Buying a team trailer - Advice please?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Blowing out the transmission on your mini-van while hauling a trailer 700 miles from home is not fun. Trust me on this.

One helpful tip for towing a trailer with a vehicle that's not really made for it (ie. any vehicle with fewer than 8 lugnuts holding on each wheel)...make sure to take it out of overdrive when towing.

[DonRotolo]

1676 uses a 5 x 8 trailer much like that one with excellent results. We have a ramp rear door, which makes it slightly easier to load the trailer, but really heavy stuff either can't be pushed up (too steep) or might bend the door...so we lift it up in most cases.

You need lots of tie-downs inside, and an interior light. If you can afford a spare tire, get one - they sell mounts for the tongue area. Get a wheel-type front prop, the kind that cranks down, so you can move the empty trailer around easily and disconnect it when you need to.

The big demon when towing is wind resistance, so stay out of overdrive (as squirril stated) and keep the speeds down. Improves your safety/fuel economy/state of mind/harm to the tow vehicle, too.

Don

[Robyn Needel]

Hi John!

We bought a Danzer trailer for our team to use two years ago, at a cost of about $2400, which included a mounted spare tire (and it was a good thing, we have had 2 flats in the two years!). The trailer is 6x10 feet, single axle, with rubber torsion suspension. This makes it less bouncy for the robot, cart and gear. It has side hinged opening rear doors and a side "front door" for easy access. We chose hinged door over ramp doors, as some other folks here did, because of the limited parking spaces that are sometimes available. This is especially a concern if you end up having to parallel park van/truck and trailer.

We chose a trailer with a 6 foot tall door opening and the interior is about 6'8" at the peak of the roof. This simplifies robot loading tremendously, because we can load the robots straight in without tipping them, and it's easy to stand up inside the trailer. The trailer also has an air vent in the roof, very important on hot days. We've carried three robots and gear easily, and the extra space gives us a place for team luggage, so we don't need to load it in our hauling vehicle (a Ford E150 conversion van).

Because of the lighter weight loads involved in hauling robots, a single axle is all that's really necessary, but it is important to load the trailer slightly heavy in the front ( so we put our battery boxes there) in order to keep the trailer from fishtailing when towing. The trailer we chose has a rounded front with diamond plate at the bottom rather than a pointed front, to give us more interior loading room. The trailer's footprint is almost identical to our van, so wind resistance is minimal. We added "D" hooks about halfway up on each side wall, attached through the trailer inside wood to the metal structure of the trailer and bought ratchet straps to secure everything. The hooks are aligned with the metal vertical supports, so they're about 2 feet apart.

If I were to do this again, I would add an additional layer of wood from the strap point to the floor, since we seem to have experienced a lot of damage from loading and unloading and things in the trailer shifting. My best advice - SHOP, SHOP, SHOP! We found our trailer out of state in Pennsylvania
(about an hour away), and it was not a brand we had seen locally, but it's an impressive trailer and we got a great deal. The downside of the Danzer trailer - they could have used better galvanizing on the door hinges and latch hardware and could have done a better job in smoothing the trailer's skin when riveting it to the frame.

Haulmark is a very good brand of trailer, from what we have seen. Do you have to title the trailer in Michigan? Maryland requires that we do, but Pa. does not...also make sure that your hauling vehicle's insurance will cover the trailer (it should, but ask anyway). The value of the trailer itself, for theft, is not covered unless listed separately on either an automotive or homeowner's policy.

Owning a trailer has allowed us the flexibility of keeping it loaded with robot, etc., which has been great when we have a number of demonstrations to do over a short period of time.

Good luck finding the right trailer for your team!!

Fred Needel
Team 768

[Dick Linn]

This might be a good deal, a 5 x 8 Pace for $1,000. in Rochester Hills, MI:
http://detroit.craigslist.org/for/862595326.html


Saw Shores Trailer (Eastpointe, MI) list some prices on the Detroit Craigslist. I don't know if they are a good trailer, but FWIW:

Brand new enclosed trailers.
Pricing:
5x8...starting at $1495
6x10 side door starting at $1795
Other sizes and models available, call for prices. 586 777 7733
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The side door on the trailer pictured is nice. I noticed that Haulmark makes some low-profile trailers that will fit through a standard garage door opening height, which could be useful.

[FoleyEngineer]

Originally Posted by Dick Linn

This might be a good deal, a 5 x 8 Pace for $1,000. in Rochester Hills, MI:
http://detroit.craigslist.org/for/862595326.html

Thanks for the tip Dick! I've been checking CraigsList pretty regularly and hadn't seen this one. I called them and am going to meet them this weekend and take a look at it. If it checks out, we'll buy it. Thanks again!

P.S. Anyone have a line on getting custom graphics painted/vinyl on the sides?

[alex1699]

one with a ramp and a light and a vent.!! and a lot of places to tie things down!
and maybe brakes.

[Chris Fultz]

We bought a 6 x 10 2 years ago and our only regret is that we didnt purchase it earlier. Ours is a Cargo Mate froma large dealer in Indianapolis.

We have double doors and a side door, and made an aluminum ramp for the back.

If you can assure a vehicle to pull it, go for something that is over 6' inside to make it easier to load and unload.

We added several "D" rings on the floor and walls and roof supports to give us places to attach tie down straps. Ask the dealer where the suppports run in the walls so you can use self-tapping screws to connect into something solid.

We also installed an 8" wide shelf along one side, about 12" from the roof. This gives us a place for tubing, banners, etc.

We added a small plastic storage box on the front to put a steel cable (for locking the trailer to utility poles when parked remotely), a small jack, lug wrench, etc., and mounted a spare tire to the frame. This keeps everything together, and also keeps it out of the trailer.

Make sure everything in the trailer is secured before pulling it. I have a "personal rule" that i wont pull a trailer that i didn't load myself or check before i drive away. 500 pounds sliding across a trailer at the wrong time can rip the trailer off of the hitch and cause a serious accident.

Lastly, we used a company called TKO graphics to do the lettering. We provided digital files of what we wanted and placement and they created the decals and then applied them. We chose decals over paint.

Good luck!