New Thule Trailer

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perkj said:
Sara At Knott has been extremely responsive...she actually had been checking in proactively with me daily for the past 4 day.
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I worked with Katie and Anita, maybe it’d be helpful for others if you’d post Sara’s contact info as well?

Also, any chance that anyone has a part number for the dust seal? I found the bearing numbers back in the thread (my bearings didn’t have the number on them) but all the dust seal has is the measurements.
 
Fox Mulder said:
I worked with Katie and Anita, maybe it’d be helpful for others if you’d post Sara’s contact info as well?

Also, any chance that anyone has a part number for the dust seal? I found the bearing numbers back in the thread (my bearings didn’t have the number on them) but all the dust seal has is the measurements.
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I have those posted on comment 170 of this thread...assuming by dust seal you mean grease seal:


Part-nr. KNOTT:
401547.001 grease seal
6BA455.002 hub cap
D937.007 crown nut
405048.001 bearing 30204 / D=47 d=20 H=15,25mm
405048.003 bearing 30206 / D=62 d=30 H=17,25mm
 
I saw that post, I was hoping for a number that would be somewhat universal, like the bearing numbers. I don’t think any of the local parts guys would be able to do much with that, but we don’t have anything but chain parts stores, and I haven’t had great luck with any of them being able to find anything really.
 
Fox Mulder said:
I saw that post, I was hoping for a number that would be somewhat universal, like the bearing numbers. I don’t think any of the local parts guys would be able to do much with that, but we don’t have anything but chain parts stores, and I haven’t had great luck with any of them being able to find anything really.
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You have to order them from Knott Germany’s online site. Take less than 2 weeks to get to the states. Just plug the part numbers into their search
 
I found those too, using the numbers you supplied, but man are they expensive. It would honestly be cheaper to order new hubs than to order the bearings and seals all separately on amazon, or to get the bearings from at least O'Reilly's.
 
Well, here’s a quick update on my 1500. I bought it over the winter for $350, and have since dumped more than that into it, but I think it’s shaping up quite nicely.

8E8E8993-62D0-450A-B5B2-A1FAF0788D04.webp


I’ve upgraded to 5 on 4.5 hubs, 175/80r 13 on 4.5 inch modular wheels, which then required upgrading the fenders to the 30 inch long model. The wheel/tire combo sticks out about 1.75 further than the stock wheels, but the larger fenders cover the width great as well.

I took inspiration from those who came before me, and built a rack from 80/20. I used yakima 58” round bars because I had an old set, and my old bike trays went right on.

I also added a couple of toggle clamp style latches to better hold the lid down.
51A0AA79-FBBE-4AA6-9C59-4ED2981A1050.webp

The other thing I’m really proud of, is I managed to do a pretty great job repairing a crack in the lid. Here’s the outside:
55EF1157-31B7-4476-816D-DC6E1E17F056.webp

and the inside:
587897F6-C7A0-4453-BE85-C8067804647A.webp


I can add details about how I did it if people are interested.

Lastly, because of my tire upgrades, I do have a pair of oem wheels with 145 tires on them if anyone is interested. Not sure what they’re worth, but I suppose we could figure that out of someone wants them. I’m in Michigan, but if some wanted to pay to have them shipped, I’m open to that. I know they’re hard to get, I’d like to help someone keep their Thule on the road if I can.

I still have a jack coming for it this week, and I seriously need to upgrade the struts for the lid. I also want to add a retractable tongue for a little more reach when I have kayaks on the roof.

Thanks to all of you who had put some much knowledge into this thread, I was inspired to create a perfect little trailer to take my family camping. We’re actually packing it up this week, and leaving Thursday for a 2 week trip to the Upper Peninsula. Thanks guys!
 
@Fox Mulder wow the trailer looks great! Can't believe you picked the trailer up for $350...what a smokin' deal! I so prefer the look of the 1500s over the 1700s with the short bed. I just wish they made the 1500 4 foot wide like the 1700 vs it's 3 '. Love the variation on the rack you did based on my design with the track along the length of the lid. One thing I'd highly recommend is to add the corner braces to the lid frame (both upper and side braces), especially if you are planning to carry kayaks or anything of significant weight. The corners have no bracing and as a result there will be flex that may run the risk of racking the lid near the corners. See posts 190 and 216.

