KillerRS

What size trailers are you guys using, im buying one in the upcomming weeks and Im thinking a 18 ft normail with full deck. What size are you guys using, any sigestions.

AlkyIROC

I use a 16' open trailer. An 18' would be nicer. To keep the tounge weight down, I don't have the car right up to the front. The rear tires are a couple of feet from the back and the rear of the car overhangs the end of the trailer. If I used a 3/4 or 1 ton to haul the trailer, tounge weight wouldn't be a problem and I could put the car all the way to the front. I could always back the car on. Then the majority of the weight would be directly over the trailer axles.

I "want" a 20 or 24' enclosed trailer but need a bigger truck first.

daverr

iTrader: (1)

i have a silverado 1500 (1/2 ton?? 3/4 ton ??).i rent a trailer whenever i take my car to the track.i noticed that when i load the car on the trailer the truck rearend sags quiet a bit .This sag causes the trailer to sometimes bottom out when going on a slight ramp.I was thinking of getting those air bags or spring to attach on the rear leaf spring.I could also try moving the car back a little , but then i couldnt use those straps that go over the front wheels.I still could secure the car without using the front tire straps.

KillerRS

I have a 86 1/2 ton, i hope it dosnt sag too much when i get a trailer, i guess if it does ill just get those load suporters

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

you guys all need to get some equalizer bars.

http://www.eaz-lift.com/equalframes.html

AlkyIROC

My 454SS is only a 1/2 ton. It's been dropped with a 6 and 4 drop kit. Equilizers won't work because the truck/hitch is too low. I have air bags on the springs to level the load which works pretty good. Normally I run about 50 psi in the bags and they're rated for a max of 100 psi.

Karps TA

iTrader: (2)

I find most thirdgenners prefer double wides.

ZBRA

Prefer? Don't you mean "dream of"?

ross

I have a 20' open trailer and wish I had a 22'. I can get my golf cart on it side ways if I slide the front end around. And when I take just the car it can be loaded any way you need it with no over hang. As far as the truck goes its dodge 2500 and the only time the tounge weight becomes a proublem is when I get greedy and take the car and the golfcart. And I also put the trailer close to its max wt. 7000 lbs. Trailer wt.2200 lbs car 3250 lbs golfcart 800lbs.

KillerRS

how so the airbags work, di you need a compressor, how do you mount them with leaf springs

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

equalizers are noy only cheaper, but they are safer too.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I started out with a 16' open and it takes all of that trailer, nxt year bought a 18' tilt bed and that worked pretty good, if I ever got another tilt it would be an electric over hydrualic unit instead of the cherry picker hand jack system that trialer had-120 pumps to full extension Bought this 20' a few years back, 18'flat/2'dove and it works great. I love the steel deck since I used it alot for my construction business it's held up great.

Room for me to load golf cart sideways on the nose and pull my car on with no overhang out back. (only use golf cart on the big events) otherwise I have a 2' truck box mounted up front for tool/strap storage/rock gaurd and I have a ton of room between nose of car and tool box, and car does not overhang the rear.

Car placement is cruicial, when I'm doing my weekly travels to the tracks I have to trialer marker so I know where the rear tire needs to be for stright pulling/no swaying and keeps the load on the truck from breaking the hitch off- yes I've seen that happen, buddy actually bent the frame on his 2500 chevy and the tounge was draggin on the ground.

I just use a F-150 and it pulls great, just needs a bigger motor(302cid) If I can keep the wife from destroying a car a year I might be able to finally buy a new truck this year.

Equalizer hitches are expensive but work great, open trailers you can geet by without them since your not tugging alot of weight, but with an enclosed they are mandatory!!! Otherwise it's an awful lotta sway and it'll make the front of the truck wanna do wheelies!!
<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/824085/Beforebirdpics004.jpg' width=500 height=375 >
Bare 20' trialer without tool box

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/824085/Birdpre-trackdebutwithnewdrivetrain001.jpg' width=500 height=375 >
20' trialer with 2' truck box on nose

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/824085/Cordovacrash009.jpg' width=500 height=375 >
20' trailer with golf cart on nose

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/824085/Cordovacrash008.jpg' width=500 height=375 >
Trailer length from bottom of screen to top (malibu to my car)-18', 16', 18', 20'

AlkyIROC

The truck air bags are a kit. There's an upper bracket that bolts to the frame. The bottom of the air bags has a bracket that attaches onto the top of the springs. The bracket slides under the top saddle and is secured buy the springs u-bolts. The air bags are just like the ones found on tractor trailers but a lot smaller.

Both air lines are connected tegether to a Tee fitting and I have the fill valve mounted inside the gas cap door. I use a tire pressure gauge to check the pressure.

You can buy lots of bells and whistles to make it simple. A small onboard compressor, suspension height control valve and maybe a mini air tank can make it all automatic so the ride height stays the same if you're loaded or empty.

I've also seen a small pressure gauge and fill/dump controls mounted in the cab to allow the driver to adjust the ride height while driving.

eric17422001

16' utility! 82" wide between the rails, 7000lb capacity, new deck boards, electric brakes on both axles- picked it up for $800.

I only towed a couple hours from home with the S10, for any serious hauling I'll borrow a full size truck.

Mkos1980

iTrader: (8)

I towed my GF's RS a hundred or so miles with a 14FT open center car hauler with my Ranger. No problems. Heres a pic

rgarcia63

I used my 99' 4.3L V6 S10 with trailer like Eric's, no problems, but I only went 50 miles by freeway.

AlkyIROC

Arrggh! I just found out there's an enclosed 26' trailer in the yard at work that's for sale. It's only a couple years old and looks mint. He wants $8000 CAD. They're worth about $10,000 depending on the options so it's not that much of a saving but every little bit helps. I'd love to have it but don't know if my lowered truck would have any problems pulling it. I pump my air bags up to pull my 16' trailer but with the enclosed trailer, the car would be back a lot farther. I also wonder if I would be able to put it in my back yard without having to take part of my fence down. I know a tree would have to go On the other hand, if the car was kept in the trailer, I could park the truck in the garage instead of in the back yard in front of the trailer!!

Lets see. If I could sell my 16' open for $3000 CAD, I would only need $5000 more. I'm going to have to get more info. Not all enclosed trailers are built the same. Some may only have 5000 lb axles. Others may have 6000 lb.

I'm concerned what kind of tongue weight that would put on my 1/2 ton truck?

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I'll just speak from experience running a shop for a trailer dealer that sold Haulmark, Wells Cargo, and Featherlite. Your half ton will be begging for mercy even with distribution hitch AND bags, not to mention your lowered.

Personal pulling experience, my F-150 is loaded up with suspension add on's out back. I started with Timbrens, tried the add-a-leaf's with progressive weight, Firestone air bags, and now currently using add on coil overs that mount on axle tubes. The coil over's give the best ride weather loaded/unloaded and demonstrated the best overall "boosting" capabilities. When I was heading to Detroit I used my truck to pick up a buddies 28' enclosed, no cabinets up front, just a small shelf that was empty at time of pick up, and a tiny craftsman tool box. This KILLED my truck!!! I literally had the coil over helpers bottomed out and was having take ANY little curb variance slowly since it drug everywhere-this is on a 4x4 chasis so it's gonna be at least as high as a standard 2wd pick up that has not been lowered. I loaded the car up and kept it to the rear enough to get rid of the excess tongue weight and try to help level out my truck a little better. Lets just say that was the scariest ride down the hwy I've had in awhile Severe white knuckle due to severe sway at any speed over 45mph. I pulled off on an exit, pulled car forward about 2' tried again, same thing. finally had the car's rear tires over the front axle of the trailers duals, truck was getting smashed again, BUT it pulled straight as a string. Steering sucked and even with my trailer brakes it was pushing everything to the limits since obviously this half ton wasn’t meant to drag this much weight.

Uncle has a 98 Tahoe, vortec 350, 3.73 gears, tow package, etc...He bought a 20' enclosed for the S-10, trailer has a flat nose. I knew coming home it was a wee bit more than that truck could take as the long hills would kick the truck out of OD constantly, we did not have the distribution hitch installed at that time and it killed the truck EMPTY. Got home, loaded the S-10 and now it looked like it was trying to do a wheelie and once you finally got upto speed it would search for gears again on long grades, sway was also a problem loaded/unloaded and as it sits the nose of the S-10 is only about 3' off the nose of the trailer. We installed the 1000lb distribution hitch and that helped some with sway since it brought the truck up a little, but it is still shooting for the sky with the chains set as heavy as we can manually pull them on the hitch.

Nut shell: If you want an enclosed, SERIOUSLY try to look out for a V nose, I pulled hundreds of them dropping them off to customers and its amazing what that air cutting does for towing over a flat nose. Anything over 20-22' you should start considering a 3/4ton for the beefier brakes, payload capacity, and they're all purpose build with hauling/towing in mind and are geared accordingly.

I cannot tell you how many 1/2 tons we buried when customer bought a new trailer, soon as they back into the shop to take'r home all of us would take bets on how bad it;d kill the truck. Since your already lowered your already fighting an uphill battle, even with bags, your gonna need so much air in them it'll be almost rock solid, most guys that don’t know or have no experience brush off the little things and find towing a miserable experience because of it, not to mention they will be an unsafe unit going down the hwy. Yes you can move the car back to take some weight off the truck, but you will encourage severe sway by doing this also, so trying hwy speeds will not be doable, even when installing dual sway controls it's just a band aid fix to the problem and when big rigs/motorhoomes blow your doors off, your gonna have a handful.

Chevy’s by nature, especially the 90's year have a terrible frame out back that is prone for bending with too much tongue weight. My buddy had a light duty 3/4 T that he was pulling his open trailer with 12K of dirt, not even 1/2mi/ away from the quarry I had to come with shovels and start throwing dirt on my trailer....his trailer tongue was literally draggin on the road after the rear frame rails bent. If you can visualize the C channel frame rails, the bottom rails gave way. We took it back to the shop and used our big equipment to bend it back then boxed in the rear frame for strength.

5th wheels/Goosenecks have pro' and cons also. No they will not sway like a tag trailer, BUT it does put more weight onto the truck. It's over the axle so it's clean weight, but even empty many goosenecks still squash EVERY half ton and drop 3/4T's. The ride is absolutely AWFUL!!!! Take the bouncing you get from a tag and multiple that by 10. Every gooseneck I ever delivered I had to pee about every 20minutes, kidneys hated me, neck would be sore and would get see sick from all the bouncing up and down and jerking back and forth.

Just my opinion, but I only delivered and worked on every kind of trailer you can imagine for 3 years and towed literally over a thousands units weather picking up from the factory or delivering to a customer. Also, get the longest truck you can, it'll make the ride fell like you don’t have a trailer on since you lose the bouncy effect since "the lever is longer" so to speak.

AlkyIROC

Too much to quote from.

I'm not really worried about my truck's ability to actually tow the trailer. The 454SS is basically a 3/4 ton short box with 1/2 ton suspension. It has the heavy duty brakes. The 4.10 diff is the 14 bolt, 4.10 ratio, 9-1/2" ring gear the same as a 3/4 ton but with 5 bolt axles. The 4L80E tranny and 454 engine don't have a problem towing what I currently have. I've pulled some big hills and never dropped down in speed at all. Maybe one downshift on a really big hill. Usually cruising down the highway at 70 mph. Fuel mileage doesn't change if I'm towing or not.

I took a quick look inside the trailer but the sun was starting to set. I don't think there are any shevles or cabinets at the front. I realize that anything stored up there would just kill my tongue weight. I'd want the tool box, barrel of fuel, plus all sorts of other race needed items in there also.

Time to find that old late 70's early 80's 3/4 or 1 ton for about $1500 to use as a tow vehicle I guess. It's not like it would be a daily driver and needs to be in mint condition. Diesel would be best. I really want a new Ford F250 with the 6.0L diesel.

My towing capacity is 10,000 lbs. I'm pretty sure that trailer is rated for 14,000 pounds so right there I know it's not going to work even if I was under the 10,000 pound limit of the truck.

eric17422001

IHI you sound like you really know your stuff about trailers and towing.

I hauled an 88 Mustang on a U haul car trailer with the S10 from Savannah to Tampa last October, and due to the tiedowns on the U haul trailer all the wieght ended up on the tounge. It really didn't tow too bad, the surge brakes on the trailer helped a lot, I could pull 70 with no problem (truck is 350 powered) but the 3" Belltech drop leafs are not towing friendly! We made the trip at night with no traffic just for this reason-.

When I got my own trailer and towed the Iroc in the picture I had the car too far back- it got a bit hairy on a long downhill at about 65mph. Once down to 55-60 it was fine. I need to get a brake box hooked up and sway control bars will help a lot. ALso for any serious hauling I'll beg borrow or rent a full size truck.

I want to cut the rails down, I can't cut them off becuase it will weaken the trailer too much, but I want to angle them front and back from the fenders to the corners of the trailer, sort of like a suspension bridge. I think it will still be plenty strong.

Whats a reasonable price to pay for some heavy ply trailer tires? I will be using the trailer this summer to haul a 5000lb tractor from Minnesota to Virginia and the used weather cracked crap that's on it now has to go.

KillerRS

IHI do you think ill have any problems towing my thirdgen w/ no engine on a 18ft open trailer if im using a 86 1/2 ton long bed as a tow vehicle. I plan on adding either airbags or helper springs for now until i upgrade to 3/4 ton axles. I plan on towing 525 miles one way, then 525 back in september

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

it's absolutely amazing how much one of these bad boys will help that sway.



http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...ay-control.htm

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I've owned 5 of these "cheaper" built trailers and as you already mentioned they use the railing as part of the structure. We thought about hacking the rails off our first trailers we bought since strapping down waz a PITA!! You may want to consider just sprucing up what you have and eal with the short comings for now, save some cash, then before the mud packers season opens put your up for sale and buy a regualar framed car hauler. Depending on how much you want to travel to save money, most of the cheaper trialers are built in the Sisketon missouri area and you can pick up reagular open flat bed trailer new for about $12-1500 and naturally price goes up as options increase. I bought sold a new trailer every year until I made enough profit to buy this one I have now flat out with the options I wanted, took having my own trailers to really figure ouot what I wanted when I got "the one"

As far as tires, that will be the least of your worries. Definately buy bais ply for the trialer tires. I've had radials on all the others and noticed they would get pretty warm when towing during the summer long distances. That will definatley play in with you being down south since you get nicer weather than we do up here so your road surfaces shoudl/will be hotter longer. All of the higher end trailers came shipped with Goodyear Marathon tires, more some on the 5000lb axles. They usually hold up retty well for about a year, then the tread goes pretty quickly. Alot of the guys that towed that came to our shop would also note better mpg with bais ply trialer tires aired upto 80psi over radials usually run at 60psi. I like to keep my tires about 40psi since I'm not hauling much weight, 50psi if I'm going long distance-250mi if you call that long distance

our cost back then on the Marathons were $80/ea. but as an off the hip for a good trailer tire expect $80-100/ea, that will even ring true if you decide to go with radials, just be sure you get some that will handle the load you plan to carry. I would be leary of a 5Klb tractor long distance, especially since i assume you probably only have 3500lb axles. You will be pushing the limit right to the max by the time you add trailer weight plus your load. Try to get it so the trailer is level when your loaded to distribuate the load on both axles, many times trailers are hooked up with a nose up attitude and puts undo stress on rear axle and premature rear axle tire wear will ensue, so rotate often to help them wear evenly. Since the move to Torsion axles became popular a few years before I took over the shop I dont know how ell the long term durability is. I do know we serviced MANY trailer sith broken leafs, shackles, shackle bolts, many axles that bent just behind the spindle. So dependin gon your trailers age, defiantely give all of those items a good inspection before treking off with that heavy tractor. As you noticed with the IROC loade backwards you got ALOT of sway since all the wieght was behind the trailer axles. You will not get sway with touonge wiegh, it's just hard on the truck's suspension/chasis and can make for dangerous handling since the front end tends to be "real light"

Eric, if you towing an "empty" car you should not have a problem with that half ton handling it. It may take a few stops to adjust your load so it does'nt sway, but the total weight is not much, so adding suspension peices will make it look level going down the road, I dont think based off experience if you just pulled it with a stock pick-up you will have much to worry about.

Stephen, you might already experience the bouncey ride out of your short box already with your current set-up since wheel base is so short, it's gonna get alot worse. Years ago I had a K5 Blazer I used to tow my work trialer with and I know what your probably feeling in the drivers seat No doubt you have the power, and I'm yet to drive any BBC truck that gains/losses mpg weather loaded unloaded, they just like fuel period LOL!!! Just sucks your so far away, they have some killer deals on brand new trialers here in teh midwest. Currently best all around deal is in Indiana, 24' finished walls/ceiling with lighting kit inside and 2 lights outside, 4' side door $8995. If you National Dragster I'm sure you've seen the adds towards the back of the magazine. In fact my Brother in law is selling his 1 year old, 28' Pace checkered floor, aluminum cabinets with counter top, generator door, full interior flouresant lighting, 3 exterior halogen lights, bunch of interior outlets, less than 200 miles on it. Originally $14K looking for $10K OBO. He pulls that with a '04 F-350 crew cab dually diesel 6.0 with weight dis hitch and it still puts the squats to it LOL!! But once your up and running it pulls like a dream. You have to watch the build dates on the Torwue shift tranney in the SD's though, they're having a problem internally that's taking out trannies left and right. Ford supposedly has a replacement kit finally and it only affected a certain build date. So if you go that route, just do some research. Plus Brother in law had his 6.0 in the shop numerious times getting computer reburned and they finally sent some guy sfrom Detroit down with an experiemental program and new computer, so far no more problems. Ws having serious surging and was only getting 6-8mpg empty, now he's upto 16mpg. For definately has ALOT more interior room in the crew series than either Chevy or Dodge. Manufactures can claim all they want cubic feet wise, but I've riden beeatch in all 3 and the Ford is the only comfortable truck as far as back seat space is concrened.

Boy did that get long winded

eric17422001

IHI, funny you should mention the "mud packers" as we are two miles from a dirt track- you should see the junk they use!

Old well pipe frames with some angle iron treads- just wide enough to get the car on- a single mobile home axle welded right to the frame( no springs) hauling a '75 or so Monte Carlo that's 2" longer in wheelbase than the trailer is.

Anyway, I will do a good inspection on this thing before it makes the haul with the tractor. I'm putting the best tires I can find on it, going through the wheel bearings etc. first, as well as loading it properly. The tractor wieght according to the 1951 manual is 4000 and it has a trip bucket loader that I guesstimate at 500-700 lbs. The haul is a one shot deal, and will be kept down in speed and on secondary roads.

I knew it wasn't the ideal thing when I bought it but for what I had to spend it will work.

Thanks for the advice!

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Mud packers/circle jerkers, etc... they're their own breed that's for sure. Having many many freinds that partake in that sport I see first hand how that group of folks generally operate. There are a few crews, especailly late models that really have the money and drive to approach things the right way, but about every hobby stocker I know and many of the modified guys seem to be missing the gene that creates common sense LOL!!

I love bench racing and drinkin adult beverages with the boys and gettin in to the straight line/going in circle debates, they get all fired up about it LOL.

Good luck on your trip

demonspeed

You're kidding, right?

1500 - 1/2 ton
2500 - 3/4 ton
3500 - 1 ton

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who don't know what kind of vehicles they drive.