I’ve been doing the weekend art festivals for several years (eight as of November 2009). I used to load everything into my Astro van but when gas prices hit $4.00 a gallon back in ‘08, I panicked, sold the van, and bought a small Ranger pickup. With a topper installed, I managed to fit my pictures and tent into the truck with a bit of scaling back and fine tuning. But the load got heavy quick, and the largest frame I could fit in the truck was about 30”x40”. I wanted a way to carry a couple of larger frames as well as my weight bags and maybe some extra inventory.
I’d been tossing the idea around for a couple of years about getting one of those Harbor Freight 40x48 trailers with 12" wheels just to carry my weight bags, tent sides and top, and anything else that it didn’t matter if it got rained on. But that didn’t solve the larger picture problem. I considered another, taller topper, but a new one was expensive, and used, oversized aluminum ones are hard to find. I started making sketches.
First I needed the trailer. Armed with a 20% off coupon, I drove to the Harbor Freight Tools store in Largo Florida about 10 miles from my house. Their computer showed one on the floor (display) and one in stock. One was right, one box of the two needed to complete the trailer, and I went home discouraged. The next morning, I decided to call another Harbor Freight, this one was in North Tampa, about 30 miles away. The girl said the computer showed two, so I made the trip. It was Sunday morning and traffic was light. 35 minutes later I was at the store. Just like Largo, they had one on display, and one in the back. Again, just like Largo, they only had one box. The girl I spoke to earlier felt so bad, she called ANOTHER store to see if they had one, and to physically check to see if they had both boxes. They did, and marked it for me. This next store was southeast in Brandon. I was familiar with the area, and 50 minutes later I was there. The Brandon Harbor Freight was nice. Clean, well organized, not at all like the other two. If it wasn’t so far away, I’d shop there everytime. Anyway, they had the trailer, it was on sale for $199, AND they took my coupon. I got the trailer for $162. An hour later and I was home.
Assembly of the trailer went pretty smooth. I worked slow and had it done in a couple of hours. Then I measured the bed and the 1x4 slots and later created a grid in an InDesign file and created a scale drawing. I calculated the initial load of materials and the following weekend, went to Lowes to begin construction.
During the week, I went to the DOT and got tags ($29) and then test drove the trailer around the neighborhood. I wanted to see if the bearings got hot. They didn’t. (NOTE: after the trailer was completed, I removed the wheel bearings and repacked them. Probably a good idea. The trailer was packed in the box and some things looked pre-assembled, but not everything was. The wheels on the hubs for example. They looked ready to go, but the lug nuts weren’t on tight at all, so I figured maybe the bearing assemblies were just thrown together as well. Besides, the grease in them looked like vasoline. I repacked them by hand, no tools. I got the directions on line. Cleaned the old ones with mineral spirits, put the grease in the cupped palm of my hand, then pushed the grease in until it came out the other side. Messy but no need to buy a bearing packer.)
On to Page Two