Trailer and Power Generator

Not to pick nits....but...

The temperature in a room with a fridge or freezer in it will rise. That means more energy expended to keep the fridge contents cool which makes the room warmer yet...etc.

It's a good thing kids contribute to entropy by leaving room doors open.

mike

First, you haven't added anything material to the conversation yet, so you certainly are not guilty of "picking nits". Second, I did not dispute that the temperature in the room will rise (until the AC comes on and pumps the heat out) The freezers will emit waste heat from the motors.

Vaughn

I got one of those trailers recently. Just for curiosity, did you have to do some filing to make one of the bolt holes match up?

Not an answer your question, but it brings to mind a little story: I bought mine at K-mart on sale for $99.00. It came with a welded frame so came in a pretty big box. I had no other way to get the trailer home, so I just assembled it in the K-mart parking lot and pulled it home! I don't remember having any particular problems. The process took less than an hour.

I did get lot's of strange looks though...

Vaughn

I got one of those trailers recently. Just for curiosity, did you have to do some filing to make one of the bolt holes match up?

------------------------------ I had one that was very tight, had to force the holes into alignment. So no, I didn't have to file it, but I had to force alignment. My package was in bad shape, (it comes in two packages) It was missing a spring slide plate. Harbor freight shipped me two right out. The cardboard box had the wheels/tires, the fenders (they're heavy) and a bag of hardware. It had straping, but the tape holding the flaps was torn open and somehow the bag of hardware was ripped and it lost the slide plate. I did have a lot of extra nuts and bolts. I offered pictures of the package to HF in case they wanted to tell China the problem with the packing. They declined. Over all, I think it was a real deal, I see the price is up to $239 today.

Mike

The price was showing at that, but when I asked them about the unit, they told me the price was $199. So I was able to get the spare tire for about what I had figured on paying without it. Of course, you're not gonna be needing a spare with what you're doing.

But I suggest that you not break the Eleventh Commandment. THOU SHALT NOT TEMPT. You've installed a very marketable item onto a trailer.

If you will be pulling one of these cheap trailers any significant distance, you not only want a spare tire, you want spare bearings. Ideally, keep an entire hub already packed with grease. I can change a hub in about 5 minutes with only a hammer and screwdriver for tools. The parts are pretty common. This is the best source I have found so far:

Yes, the instruction manual tells you that you need to repack the bearings every 2-3,000 miles, and shows how to do it. 2,000 miles would be over 20 years for me.

far:

That would be 2 weeks for me.

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch

Except that time and environment also have their effect on the bearings. As a result of this thread, I got to thinking that my trailer was perhaps ten years old and perhaps it was time to repack the bearings. (I doubt if it has more than 2 or 3 hundred miles on it). Even after repacking, I found one of the bearings felt rough enough to need replacement. That trailer is part of my evacuation plan (I live in hurricane country) so I now have a complete grease-packed spare hub. I plan to go "all out" & install a spindle on the trailer's frame to hold the spare tire and hub all together. The hub and spindle will serve as my spare tire mount. You will actually be able to rotate the spare on the bearing!

Vaughn

Pretty impressive to have a spare hub as well. My trailer sits in the garage. But if you're in hurricane country, you likely have salty airas well, certainly appropriate to protect the moving parts, and to have spares.

It's likely your spare hub will die along with those in use. It'll be exposed to the same elements, spare may roll in the slipstream, seal will be compressed on spindle, etc. I'd seal up the spare hub somehow, maybe plastic cups over ends and stored in waterproof box.

Can you evacuate ahead of time? Sometimes they don't let trailers on the road when it's down to crunch time. If you're retired, then that's not a problem as long as you don't mind evacuations. It's also a hell of a lot easier to evacuate a day or two before crush. I once spent 12 hours driving 120 miles. Drank a twelve pack of cokes, smoked a half dozen cigars. For a good chunk of the trip, there were cars in both lanes (2 lane road), both shoulders, and some in the ditches.

Pete Keillor

Sometimes it can be good for the spare to roll. If bearings are in one position for a long time and there is vibration if them, they can flatten out. At work we have had spare motors that used to sit for months and not be used, then when started the bearings failed. They had flattened out. The motors now get rotated on a schedule.

Thoes are all good thoughts! The bearings and seals are dirt cheap online. My thought is to just rebuild all three hubs every few years.

That is my plan but...

Yep! I hope to evacuate a day ahead of everybody else. I am retired so tht simplifies things. I have a 91-year-old father and his wife who will need to be persuaded to accompany us. That complicates things! I have never heard of trailers being excluded, or of Florida having enough police in enough places to enforce such a ban.

I have heard stories far worse. I knew folks who just gave up and drove back home to face the hurricane. I am expecting no gas (or anything else) to be available inside Florida, so the trailer will carry luggage, food, water, & fuel.

Where does one pee when you are stuck in endless bumper-to-bumper traffic? (Note to self: Include one empty wide-mouth juice bottle in evac kit.)

Yep, leaving early sounds better and better!

Thanks for the thoughts

Vaughn

On a long trip last summer with a men's soccer team, one of the players in the back had to pee but didn't want to slow us down, so he used an empty Gatorade bottle. He nearly filled it. (There was a lot joking in the back about putting the bottle back in the case with the unopened ones)

It sounds like something worth investigating.

I was kinda wondering what you folks were bugging out with that would require a trailer. I'm a couple of hundred miles from the coast so if I even thought I'd have to leave I hadn't considering leaving with anything but some clothes and perhaps the cats. ;-) You got me thinking, though. Maybe I'd take the truck instead of the car, but that makes traveling with the cats a bit more problem. Maybe both, and let SWMBO take the cats. ;-)

How do you store enough fuel to make it worthwhile, safely? A 5-gal can is easy, but that's not a lot.

I hope you don't have to evacuate (NPI) with any women folk.

My plan, even here in Alabama. Screw work, though they're so chicken they close on the slightest forecast of snow. We got some of Gustov and Ike shortly after I got here in '08, but other than rain (and washing out our retaining wall - before it was mine) they were a big nothing.

This was in Texas, for Hurricane Allen in 1980. It turned out to be a non-event on the upper Texas coast, but that was the first satellite high res shot of a very symmetrical hurricane, and it rattled everybody.

Just don't mix up the cans...

You have a truck..and you ask that?????

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch