Enclosed Trailer Questions

I have been looking around at enclosed trailers to haul my golf cart & Challenger in. Man, are they stupid expensive. But when compared to what we have into our cars it is worth to have it protected while towing. I have been looking at 26-28' tandem axle trailers in the 4500-6000 G's range. I found a 32' Tri axle that I really like but it a lot more money for 7G's+. Is the extra axle & length worth the extra costs in your opinions?

26' is tight for Chally and golf cart. Most people would want a little longer for that.

Yes!

Check the weight on that big triaxle. I wouldn't be surprised it if weighed 7500 empty. The extra room is nice, but you need a 1 ton dually at least to pull it. Make sure it has at least 16" tires, never use 15's on an enclosed.

I bought a 29' (24' with 5' nose) V-Nose Wells Cargo with a fold-down drivers side door for my race car and golf cart with 5K axles, it was right at $10K out the door. I could tow it with a 2500 with no issues. To get a trailer strong enough to haul everything you need will be expensive. The $10K was in 1996 so prices have probably risen accordingly.

http://wellscargo.com/wellscargo-trailers/auto-trailers/autosport-v-front/overview/

The triple axle trailers I have been around are a little harder to turn with and move around with the front or rear wheels having to slide sideways.. Tire wear on the front and back is more due to this also...

FWIW...I'd go w/ atleast a 28'. I have a 24' and my cuda w/ golf cart barely fits. Challenger is longer, but not 2' longer, so the 26' will work, but you'll wish you'd gotten the 28'.

My triple is a 32' tag. It turns fine and is easy on tires (15"). It weighs 6500 empty. Tows very well with my 95 3500 dually. The only draw back is stopping as my entire rig weighs around 19,000. Plenty of room for anything you want to bring.
Doug

I have the same trailer as dvw and I tow with a 2006 dodge 1500 4x4.it tows well but no where near as good as if it was a 2500 or dually. I eaven tow it with my motor home and that pulls really well considering the weight I'm hauling.

I am cheap and have a 24' trailer and get the Cuda in there with my four wheeler. Its tight, but it all fits. I have about 1ft more room with the Duster in there, but it all gets to the track the same. Been looking at newer trailers...Not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Before you lay out your hard earned money research your state and the states you will be towing through. I too will be in the market soon if I can continue to race much longer. My trailer is a 7000 pound max and I sweat bullets every time I leave my driveway as I know I am over loaded with the trailer, car, quad, tools, and essentials needed to race. States at all ramping up on DOT rules as a way to make money and God forbid if you were ever evolved in a wreck because poop runs downhill. Bob George has an excellent post in the Moparts archives

A 28'will do for you but get the heaviest axles
you can get.... 16' wheels mandatory.... if you
go the longer trailer.. 16" MANDATORY ...if you
go 3 axles you will wear tires..but if you blow
a tire its not gonna kill ya.. I built a 43 trailer
with 2 10K axles but the tires are the limiting factor
and I but the heaviest rated you can buy... they last
and I have blown out 1 tire and the other one will hold
it up... I wouldnt want to run a lot of miles but it holds
I didnt want 3 axles for 2 factors... wear and price if
you are on pay roads(and I go on pay roads all the time to
head to Norwalk)... but at 28' you probably wont have
cabinets on the lower... thats about 3' for them
EDIT
I forgot that mine is a fifth wheel and I haul it with
a Dodge CTD

Buy the best trailer you can, ONCE I've own three different enclosed car trailers, one used 24ft. Braceo(SP?)10,000 rated GVR, one new custom built 7000 lb rated 22 ft. Pace Shadow, the saleman lied to me about what it would weigh empty He said it would weigh around 2900 lbe empty, it weighed 4360 lbs empty My current one is a 24 ft. Pace Shadow 10,000 GVR rated, I wish I had a 36 to 40 ft goose neck with a living quaters for the races out of town Look at the roundy round racers web sites for a decent used one, some of then guys get sponsors and buy new trailer after that
No matter what trailer you buy make sure it has at least six lug 16 inch wheels and tires My current Pace has 15 inch wheels and tires with 5200 lb rated six lug axles, I carry three spare tires now after blowing two of them out (E rated tires) on one trip

Love the fire engine Mr.P... always admired how useful it could be.

