Learn me. We are thinking possibly of buying a car trailer to use in the big move (and to keep for later use). Non enclosed, aluminum, new. What do they run for good ones? What should we look out for? Any specific features or brands you recommend? we want it to last.
We don't plan on moving anything heavier than a Mazda in the near future, but a future race car hauler would be a nice use for it.
Make sure it has brakes on both axles. And get something with somewhat over-speced tires. Running them further below their load capacity leaves you more safety margin, which is never a bad thing.
What are you going to be towing it behind? That'll slightly affect what else you might want.
why aluminum?
patgizz wrote: why aluminum?
Presumably due to greatly reduced rust concerns, no wood decking to maintain, etc. And they're usually a little bit lighter too.
What year is your Chevy S10?
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/overloaded-towing-example/116818/page1/
Yikes that's a bit overworked! Probably hauling behind a suburban, in the future nothing lighter than a full size van will be used to tow the trailer. Aluminum was just a thought, if steel is better I'm open to that.
Steel isn't necessarily better, but it will be cheaper.
Aluminum will cost 2-3X.
What SV said. An alum open costs the same as a steel enclosed.
2-3x might be a bit steep, what kind of prices to decent steel ones go for anyway?
A decent wood+steel trailer is $2K. A crappy wood+steel trailer is $1K, you'll spend another $1K making it not suck, so you might as well buy the one in good condition and save yourself the effort. A fancy aluminum trailer is $6-8K new, hard to find used, and on the rare occasions I've seen them they were $5K.
For the $6K that an aluminum trailer costs you can buy a late-90s Suburban 2500 that's never been out of a mall parking lot in its life, and it'll tow the steel trailer+car far better than a small truck will tow an aluminum trailer that's 800 pounds lighter.
IMHO, unless you have severe parking limitations it's better to buy a cheap dedicated tow vehicle than to get an expensive lightweight trailer so that you can have a dual-purpose vehicle that compromises both daily driver and towing duties.
I go with "codrus" on that. I used to tow my light race car on a steel open trailer with my '89 V6 Ford Ranger. It did fine. When I up graded my race car to a 3K+lbs car I got a used Suburban, traded for it from my brother-in-law straight for my Ranger. I got a new DD. Later I sold the Suburban and bought a E250 Ford van. Other then the Ranger all were used only for towing or hauling stuff. They were cheap enough to operate that way that the cost of storage was the biggest annual expense.
We're already covered for tow trucks, got a newish suburban with tow package and stuff, but thanks for the tips. I don't have much experience with underrated tow vehicles, but my van used to tow well above its rating, like by 3 times. It has one of those swaying, weight distributing hitches and air bags, though, so I'm sure that helped. It did still need a whole lot of flooring to move.
I just bought a 20' steel open deck hauler with brakes on both axles for $3k new with warranty. I did a lot of looking around and research before buying and want it to last for a long time, but I don't have the rust issues like up in PA. Getting the "best bang for the buck" was my goal.
It's a "cheap" trailer and I can already tell I will need to do some upgrading to it as is before I get into modifying it for full track day use (adding tire rack, tool box, winch, etc). For example the wiring was poorly done and my OCD won't let me leave it as is...nothing under the trailer is loomed and they used butt connectors and cheap three-way splice connectors. I will be getting underneath it to solder all the connections points and loom everything. It also has a crappy paint job as it was obvious they were rushing to get it into inventory, but that may have been my fault for buying in prime car hauler season when inventory is low. When it comes time for a repaint I will most likely be bedlining it with a rust-preventative base layer. It also came with "C" load range tire. Come replacement time I will be moving up to at least a "D."
The reason I say all the above is so that if you are looking for a cheap trailer that even new it will most likely need some work in order to perform flawlessly for any considerable amount of time. Obviously regular maintenance will be required as well. But, for me, a cheap open steel deck was the best option and none of the "issues" I have with it are difficult to overcome. I expect it to provide me a long life of good service.
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