How to fix Harbor Freight’s 48 x 96″ 1150lb trailer with 12″ wheels

james January 13th, 2010

I purchased a cheap Harbor Freight (HF) 1195 Lb. Capacity 48″ x 96″ Heavy Duty Foldable Utility Trailer with 12″ Wheels, pn 90154 several years ago. It has served my needs over the years but after many failures, I would have been better off buying a nicer trailer in the beginning. Being fresh out of college at the time, I had little money hence the choice.

So, here are the issues and resolutions:
1. Constant bulb burnouts - Solution: LED submersible lights from Northern tool for $60 as well as new crimps, adhesive heat shrink and weatherproof connectors on the lights.
2. Weak frame - Solution: 1/8″ diamond plate steel top instead of plywood - $100 - 200. Reduces capacity by about 200 lbs (1450 GVWR - 262 for trailer - 197 for plate = 991 lb payload which is still fine for two sportbikes). I also put thin shims under the middle framing so that there would be a flat deck for the steel sheet for additional structure.
3. Dust cap falling off - Solution: $2.99 Revised design dust cap from HF, pn 93833 or bearing buddy pn 2047 with cap / protector pn 19b ( I chose the bearing buddy at around $30 shipped for both parts)
4. Bearing Failure - Solution: $4.99 bearing from HF, pn 93834 or pn 30205 from bearingsdirect.com at $11 ( I chose the later, hoping for a better quality part)
5. Bearing Oil Seal - Solution: 30×52x7TC from bearingsdirect.com at $6 (not offered by HF)
6. Sticking Ball Coupler - Solution: 1-7/8″ x 2-1/2″ Ball Coupler from almost anywhere. The new HF ones are nicer than the older design which was sticky from day 1
7. No trailer jack - Solution: Wheeled trailer jack from many sources. I welded a plate on the inner frame for more support for the wheeled type jack.
8. No sides or ramp - Solution: Lots of options, basic instructions are in the manual now (I don’t think they were years ago) HF Trailer Manual
9. Electrical faults - Solution: Find the fault and fix it or replace the whole harness as it is of very poor quality
10. 4 pin connector length - Solution: Get an extension or adapter with some length if your truck doesn’t have a 4 pin connector
11. No spare wheel - Solution: Spare wheel carrier from HF, pn 93341 or other companies. 12″ wheel from HF or Northern Tool.
12. Not many tie down points - Solution: Lots but I chose removable ancra tie-downs in for the flooring, you can also use bed bolts. Then large fixed, circular bits for the sides.

I had to search for a while for some of the parts like bearings, oil seals, etc. Hopefully this list will help others out there with similar issues and bring together a lot of the information required to own and operate one of these trailers for thousands of miles.

7 Responses to “How to fix Harbor Freight’s 48 x 96″ 1150lb trailer with 12″ wheels”

  1. # Geneon 22 Jan 2010 at 7:53 am

    Greatly enjoyed your improvement suggestions for your HF trailer. Just sold my old pickup truck with an eight foot bed, so I need something to replace it for the occasional hauling job. The 1720 lb capacity HF trailer is on sale for $340 - minus 20% coupons floating around, putting the pre-tax and registration cost at $272 - tough to resist. My use for it is very varied: from hauling a 14″ kayak (don’t care to heft it on top of my new Nissan Murano) to the usual home/lawn maintenance stuff from Lowes/Home Depot. I have a friend who has an auto shop, so I hope to weld the trailer instead of using bolts to hold it together.

  2. # Drewon 18 Apr 2010 at 6:09 pm

    James, Thanks for the tips. I have the same trailer. Very happy with it but now I have my first issue. I have an inner bearing failure on one wheel. Is HF PN 93834 for both inner & outer? I believe it is just outer. What is “5. Bearing Oil Seal”? I’m thinking this may be the inner bearing since the parts diagram for the trailer lists part #30 as “seal”. If so, does the “seal” include the bearing because I have no inner bearing as it was torn to shreds on my last trip. Thanks for your Time. Drew.

  3. # Mikeon 19 Apr 2010 at 9:34 am

    On my Grease seal the number printed on it is 30 52 10. I have the 4×8 folding HF trailer. You say your grease seal is 30×52x7. Do you think they changed the size?

  4. # PLDon 19 Jun 2010 at 1:42 pm

    Thanks so much for doing the seal and bearing research. you cannot get these at the local parts store since most of the catalogs they use are in inches instead of mm.

  5. # Darrenon 29 Jul 2010 at 11:05 am

    DUDE, you ROCK, been serching for days for the best bearing replacements and dust caps since i disenegrated mine last weekend coming back from the track. One thing though. where did you order the bearing buddy pn 20407 with cap / protector pn 19b i googled it and cant find. Thanks.

  6. # Darrenon 29 Jul 2010 at 11:09 am

    Found it at bearingbuddy.com DUH. lol question did you mean pn 2047 not 20407?

  7. # jameson 22 Aug 2010 at 9:22 pm

    2047 is correct, I will fix it in the original post, thank you for catching the typo!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply