Let's dream about car haulers

Cord

A roll off garbage bin truck would be perfect and easy to load the car into, since you could drop the bin to the ground (tie that car down well though). No one would know what it's hauling, so it'd be very safe from thieves, you could make money with it during the week and think of the looks you'd get showing up at the track day, race or whatever and dropping the bin off the back!

RX8driver wrote: A roll off garbage bin truck would be perfect and easy to load the car into, since you could drop the bin to the ground (tie that car down well though). No one would know what it's hauling, so it'd be very safe from thieves, you could make money with it during the week and think of the looks you'd get showing up at the track day, race or whatever and dropping the bin off the back!

There's a guy in the NER that does this with a BMW. What a strange sight.

Can't you buy RV's now that loads a car inside right behind the bedrooms?

I have seen photos of RV type hauler, rear engine "pusher" type, the car is on a tray that slides sideways into the middle of the bus.

G_Body_Man wrote: What about an old Class A motorhome with a hole cut into the back for a swing down steel door, huge windows on each side, and the camping portion gutted and then turned into a replica of a period correct showroom for your car?

I would guess adding 3k lbs to a portion of the RV not designed for 3k lbs, might cause some issues.

EvanB wrote: Quick CL search... http://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/5875188508.html

Whatever someone does with this... Check the driveshafts... Really.

Google search "Crawler hauler" for some really cool stuff... this is an old for sale post, but 5 years ago it could have been yours for $4500...

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/vehicles-trailers-sale/973827-bus-hauler-camper-rv-shaggin-wagon-sale-buckhannon-wv.html

It's a MUCH bigger scale than converting a car... but having the living quarters inside would be great for multi-day race trips. You didn't really state a "purpose" other than hauling cars. Stuff like this is semi-common in the offroading community... the biggest obstacle for most of these builds to loading a normal car is having ramps low enough to work... this is probably one of the better ones I've seen in that regard.

And judging by pics, it swings hella wide

Inspiration can be found here.

Fire Truck

Particularly for the car-based stuff, how do you go about insuring one of these creations?

Edit... I really hate photo hosting sites... Finally got it to work... just wish I could figure out how to get the link to copy the same way on my phone...

Anyway... I saw this contraption at Mid-Ohio during the Historic races back in June. The driver's side had an additional door for car-door clearance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emcspciaEJk

XLR99 wrote:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Saabs are cheap and plentiful:

Now it becomes clear exactly WHY I made large error by scrapping a 9-5 body with buggered up rear suspension... I think something with more torques, bigger CVs, and bigger brakes would probably be better suited, but those are really cool!

I like it, a lot. The 2.0T fours make 200 bhp/200 torques pretty easily (if not in stock form with the newer). Most were rated from SAAB to pull 3500LBS. With brakes on the rear wheels your only real weak point in my opinion would be the transmission. Add a bigger cooler and flush it every year and I think it would do the trick in a flatter part of the world.

Robbie and I were talking about these at the Challenge. Alcohol may have been involved. I'm sober and I still think it's a great idea. So rules are FWD obviously, seats 5, 20 foot "trailer".  What would you get for the front half?

LS4 powered GM W-body?

I thought about those but buy in is high for sometime I'm going to cut up. I'm actually leaning towards a minivan. Cheap, have V6s, nose the towed car into the hatch area and it's aerodynamic. 

which minivans DON'T have trans issues though? I thought most autoboxes were pretty well stressed on minivans. Maybe the chrysler is the answer?

I also agree, I still want one.

In reply to Robbie :

True and that also brings up the sliding rear door issue. Can't just cut it at the back of the rear seats. 

I ran a Chevy Venture to 240k without a transmission failure. It did take two sets of intake gaskets to get it there.

In addition to the drivetrain reliability issues I think the stretched minivan deals would also suffer from high centering and visibility issues just like car based stretched limos do.  They're really annoying to drive.