I too will be lengthening the tongue soon. Rather than retractable, I'll simply have a 3 ft piece of 2.5 x 2.5 square tubing at 3/16' walls that I can add or remove when needed. I have the 3 ft piece in hand, just need to get around to drilling the mount holes on the drill press. I'll tie it into the trailer at the existing coupler mount point, however I'll utilize both the vertical and horizontal mounting holes in the coupler (i.e. 4 bolts) to ensure a stout tied together point. Hoping to get to this in the next couple of weeks.

I spoke with Sara at Knott today and sounds like my 5x114.3 hubs will be leaving Hungary in route for the US this week!
 
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@perkj I did have a friend weld the 4 individual pieces of the lid together, which made it substantially more rigid! I can't believe that they sent those out from the factory without some connection, relying only on the ABS.

The other thing I forgot to mention above was that I added screw-in wheel studs. They are actually very difficult to find, but I ended up ordering some that were for VW Bugs or Dune Buggys that fit. It looks like there are some other options as well, based on Mercedes and BMW cars, but because my new wheels aren't hub-centric, I really wanted to be able to hang the wheels on studs.

My thought on lengthening the tongue is to add a short section of 2.5 in of "receiver tube" at the coupler and a second section at the box. Then I'll use a roughly 6-7' piece of 2" square tube to slide inside it. Most of the brunt of the weight and the pull will be at the coupler area, but the second location will help me to make sure that it's perpendicular to the axle, as well as give a second spot to pin it. Then it will be able to retract all the way to the brace that runs across over the axle. For a removable tongue extension, I have a friend that created a short "T" that he uses with a boat trailer, it hooks on the A-frames about 2' behind the coupler, then he has a ball mounted on it. He's able to basically put two pins in, hook up the coupler, and he gets an extra 4 feet of tongue. He does that where the ramp would require his back tires to be in the water, and the extension is short enough he always takes it in his truck. It's slick, but I want mine to be built in, and if I were leaving my trailer parked at a campground, I could flip the tongue over, lock it in, and it makes the trailer immovable.

Has anyone used weatherstripping on the lid? I'm not worried about water, more so concerned about dust if I'm bombing down dirt roads or trails.
 
Fox Mulder said:
@perkj I did have a friend weld the 4 individual pieces of the lid together, which made it substantially more rigid! I can't believe that they sent those out from the factory without some connection, relying only on the ABS.

The other thing I forgot to mention above was that I added screw-in wheel studs. They are actually very difficult to find, but I ended up ordering some that were for VW Bugs or Dune Buggys that fit. It looks like there are some other options as well, based on Mercedes and BMW cars, but because my new wheels aren't hub-centric, I really wanted to be able to hang the wheels on studs.

My thought on lengthening the tongue is to add a short section of 2.5 in of "receiver tube" at the coupler and a second section at the box. Then I'll use a roughly 6-7' piece of 2" square tube to slide inside it. Most of the brunt of the weight and the pull will be at the coupler area, but the second location will help me to make sure that it's perpendicular to the axle, as well as give a second spot to pin it. Then it will be able to retract all the way to the brace that runs across over the axle. For a removable tongue extension, I have a friend that created a short "T" that he uses with a boat trailer, it hooks on the A-frames about 2' behind the coupler, then he has a ball mounted on it. He's able to basically put two pins in, hook up the coupler, and he gets an extra 4 feet of tongue. He does that where the ramp would require his back tires to be in the water, and the extension is short enough he always takes it in his truck. It's slick, but I want mine to be built in, and if I were leaving my trailer parked at a campground, I could flip the tongue over, lock it in, and it makes the trailer immovable.

Has anyone used weatherstripping on the lid? I'm not worried about water, more so concerned about dust if I'm bombing down dirt roads or trails.
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@Fox Mulder good call on welding that lid frame. If I was to do it over again I'd have gone the welding route as well.