Our present trailer is a "dollar menu" Cargo Mate 28ft, 5K axles, 16" wheels. Lots of sub par fit and finish issues, but it doesn't leak water, and it pulls straight and true. As mentioned.... get 16" wheels. Trailer tire selection mucho better. Fits our Duster and golf cart with enough room for me to throw down some blankets and sleep between them if need be. Our last trek to Salt Lake I finally weighed the whole deal and we were at 17400 lb combined. My 2500 CTD (NOT stock...) gets the job done pretty well on the steep, long, hot grades out here in the west. Some of them in the summer I do have to kill the a/c to maintain engine temp. Hard to get heat transfer when the road temps reach 160 degrees.

But its a dry heat right? :-)

How many miles a year will you be towing?
If you are going to be traveling a lot with the trailer, than a three axle and 32' may be a good choice because of the extra space and spreading the load on six tires vs. four, but If you only drive a thousand miles or so per year, the tire may dry rot before the thread is warn down.

I have a 28' two axle that works good for me. When I originally bought it, it had the six lug 15" rims, and when packed with a #4,200 pound car, and tool chest, and extra junk, the "D" load rated tires were taking a beating. Last rear I replaced the rims/tires with 16" rims and "E" load rated tires. Anyhow, if you find a deal on a trailer and it has 15" rims, it is not that difficult to replace them with 16" rims and tires.

I looked for quite awhile before buying my trailer, and found a good deal where the guy was upgrading to a 40' trailer.

Using a 1-ton 2005 Ram Diesel to tow it with.

I shopped used for almost a year a Finally when a killer deal popped up on Craigslist it was in my zip code--yahoo! I was at their place 22 minutes after the Craigs ad came up--had a hard time lowering the price as the phone was ringing whole time I was there--Lucky I had cash from an engine sale in my pocket and had not been to the bank yet soooo...I scored! It is often just about being the early bird--shop used--plan on new tires no matter what they look like and you can get a trailer with more features than you could stand at retail--shoot for the heavier axles and 16 inch if you can FWIW I like the torsion bar type vs springs--stuff inside rides better I think. Get as big as your truck can pull comfortably. Good Luck!

I also have a 32' LQ 2-axle trailer when fully loaded with my 69 D200 truck I scaled it at 11,100 lbs. I used to pull it with a 2004 3500 Cummins single wheel truck but now use a 2105 2500 4x4 5.7 Hemi. It definitely pulled better with the Cummins truck, but the new one is adequate. I bought a 2-axle due to the multiple times I would be towing through Chicago tollways and didn't want to pay tolls for another axle. It would be better with another axle, but it works good enough the way it is.

Not as cheap as me !!

Just built this, it's small, it's low and it will have to do.

Well, I made him an offer on the 32'er. We'll see if he takes it or not. If not, I already have a 28'er lined up from a buddy that is much cheaper but I will have to do more to it to fix it up the way I would want it.

Does the 32 have 16" wheels... or does the 28... good
luck on them

They both do.

Go big if you get it at a decent price

Whatever trailer you buy............you will find out in short order that it is NOT big enough..........LOL!!!

Just Rock it out old school Jay. More money left for hot rod parts! But then again I have been told with all my stuff piled up in the back of the truck I look like the Beverly Hill Billies rolling in, hmmmmmm. Maybe in my future too.

Yeah, my open trailer still works just fine. Nobody matches as cool as you do goimg down the road though. The 28'er is too good of a deal to pass up so I will probably buy this one no matter what. Then I found this 32'er and started thinking if I do it may as well get the one I want and the 32'er would be more than enough for whatever I need.