Harbor Freight Camper Build Part 1

    Today’s project is the start of a small camper build. The base of any camping trailer is the trailer itself. I started with the Harbor Freight Haul-Master 1720 lb 4ft x 8ft trailer at $550. Northern Tool has a similar trailer that is cheaper and can occasionally be found on sale for under $400, but it has a lower weight capacity. After watching multiple videos and reading the manual, I laid out the parts. The side frame rails are marked and it looks like all of the cross frame pieces are the same. The side with the most holes goes on the bottom. When laying out the frame, make sure the holes for the hinge system line up.

    The bag of nuts and bolts has three types of bolts, long short and carriage. If you come across the carriage bolt while assembling the frame, toss them in a bowl or cup. They are for mounting the leaf spring bracket and having them separate will be beneficial when you get to that step. As for the long and short bolts, the short bolts are used when you have two layers of metal and the long bolts are used when you have three layers of frame. Once all of the bolts are in place, square up the frame and tighten down, rechecking the square as you go.

    Watching the videos came in handy. If you don’t have any intentions of using the hinge system for storage, the leaf springs can be moved back to join the front and rear halves like it is a solid frame. Just remember to install both of the leaf spring mounting brackets on the front half and then join it to the rear.

    I installed the leaf springs and axle and then took them off and flipped the trailer over. I used two jack stands to hold the rear of the frame and two more jack stands are now on my need to get list. Fortunately, I ordered new tires for my truck and haven’t had a chance to get them put on. So I used two tires as a trailer jack. I wish that I had bought a trailer jack and installed it at this point.

    I slid the axle under the trailer and installed the back side of both leaf springs. Then I lifted the front side and bolted them in place. Once the leaf springs were in place I tightened tightened down.

    This made it easy to install the fenders before putting the tires on.

After installing the tires I put the wiring harness in place. The kit only came with six mounting clips, so I put those on the tongue and used zip ties on the rest of the frame. I will wait until the frame is in place before installing lights in case I need to move them for better visibility. After the wire harness was mounted, there is enough left over wire to flip it over the top and go back around three fourths of the way back up the trailer. I have plenty of extra wire to rearrange mounting points for the tail lights and marker lights.

Now it is time to make final decisions on the floor layout, determine what I need for lumber and make a trip to the hardware store.

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