I am looking for some advice on an enclosed aluminum trailer to haul an SR3. I need to keep the weight down, so am looking for the smallest trailer I can find that will do the job. If I exclude the front V section of an enclosed trailer, can I get away with a 14 ft long trailer, or do I need to move up to a 16 ft long version? Second question, does anyone have experience/pictures with a good enclosed aluminum trailer that works well?
Regardless of length, keep in mind that an 8.5' wide trailer is well worth it
Hi Paul (@paul), Welcome to the Registry! The challenge with shorter trailers is getting enough tongue weight. The center of gravity of and SR3 is roughly 9' back from the nose. Since the center of gravity needs to be slightly forward of the center of the trailer wheels to get enough weight on the tongue of the trailer. On short trailers you may have to load the car backwards to get the center of gravity correct. Here is a sketch that should be helpful.
Thanks this is very helpful information.
Hi Paul, where are you located? I can tell you from personal experience I wouldn't get anything shorter than an 18' for an enclosed trailer. at 16' you won't have enough room to maneuver your body around to strap the car down in a small enclosed trailer. There are some very lightweight aluminum trailers at this size on the market. Message me as I have a lead on what might be perfect for you that I passed on and went with a bigger, heavier size, but sounds like what you are looking for.
We own four trailers two 24' one 28' and a 48' and not one is big enough even with our 48' trailer I'm now kicking myself I didn't buy a 53'.
one thing I learned about tow vehicles and trailers they are never big enough! buying a smaller trailer because your tow vehicle can't handle a bigger trailer is the 1st mistake. if you need to buy a new tow vehicle then that's what you need to do. when looking for a vehicle if you think a 1500 will do then buy a 2500. when towing our 48' with our 3500 diesel we get on average 14 MPG when I tell people this I always get that it's BS but it's not! a big reason for us getting good fuel mileage is our truck is a TWD dually. a 4X4 truck has more weight and parasitic loss from the 4WD system.
trailers:
a trailer that is to small or just big enough to get your car in like stated by others will have to much tongue weight so load distribution and anti sway bars will be a must. then room in the trailer will be another problem if your taking extras to the tracks with you like fuel, canopies, chairs , tires, tools , pit bike and so on. there is also resale to think about most 14' to 16' trailers will not be as sought after as say a trailer of 24 to 28'.
In the US we are lucky because of the size of our roads so a bigger rig is not as much of a problem as other countries. With our 48' trailer we need to take truck routes and we do get hit with commercial trucking fees but it's a small price to pay to haul two car and all our equipment.
