trying to fix up my little trailer

[gunbunny]

I have one of the cheap 4'x4' Chinese trailers that I put together from a kit purchased at Harbor Freight some years back. The deck is starting to rot out, I only used regular plywood and painted it. I was thinking it was time for an overhual...

I would love to do two things to the trailer:

Change the 4 bolt hub to a 5 bolt x 4 1/2" TJ pattern hub! I would love to run the same size tires all the way around my TJ and the trailer I'm towing.

Add a small fiberglass shipping container to the deck. I've found the perfect size for this at the local army/navy store.

Big question, do I have to replace my axle in the trailer? I'd rather just replace hubs and remove the old fenders. Everything but the plywood on the trailer is still in great shape.

Here's a link to HF to see what my trailer looks like: www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90153

I'm hoping Jim reads this, he has a lot of knowledge when it comes to trailers.

[lojim]

You would not need to change the axle - however a suggestion would be a larger spring pack. Putting the different wheels/tires on it won't change the height too much - but you could try to spring over it and see what you end up with. One word of caution: you will need some type of fender on the trailer. It can be anything you want - as long as the 'top' and 'back' of the wheel are covered. It does not need to be any more than what that trailer picture shows now. I would leave them on and flip the axle and see if that gives you enough. If not - check tractor supply. They sell 'replacement' fenders that are larger that you could just bolt on.

Do you have hubs that will fit? The mounting plate on the hubs might not match up to the axle. A little drilling or an adapter plate can make them work. Being that the trailer is not rated for over 3,000lbs you can get away with any hub/axle combination you would like.

Mike is also very handy with a welder if you need something special.

[gunbunny]

Thanks, Jim. You gave me some ideas. The bolt pattern is one of the things I want to change the most. I'm looking to put two tires of the same size and bolt pattern as on my TJ; 31x 10.5 r15 with 5x 4.5" bolt pattern. I didn't think about axle width too much, but if I'm going to run these tires on the trailer, I'll have to have an adapter/wheel spacer made up, because I'm pretty sure they will rub the trailer frame with the way that it is now. The spring over conversion sounds like a good idea.

I was looking at one of the newer torsion axles: www.trailerpart.com/traileraxles.htm?gclid=CMLRluyQlJcCFQOIFQodwUw7-g

That would eliminate a lot of hassles and some weight, and have a larger load carrying capacity. I failed to mention that when I built the trailer originally, I replaced the trailer toung with some good 2" square box tubing that was about 2' longer than what was in the kit. I welded it to the frame crossmember directly above the axle. It is very stout.