New Race Trailer

[aeronca65t]

I bought a new 15' four-wheel, car trailer on Monday from Econotrailer in Claysburg, Pennsylvania.

I ended up getting up at 2 AM Monday morning to be sure I had enought time to get it all done (I don't work on Mondays).

Claysburg is about 550 miles round-trip from my place (sort of near Altoona, PA).

I needed to work out the trailer wiring and hitch reciever when I got out there, plus I needed to go to the local Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle representative and get temporary license plates so I could drag the thing back home.

Anyway, the folks at Econotrailer were great and very helpful and the entire thing went smoothly. It took me 13 hours total to get there and back.

Several friends of mine have bought these trailers and have been happy with them. The base price for mine was $1475 (USD). I added four wheel brakes (two-wheel brakes is standard) plus a breakaway battery system, brake controller, hitch reciever and ball plus wiring adapter (for my Reese wiring). This trailer cost me about $1600 out the door. All these trailers come with LED lights, a nose-jack, 7000 lb axles and full size, high-speed trailer tires and wheels.

My new Ford mini-van towed this thing with ease....I'm looking forward to using this setup a lot in '06.

I just put rod-bearings and thrust washers in the Spridget (plus other maintainance items) so I'm all ready to go. My first use of this trailer will be in two weeks at Summit Point, WV. Can't wait.

*Weird Thing*: My van has a tire pressure warning light on the dash (triggered by the ABS brake system). The extra weight of the trailer on the hitch (less than 100 lbs) triggered the "low tire" light and I thought I had a flat. I pulled over and the tires were fine. I read the manual and found out I would need to reset the sytem so that the ABS could "learn" the the new weight condition on the tires. No problem after that.

 

[trfourtune]

thats awsome! does it come with pull out ramps? i'd add a front bug/rock/dirt shield to the front though.what's it weigh?
rob

 

[Bugeye58]

Nial, no tire rack yet!? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Looks like a good deal.
Jeff

 

[AngliaGT]

Nice!Also sounds like a fair price.

- Doug

 

[Matthew E. Herd]

I've got one, built for the same type of trailer ... I never use it!

 

[kennypinkerton]

One more option you may want to consider... an electric wench to pull non-running cars onto it.

 

[Matthew E. Herd]

Got one of them too! It's an ATV winch (much cheaper than 'standard' items for full-sized vehicles). It can pull anything I own onto that trailer as it's rated for 1700 lbs. Since the angle is pretty modest, it's not a big deal to pull a 3000 lb BMW onto the trailer. I use it quite a bit for the BMW resto I'm doing as well as the odd time when my midget breaks! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[beaulieu]

I have a hand crank winch , sort of a boat winch , then I do not have to worry about having a battery on the trailer,

If I know I will be pulling something with dead tires etc I also have a portable 12V winch I can just chain onto the front of the trailer.

Beaulieu