I’ve been looking for a utility trailer for awhile now and saw a few of these on Marketplace. I did a little research and found Home Depot sells their rental stuff right off their website. I found this trailer two towns over, drove over there, purchased it and picked it up a few days later after they found out they could sell it with a bill of sale and not wait for the title. It’s an 2018 Ohio Steel UTL5008, GVWR 2990 lbs (trailer weighs between 750 and 800 something lbs), all LED lights, 3500lb Dexter Axle. The ramps are removable and you get drop them down against the deck. Deck is in good shape: I need to find a good welder to fix this area where the Tounge jack mounts up to: I’d like to add some sides to this unit so I can haul mulch and soil. It has stake pockets up front and these pocket like things on the sides. Open to suggestions: They took a few bucks off because the running lights don’t work, but the brakes and blinkers do. The 4 pin harness needs to be replaced; has a few splits in it. Poking around, there’s no ground on the trailer. It seems that all the white (ground) wires go directly to the plugs for the lights. Any ideas on how this setup works regarding grounds? The expanded metal on the gates is rather thick! As of you can see, some of the welds have broken. I’m going to straighten out that metal and use my booger welding skills to fix that up. I’m excited about this one! It tows really nicely when empty. Looking forward to seeing how it does loaded. I got the trailer for $1,100 which I thought was a really good price given how well it’s built.
As for your ground question. I assume all the lights ground though the plug back to the battery rather than relying on the ball/hitch connection to ground back to the vehicle battery. That's the better way. Then you won't get flickering trailer lights going down a bumpy road.
Yep, ground through frame via plug. That's a great buy on the trailer. Very stout units. The UHaul galvanized trailers are tanks also.
Great looking trailer! I like that the ramps will lay down. Mine doesn’t and that would be a lot less wind drag, im thinking.
Go to the tool rental section then look for Tools for Sale: Buy Professional Used Tools - The Home Depot
Awesome! Thanks for letting me know how the ground works. I’ll be sure to keep this thread updated as I fix things and upgrade them. Already thinking of adding a hand winch and a tounge box.
Nice trailer. I’d be willing to bet your lighting problem might be circled in red. Those electrical connections are no bueno!
I agree w/ Warner. Crimp caps are not weather proof! Trim some wire back from there too. Nice trailer.
Thank you Warner! That makes sense as I messed with a split I found further up the tongue and they still wouldn’t work. I bought a 4 pin harness today while running errands and will replace it back to those crimps. I’ve been using those heat shrink solder connectors will good luck as of late. My soldering skills are almost as bad as my welding skills. ; ) 203coffeeman Let us know how it goes!
Made some progress! The mount for the spare tire was not the best: Two new U Bolts and now it’s sitting nicely: (Brand new spare tire BTW) Replaced one of the safety chains. Looks like this one was dragged for quite a bit and really worn down: Here’s more of the wiring harness. Found another surprise under a wad of electrical tape near the 4 pin…more crimp connectors. I bought a 5’ extension to use to fix the wiring. Guess who cut the wrong and and had to solder twice? Oops. All connected at both ends: Those connectors work great! However, a little tricky to get the solder to melt. I had to use a heat gun and a butane torch for a little extra heat to melt the solder. Working running lights: I was able to use a small sledge and a piece of 2x6 to straighten out the expanded metal. That worked really well. I then went and welded a few areas that had broken. My welds are nothing to write home about. Given the application, they’ll do just fine. Hit the areas I welded with a little self etching primer. I’ll probably end up touching up the gate with some paint come spring. I’ll also probably seal those deck boards as well. Fun project! Glad things went smoothly. I have a wheel cap and fender marker lights on the way from Ohio Steel. I’ll get those installed when they arive.
On trailers the best way to do grounds is to do a home run direct to each light, and also direct to the frame...redundancy. You can always tell the ones that are grounded through the ball...all the lights blinking on/off with the bumps in the road
It seems that all the lights on this one are grounded to the lights. Well, somehow at least! Each light has a white wire running to the connector. The lights on this are more like vehicle lights as they plug into a connector at each light. I can get some better pics. I suppose the only downside is finding replacement lights that would work for those specific connectors.
Agreed Dok! Yes, it’s used and has a few bumps and bruises. The upside is the built quality, the thicker walled steel and torsion axle. Everything on it is much beefier vs. what you can get of the lot.
