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Posted by mm on January 8, 2007, 2:22 pm
Do I want a trailer jack for my little trailer?
I'm buying a small trailer, only 4' x 8' bed, the one that folds in
half sold by Harbor Freight and NorthernTools (I'm not saying they're
the same, but similar). Buying it new, with new tires.
And they push accessories such as a trailer jack that holds the tongue
up when it isn't resting on the trailer hitch. Do I want one, do I
need one, for a trailer that weighs 200 pounds on which I'll put less
than 100 pounds of furniture? After all, I'm supposed to put the load
on so the tongue weight is no more than 50 pounds, right? And I can
lift 50 pounds easily. OTOH, I love accesories and gadgets? OT3H, I
will rarely if ever use it, but I will pay for gas to carry it around
with me whereever I go.
In fact, I plan to use the trailer only once, to go from Dallas to
Baltimore, and I don't expect to put the trailer on the hitch more
than once, or take it off more than once. At the start and at the
end. Since I have no place to keep the trailer, I'll have to sell it,
cheap. So should I buy the jack?
Should I buy a spare wheel, tire, and spare tire carrier, for a total
of 40 dollars? I'm not made of money. :)
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Posted by tsltrek on January 8, 2007, 2:27 pm
I'll bite.
Buy the spare tire and rim...long trip to get stuck on the road.
Forget the carrier and jack.
> Do I want a trailer jack for my little trailer?
>
> I'm buying a small trailer, only 4' x 8' bed, the one that folds in
> half sold by Harbor Freight and NorthernTools (I'm not saying they're
> the same, but similar). Buying it new, with new tires.
>
> And they push accessories such as a trailer jack that holds the tongue
> up when it isn't resting on the trailer hitch. Do I want one, do I
> need one, for a trailer that weighs 200 pounds on which I'll put less
> than 100 pounds of furniture? After all, I'm supposed to put the load
> on so the tongue weight is no more than 50 pounds, right? And I can
> lift 50 pounds easily. OTOH, I love accesories and gadgets? OT3H, I
> will rarely if ever use it, but I will pay for gas to carry it around
> with me whereever I go.
>
> In fact, I plan to use the trailer only once, to go from Dallas to
> Baltimore, and I don't expect to put the trailer on the hitch more
> than once, or take it off more than once. At the start and at the
> end. Since I have no place to keep the trailer, I'll have to sell it,
> cheap. So should I buy the jack?
>
> Should I buy a spare wheel, tire, and spare tire carrier, for a total
> of 40 dollars? I'm not made of money. :)
>
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Posted by Pete C. on January 8, 2007, 3:52 pm
mm wrote:
>
> Do I want a trailer jack for my little trailer?
>
> I'm buying a small trailer, only 4' x 8' bed, the one that folds in
> half sold by Harbor Freight and NorthernTools (I'm not saying they're
> the same, but similar). Buying it new, with new tires.
>
> And they push accessories such as a trailer jack that holds the tongue
> up when it isn't resting on the trailer hitch. Do I want one, do I
> need one, for a trailer that weighs 200 pounds on which I'll put less
> than 100 pounds of furniture? After all, I'm supposed to put the load
> on so the tongue weight is no more than 50 pounds, right? And I can
> lift 50 pounds easily. OTOH, I love accesories and gadgets? OT3H, I
> will rarely if ever use it, but I will pay for gas to carry it around
> with me whereever I go.
>
> In fact, I plan to use the trailer only once, to go from Dallas to
> Baltimore, and I don't expect to put the trailer on the hitch more
> than once, or take it off more than once. At the start and at the
> end. Since I have no place to keep the trailer, I'll have to sell it,
> cheap. So should I buy the jack?
>
> Should I buy a spare wheel, tire, and spare tire carrier, for a total
> of 40 dollars? I'm not made of money. :)
Tongue weight should be about 10% of gross trailer weight, and both
tongue and gross weights will be limited by your tow vehicle and hitch.
A trailer of the type you indicate should pretty much never have a
tongue weight over 120# so you can probably do just fine without a jack.
A spare wheel/tire assy. is a good idea if you expect to tow it a lot. A
tire carrier isn't worthwhile since the tire is small and you should be
able to just strap it down with the load or keep it in the two vehicle.
