Yard trailer restoration/rehabilitation

I had an old leaf 5hp leaf blower with a blown engine collecting dust in my shed. I decided to put it up on craigslist on the barter section; I wanted to trade it for a trailer I could tow behind my quad. I figured a regular ol' lawn mower yard cart would work fine. A few weeks later, I gave a guy the blower with the bad engine...he gave me this trailer and $20.

Not exactly a looker, but it was solid.

First order of business...the tear down!

I hauled it in pieces up to VT. I started sanding in CT...but my compressor is way underpowered to run a a D/A sander. My electric sander was up in VT.

I made a trip to the hardware store and picked up some new fasteners. The old ones were pretty rusted. Most broke when I used my impact to the remove them.

I also picked up some wheel/tire combos from the local Harbor Freight store....with a coupon, $17 each. A local hardware store wanted $18 just for a replacement tire. I brought the axle with me to ensure they new wheels would fit. These are a tad bigger than the stockers and have a built in zerk.

Another HF purchase...the ball coupler. I bought one that fits a 1 7/8" ball and is 3" wide. It just barely fit the trailer. I had to drill one hole to get it to mount with two bolts...pretty easy actually.

After sanding...everything is ready to paint.

And here's how it came out. A trailer like this will take at least two cans of paint. I was able to extend the mileage of one can of primer, but for paint, you'll probably want 3 cans to be safe. Then again, this is an old trailer, so if it looks good from 20' and the paint keeps the rust at bay, I'm a happy camper. The color is a Hunter Green.

It works great! I was happy that it hooked up fairly level to my quad. It was perfect for hauling around some brush. This should make moving wood around a lot easier. I was using a smaller wheel barrow. I have a feeling I just increased my efficiency by about 508%.

nice job. i just picked up a used foreman and now i need some thing like your rig
that will last years too

My wife bought one of these trailers when I was away on one of my trips. I was somewhat unhappy with her wasting money on such light weight junk because I wanted a real trailer. But now ten years later we find ourselves using it for all our firewood jobs and many other projects around our place. This summer the tires finely rotted too bad to fix and I replaced them. I think they were $9.00 each at Northern Equipment. All in all we have put a gazillion miles on it hauling junk . It turned out to be a good buy and I know you well enjoy yours. I think she spent $79.00 for it new. We have got our money out of ours. David

Good looking job Skier76, my wife has been after me to fix ours so I guess it is time.


zap

Looks good Skier76

Good Job! I have one similar and its my main trailer around the house. It used to be my Grandpa's and the rims were so rusted when I aired up the tires one of the rims blew apart.

Billy

I have a slightly smaller dump wagon. I plan on "overhauling" mine this winter, but we'll see if I get around to it. I'm seriously considering using that rubber bed stuff on the inside, does that sound stupid?

The logo on the side of mine calls it the "Load Hog" I always get a kick out of that name. dunno why.

This was a load hog as well. It's not a bad trailer. I have another in CT I use with my Snapper tractor. It's a Jackson. It's a nice trailer, but the steel isn't as thick and the bar that connects to the axle is thinner square tubing.

I'm glad I ended up with this one; it was easy to mount that hitch on it.