Sorry to hear about your trailer problem, hotwls.

I'm always real leery of anything I buy at Harbor Freight. They're famous for selling %$#&#. You can get some deals on stuff but you've got to know what your looking for, and more importantly, what you're looking AT!

 

I'll second that. You definately gotta know what you need, and what to look for.

grabbed a set of 20 router bits for $19. Really good bits and a great variety of shapes, roller edged too. Wow! that would run you $200-$500 anywhere else!

 

That was one of the 'good' experiences at Harbor, cheapass. One of my WORST was a bolt cutter for about $25. I needed one to carry on my truck to cut off chains when they got busted. Everywhere else I looked they wanted about $80-100 or more. So I got the 'deal' at Harbor. The first time I used the cutter it bent the jaws all to hell. I took it to a sharpener and when I came back to pick it up, he said "throw this piece of $@#& away. The whole thing is bent so bad it can't be fixed". So, lesson learned there.

But, I've gotten some other stuff there that worked fine. As long as quality isn't the first concern, you're fine (but you still have to know what you're looking at before you buy it).

 

You might want to reread your manual. The spindle nut is suposed to go on finger tight then put the cotter key in. After putting the wheels on you torque the LUG NUTS to 90 lb ft of torque. LOL

 

i agree with wistech you read your directions wrong, that wheel is suppose to spin freely, i have over 400 miles on my 12inch harbor freight towing a 550 pound rancher, i roll around 65-70 no problems, both the bearing hub and tires are not hot, just a bit warm

 

The manual is on harbor frieghts web site.

 

sooo.....what does it say about the recommended tourque??

 

Sounds about right, I have a Snowbear trailer I got from WalMart, with 12 inch wheels. I set up the spindle nut so it's torqued to maybe 10 ft lbs, spin it to seat the bearings, then back off to the first hole to install the cotter pin. There should be at least a little bit of side play in the bearings after you put the wheel back on. First time out, drive a few miles, then pull over and check for hot bearings. Repeat after maybe 10 miles at higher speeds. The hub should be warm, if not cool, and never so hot you can't keep your fingers on it. I think the lug nut torque is around 80 lbs.
At least Harbor covered the mistake, it would have been an expensive fix otherwise.

 

OOOOPS! I stand corrected. I just found the manual on Harbor Freight and it says torque the lug nuts to 90 ft lbs. DAMN! I can run an entire computer network of over 1000 nodes, but I can't read simple trailer directions. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] I really liked that trailer too. I won't be getting another one though, obviously I should stick to pre-assembled trailers. I picked up my cart today, just put it in the back of my truck. Sure was nice of Harbor Freight to give me a full refund. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] So, those of you out there with the Harbor Freight trailers, sorry for bashing.

Chris

 

Ah stuff happens. Dont worry about it. The way they wrote it is a little goofy.