If you don't tow a lot, don't tow in remote areas and don't tow anything
too valuable you can pretty readily skip the spare tire. If you do get a
flat you just leave the trailer on the side of the road for an hour
while you got to and Lowe's, Home Depot, Auto parts store, etc. and buy
a tire/wheel assy. for $30.
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Posted by mm on January 8, 2007, 9:20 pm
wrote:
>
>Tongue weight should be about 10% of gross trailer weight, and both
>tongue and gross weights will be limited by your tow vehicle and hitch.
>A trailer of the type you indicate should pretty much never have a
>tongue weight over 120# so you can probably do just fine without a jack.
>
>A spare wheel/tire assy. is a good idea if you expect to tow it a lot. A
>tire carrier isn't worthwhile since the tire is small and you should be
>able to just strap it down with the load or keep it in the two vehicle.
Well, as I said, I like gadgets, but I'll control myself and skip this
one.
>
>If you don't tow a lot, don't tow in remote areas and don't tow anything
>too valuable you can pretty readily skip the spare tire. If you do get a
>flat you just leave the trailer on the side of the road for an hour
>while you got to and Lowe's, Home Depot, Auto parts store, etc. and buy
>a tire/wheel assy. for $30.
Thanks. I feel better now. The dresser has been mine since I was 6
and it's beautiful, but it's not likely someone will steal it, even if
I have to leave it**. I can even chain up the trailer if I have to
leave it. So I'm going to order the trailer right now, and have it
shipped to my brother in Dallas.
**Not likely that anyone will want it, but I'm going to put a switch
under the dresser so that it sets off the car's burglar alarm if
someone tries to take it while I'm in a motel or camping at night.
(Also very unlikely, but when one has had things stolen, he becomes
touchy about it. My car once, though I went and found it, but
everything in the trunk was missing. A roommate' subtenant stole my
desk, deskchair, electric drill, and propane torch once when I was
working out of town. And a second time everything in the trunk of my
convertible. That was 24 years ago, but still. Oh, yeah, someone once
stole 2 lawn mowers from behind my house, but I had spent hours trying
to make either of them work and was only saving them for parts! I'll
bet they were disappointed when they got them home and couldn't start
them!)
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Posted by DerbyDad03 on January 8, 2007, 5:01 pm
I had one of those trailers for years. I carried around a cheap Harbor
Freight jack stand to stick under the tongue when I unhitched. It
served 2 purposes:
- Saved the back from lifting the tongue off the ground
- Kept the bed more level
One problem is that if you stand on the rear of the trailer, the tongue
will lift off the jack stand and if the trailer rolls left or right,
the tongue will hit the ground rather harshly when you get off. With an
attached jack stand (preferably with a wheel (~$40)) it may lift up,
but it will return to it's original position a bit more calmly.
Once I upgraded to an enclosed trailer, I found the wheeled jack stand
to be a must if I wanted to move the trailer by myself.
BTW I built a nice set of walls for my trailer from 1 x 6 douglas fir.
I've seen cheap, fast plywood walls, but my walls made an inexpensive
trailer look pretty nice. I got it on sale for under $200, put about
$50 into the walls and sold it for $200 4 years later.
P.S. Never had a spare, never had flat.
mm wrote:
> Do I want a trailer jack for my little trailer?
>
> I'm buying a small trailer, only 4' x 8' bed, the one that folds in
> half sold by Harbor Freight and NorthernTools (I'm not saying they're
> the same, but similar). Buying it new, with new tires.
>
> And they push accessories such as a trailer jack that holds the tongue
> up when it isn't resting on the trailer hitch. Do I want one, do I
> need one, for a trailer that weighs 200 pounds on which I'll put less
> than 100 pounds of furniture? After all, I'm supposed to put the load
> on so the tongue weight is no more than 50 pounds, right? And I can
> lift 50 pounds easily. OTOH, I love accesories and gadgets? OT3H, I
> will rarely if ever use it, but I will pay for gas to carry it around
> with me whereever I go.
>
> In fact, I plan to use the trailer only once, to go from Dallas to
> Baltimore, and I don't expect to put the trailer on the hitch more
> than once, or take it off more than once. At the start and at the
> end. Since I have no place to keep the trailer, I'll have to sell it,
> cheap. So should I buy the jack?
>
> Should I buy a spare wheel, tire, and spare tire carrier, for a total
> of 40 dollars? I'm not made of money. :)
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