Help with small Harbor Freight trailer bounce/rattle

[ACGOG]

Howdy! Hoping this goes here and I can get some assistance.

 

I bought the small Harbor Freight 1090lb 40 1/2 x 48 inch trailer to get my fishing kayak where it needs to go after giving up my truck for a more family friendly vehicle.

 

The tongue on it was pretty small so I swapped it out with 10ft square steel pipe, drilled the holes where they needed to go and everything seems to be fine with the build itself.

 

However, when I first got it the thing bounced and rattled around like you wouldn't believe. I figured this was because it didn't have any weight on it. I threw my two kayaks on it and the same thing. The tires seemed to be inflated to the max so I let out some air... still bounced. I let out even MORE air, down to something like 10-15 PSI and that seemed to have solved it.

 

I had to make a trip to go get my new yak today and inflated it up to 20psi so that I could get up to 65mph and holy smokes I thought it was going to fly off the back of the car it was making so much noise. I pulled over and let some air out and it kind of fixed it but still had big issues with rattling at around 20mph.

 

Is it safe to keep that little air in the tire? Am I doing something wrong? Is maybe my hitch too high or too low? What are some things I can do to diagnose my issue?

 

This is my first foray into trailers and could use some help!

[K1500]

No trailer tire that I am aware of is rated to go below 25 psi. The required pressure depends on the weight, the lower the weight the lower the minimum pressure. 
 

Table

 

You may benefit from a hitch anti-rattle clamp. These can tighten up the slop between the hitch and receiver. 
 

Anti-rattle

 

Finally, you may benefit from a bigger trailer and/or bigger tires. 
 

 

[Bankc]

I wouldn't deflate the tires much below their rated pressure.  You're tires are rated for 60 PSI, if I'm not mistaken (you may want to verify that), and at 10-15 PSI, you're asking for a blowout.  You need to keep the sidewalls from flexing too much, or they'll quickly wear out and destroy the tire. 

 

Where's the rattle coming from?  That's the first thing you need to figure out.  Is it from the trailer itself, the trailer's connection to the hitch, or the hitch's connection to your car?  There's an adjustment nut on the coupler that you can tighten to help relieve some play.  You'll have to unlock the latch to adjust it.  It also might be a good idea to adjust the balance point of the trailer.  If it's perfectly balanced over the wheels, it'll cause it to bounce a lot.  You want to about 10-15% more weight up towards the tongue.  Then, like K1500 said, you might need an anti-rattle clamp if the rattling is coming from the ball hitch to the hitch receiver on the car.   

 

Typically you want the hitch to be level, or maybe even pointing down towards the tongue just a hair.  

 

You also may just need more weight on the trailer.  If a trailer is really light and small, they can bounce around a whole lot, as there just isn't much to keep them glued to the road.  You don't want to exceed the trailer's recommended weight, obviously, but anyone who's pulled an empty trailer will attest that they can get loud.  

[ACGOG]

32 minutes ago, Bankc said:

I wouldn't deflate the tires much below their rated pressure.  You're tires are rated for 60 PSI, if I'm not mistaken (you may want to verify that), and at 10-15 PSI, you're asking for a blowout.  You need to keep the sidewalls from flexing too much, or they'll quickly wear out and destroy the tire. 

 

Where's the rattle coming from?  That's the first thing you need to figure out.  Is it from the trailer itself, the trailer's connection to the hitch, or the hitch's connection to your car?  There's an adjustment nut on the coupler that you can tighten to help relieve some play.  You'll have to unlock the latch to adjust it.  It also might be a good idea to adjust the balance point of the trailer.  If it's perfectly balanced over the wheels, it'll cause it to bounce a lot.  You want to about 10-15% more weight up towards the tongue.  Then, like K1500 said, you might need an anti-rattle clamp if the rattling is coming from the ball hitch to the hitch receiver on the car.   

 

Typically you want the hitch to be level, or maybe even pointing down towards the tongue just a hair.  

 

You also may just need more weight on the trailer.  If a trailer is really light and small, they can bounce around a whole lot, as there just isn't much to keep them glued to the road.  You don't want to exceed the trailer's recommended weight, obviously, but anyone who's pulled an empty trailer will attest that they can get loud.  

 

Thank you both for the tips.

 

The first time around it was due to the trailer itself bouncing around all willy-nilly. The second time around I do believe it was the connection between the hitch and ball. I'm wondering too (again, I'm a noob), the hitch itself where it attached to the car is kind of loose - do I need a tighter one or something?

 

The weight it's not to exceed is 1080lbs so that's not a problem. Our two yaks are 80-ish or so pounds a piece and I'm sure the wood I've added isn't all that heavy either. I'm planning on adding some racks made out of steel but I can't imagine that's going to add much more weight. Is there a trick to getting more on there? How would I add more weight to the tongue? Maybe a spare or that one thing that keeps it up when it's not attached? Put something inside the tongue itself?