You shouldn't have any issue with dust with the lid down. 2 weeks ago I took the trailer on a very dusty dirt fire road (roughly 10 miles) and I had zero issue with dust getting in the trailer. I will suggest you run less tire pressure off road to minimize the bouncing and be sure to strap the contents down well to keep things for bouncing around inside..I use a cargo net tied to the d-rings. I initially ran 35 lbs of pressure (coming straight off the paved road) and eventually dropped to around 20 lbs and that made things considerably better. Carry a tire inflator so you can air up when you hit pavement again. BTW my new 3/16" aluminum diamond plate floor really stiffened up the entire trailer and improved its ride on dirt trails....HIGHLY recommended.

For the extension, I've gone back and forth on designs. While I love the idea of retractability, I've pretty much concluded that I need the extension to be rigid w/ zero play because I will use the trailer on dirt fire roads regularly. I know there are ways to try to minimize the play using hitch stabilizers and what not, but for myself I'm thinking rigid is what I need. I do really like your idea though! Would love to see pics when you're done with your extension.

BTW: do you have a link you can point me to for those wheel studs you picked up?
 
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Of course! The wheel studs could probably be a little longer, they are basically flush with the lugnuts that I used, so these wouldn't work well if you have aluminum wheels. I did see some longer ones also, but the link is to the ones that I purchased, which worked great with my wheels, (CYA ahead) just make sure they're long enough for your application.

Wheel Studs
Lugnuts
Grease seals on Amazon- Prime shipping!

I dig your diamond plate floor, but my floor is in great shape, and I think my wife will murder me if I spend any more money on my "bargain" trailer right now! Although she should be grateful, I was really looking at a Space Trailer before I found this, so I've saved her almost $3000! I would have pulled the trigger, but I thought it was a little bigger than I really wanted. After we return, I want to get new gas struts for the lid, and also extend the tongue, and then I'll do maintenance and maybe the floor in the future. I don't think a permanent tongue extension is out of the question for me, with the short wheelbase, it backs up miserably, so I might consider just adding 3 feet. It would be nice to be able to retract or fold it to put it in the garage at the very least. I have a tall enough ceiling that I could store it on end right now, but not with a longer tongue.
 
Received word from Sara at Knott today that my 5x114.3 hubs along with additional set of bearings and seals arrived at their facility today here in the US. They came via air verse the typical 4-6 weeks on a cargo ship. Sara will be sending them out to me via UPS today so I should hopefully receive them by end of this week or early next week. It will be nice having the 5x114.3 option as it opens up a huge opportunity for larger rim and tire options.
 
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perkj, loving your build thread. I'm a long-time 1700 owner. I had to move my spare tire, because it was interfering with my bike rack in my "frankenhitch" configuration. I would love to mount my spare upside using unistrut as you have. I couldn't quite tell from your photo how you attached the unistrut to the frame. Can you add any details to that? Thanks!

frankenhitch.webp
 
Sir Velo said:
@Fox Mulder I don't even bother backing up with the thing attached lol Fantastic upgrades!
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I’m pretty darn good backing up a trailer too, in college I was a builder and was always backing up tool trailers and dump trailers, I worked for an RV service center in High School, I can’t back this thing up hardly at all! I’m not sure how much longer the tongue needs to be to make that happen, but I think I need a little length for sure!
 
kilowati said:
perkj, loving your build thread. I'm a long-time 1700 owner. I had to move my spare tire, because it was interfering with my bike rack in my "frankenhitch" configuration. I would love to mount my spare upside using unistrut as you have. I couldn't quite tell from your photo how you attached the unistrut to the frame. Can you add any details to that? Thanks!

View attachment 2367489
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@kilowati love the frankenhitch set up! Lol. Here is how I mounted the unistrut...attached to the lower lip of the frame. Note you need to cut the right angle to match the frame angle on both sides. :

78AD24D9-2702-432A-9B9D-50BE1D102802.jpeg


I’ve sense moved the spare under the new aluminum floor within the frame area so it is tucked up even higher.


7E269EAA-CE9F-43D6-9927-06C24F229D57.jpeg
 
That photo is just what I was looking for. Thanks! I'm not ready for diamond plate yet, so unistrut might be a great solution for me. Appreciate it.
 
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