the wheels, set it rightside up, put jack stands under the axle, remove the wheels from the hubs and installed the fenders. It didn't take much time (using air tools).

As far as the lights go, they seem like decent quality. As others have mentioned, the ground setup stinks. If you were bolting to unpainted metal it would probably work fine. But, the paint is thick and I intend to leave it that way. Rather, just pull an extra wire to all the lights for a good ground.
Lastly, the 1720LB capacity trailer uses a 2 inch hitch ball.