 

FWIW this is what I'm working with. Sucks because I've wanted this yak for years and finally got it and have to worry about bringing it places now:

 

Edit: I mean, what's the difference between this thing and what I've got?

[K1500]

A trailer like that is probably going to bounce regardless of what you do. Perhaps adding weight that is securely strapped down may help. I tow a double axle camper with essentially no bounce, a 20 foot bay boat with some minor bounce, and a utility trailer that is substantially bigger than that (maybe 10’ by 6’) with larger tires and it bounces and rattles quite a bit when empty. It is the nature of things, but too much bounce can be dangerous. I would also look at kayak specific websites, as folks undoubtedly tow small trailers like that and have had to deal with that problem. Rough roads are going to be a killer for sure. Is there any way you can add a roof rack and ditch the trailer altogether? 

[MN Fisher]

Small trailers with light loads bounce - it's a fact of life. My canoe trailer bounces...probably not as much because the total weight is more (around 350lbs trailer+canoe), but it still does.

 

[Bankc]

That clamp K1500 linked (or one like it) will eliminate the bounce between the hitch and the hitch receiver, if that's got any play at all.  And they usually do these days, as they're often made for universal fit, which means the tolerances on them aren't very tight.  Those clamps are a pain to install and uninstall, as you need to use a wrench, but they do the job. 

 

As for the hitch receiver being loose, I don't know about your vehicle, but they're usually bolted directly onto the frame of the car.  You can look underneath the car to see how the whole thing is attached.  There's usually some kind of locking nut or washers to keep them tight, but they can loosen over time.  You'll want to do some research to find out what the torque specs is on those bolts or nuts, and tighten them down to spec.  That should keep it from rattling.  Then, all that's left is the trailer itself, which as mentioned, will probably bounce around a bit, no matter what you do, due to it's light weight.  Adding more weight will likely help, but you probably won't be able to add enough to eliminate it all together.  You also might try shortening the extension you made a little bit.  That'll give it less room to swing around and shorten the distance it can bounce.  It probably won't make a huge different, but it might help a little.  

[DanielG]

I have a couple of trailer/campers. All I know is that even though people think that the tire pressure on the side of the tire is way too high. Mine are 50psi. It's what you should do. The rolling, at high speed, will cause a lot of heat. I'd imagine less weight it wouldn't be as bad. I keep mine at recommended pressure. And yes my camper has to have everything battened down or it looks like someone turned it upside down after a long ride. The nature of the beast I think if you don't have a lot of weight in it to dampen the bouncing.

[GreenPig]

If it's bouncing on smooth roads you may want to consider getting the tires balanced. My fishing partners Bass Tracker is like a bronco with new unbalanced tires.

[E-rude dude]

Get rid of the cheap bias ply tires. Buy some load range C radial tires. Inflate them to around 90%. That’s the best you will get out of that trailer.

[ACGOG]

15 hours ago, GreenPig said:

If it's bouncing on smooth roads you may want to consider getting the tires balanced. My fishing partners Bass Tracker is like a bronco with new unbalanced tires.

 

Dumb question, how do I do this? Bring it to like an NTB or Discount Tire? Do I need to bring the trailer itself or just the tires?

[GreenPig]

7 hours ago, ACGOG said:

 

Dumb question, how do I do this? Bring it to like an NTB or Discount Tire? Do I need to bring the trailer itself or just the tires?

Any tire shop should be able to balance just the tires. No need to take the trailer.

[ACGOG]

Okay so I asked someone on YouTube who had done am extension and he said that my weight distribution is probably wrong, that I need 10-15% of the trailer weight on the tongue. How would I do that? 

 

I wish I wasn't such a noob.

[slonezp]

Roof rack

[Bolar]

15 hours ago, ACGOG said:

Okay so I asked someone on YouTube who had done am extension and he said that my weight distribution is probably wrong, that I need 10-15% of the trailer weight on the tongue. How would I do that? 

 

I wish I wasn't such a noob.

 

https://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-determine-trailer-tongue-weight.aspx

[ACGOG]

Wound up finding a solution.

 

The tongue weight wasn't the problem it turns out. Somewhere down a forum page somewhere in the recesses of the internet someone mentioned pulling off the bottom leaf of the springs. I did that last night and it works like an absolute champ now.

 

I don't plan on ever hauling 1k+ lbs worth of stuff so I'll take the smooth ride and if I ever have the need to do that later I'll figure it out then.

 

Honestly wouldn't have been able to troubleshoot it without everyone's advice here so I appreciate everyone who popped on here to say something.