Trailering

[WidebodyCat]

Events starting up. Always raced Vetts..
Never hooked a Challenger up on a car hauler before. I would love to see how you guys are loading. Tricks?, frame hooks? Pics please.
THANKS GUYS!

 

[Jimmy N.]

I prefer using wheel nets. Sorry, have no good photos.

 

[sad]

No pics... straps thru wheels. Pretty straightforward. Except for the clearance. I use a special trailer ($$$) for that.

 

[WidebodyCat]

No pics... straps thru wheels. Pretty straightforward. Except for the clearance. I use a special trailer ($$$) for that.

Race ramps??

 

[sad]

Race ramps??

I have the longest set of race ramp they make (or made at the time) of 77” long.... Full trailer ramp PLUS race ramp was not enough to alleviate the dragging of my front end

Gave up dealing with stupid problems and just bought this... I’m a MUCH happier person now.

The one in that video has more features than mine.. but the up/down is the feature that’s important here.

 

[sad]

 

[Finface]

Sad,

These MAX XD Drop and Load trailers are things of beauty! With the optional aluminum wheels some admiring Home Owner Association official might accept the argument these are "lawn and driveway art" and relax typical restrictions against parking things like RV's, trailers and boats in street view.

It ways the width is 80 inches - is that inside the wheel fender wells? The wide body Hellcat's body width is listed at 78.3 inches (this is outside of tire to outside of tire) so that would be an impractical fit for stock 305's. Not impossible, but hard to steer front wheels past the fenders without scrubbing tires/wheel rims.

What I could really use would be a "deck over trailer" so there are no wheel fender wells to drive between. I also have a tractor that has about the same side to side width problem as a wide body Challenger I'd like to be able to trailer.

A trailer like this one - https://maxxdtrailers.com/tox-14k-power-tilt-deck-over-trailer. But that model has a "15 degree" roll on angle. Okay for my four wheel drive tractor, but a "no way" without really long loading ramps. I mean really long. Could you stow them under the car while transporting?

Anyone have a preferred solution for trailering low ground clearance, wide wheel base cars?

DGatzby, you've got a trailer that works for you. What brand and model is it? Did you have to modify it to roll your car on and off?

Best,

Finface

 

[sad]

Finface, the 80" is space available between the wheel wells. My "normal" wide-body car hauler was 83".... so not really giving up much!

hehe. Been discussed here at least once... HOA... I fired them all 20 years ago when wifey and I left the suburbs and moved rural.

oh.... my tractor fits on the fancy-pants trailer deck just fine. 60" bucket (I think)

 

[Finface]

Finface, the 80" is space available between the wheel wells. My "normal" wide-body car hauler was 83".... so not really giving up much!

Sad,

The true test will be if DGatzby and you hook up for track time together in your OK neck of the woods this spring. If he can drive his car with his wheels and tires onto your fancy pants trailer deck as a test I'm buying one - even if I have to take out a second mortgage!

Come to think of it, my tractor's front wheels are closer in than the back ones so the fender wells wouldn't stop them. Hmmm, "Double duty trailer, Honey! I can take the tractor over to your mom's and bush hog around her pond!" "Sold!", yells the wife...

But there could be even MORE utility than moving vehicles around, and you, sir, are the man to know if this is feasible. For those of us who store vehicles during four months of winter I'm having an idea about how to keep such a nice trailer both out of the weather, and out of sight of those pesky HOA know-it-alls, and still do maintenance on the stored vehicle. If a garage could accommodate doing it you could load up a vehicle and then back the trailer into the garage. Couldn't you then raise up the fancy trailer deck a few inches with the built-in pneumatics, put jack stands or really stable and strong wooden blocks under the trailer bed, and then in a level fashion pneumatically lower the weight of the vehicle (and anything else you put on the trailer) and the trailer itself onto the jack stands/blocks? If you could, it would take all the weight off the trailer's tires and suspension components and the air load off the pneumatic system, and you'd have a stable platform. For those who have a QuickJack you should be able to set it up on the trailer (leave it there) to do tire changes/brake/suspension work. I bet at a more comfortable height too.

SuperTrailer is now inside out of the elements and away from roving bands of thieves and vandals. It is easy to plug in its battery charger. You still have whatever was in the "footprint" of the garage now sitting pretty on top of the trailer in the same garage spot. To use the trailer, or car, you just pump the trailer bed up with the pneumatics, remove the jack stands/blocks, lower the weight back onto the tires and set the right air pressure, hook up your truck and away you go.

And, of utmost importance...MUCH easier to obsessively polish those lower body panels while the snow falls.

You could do this with any trailer, I suppose. Sequentially jack up (and lower) the frame of any trailer with four bottle jacks, and use jack stands in the same way - so the weight of everything is off the trailer's suspension/tires. That would cost less than $200 in bottle jacks and jack stands. But it sure sounds pretty quick and easy with your trailer.

Have I just come up with an idea almost as mind-blowing as Special Relativity *grin*? Has anyone done this with any brand or type trailer?

Finface

 

[sad]

Hehe. Back in the days when I had a traditional (14k gvwr) trailer with leaf springs and had a different offroad toy, I’d park the toy on the trailer all winter to save space.

and yeah, I suppose your idea of bringing it inside and dropping it down on blocks of some sort is very doable. Would help keep mice out of the wiring!

 

[Finface]

Hehe. Back in the days when I had a traditional (14k gvwr) trailer with leaf springs and had a different offroad toy, I’d park the toy on the trailer all winter to save space.

and yeah, I suppose your idea of bringing it inside and dropping it down on blocks of some sort is very doable. Would help keep mice out of the wiring!

Not to hijack the OP's thread, but...

...living in rural Kentucky...Mice Wars! I keep old fashioned snap traps and newfangled scented sticky sheets in my detached garage (dogs are not allowed in there to get at peanut butter bait on snap traps - that stuff attracts mice and dogs), plus this winter I'm trying some ultrasonic devices (with LED nightlights) in wall sockets. I don't know if these ultrasonic devices really work, but I'm combating the little devils on all fronts. I may look into flame throwers if the mice attack in force. Mice anywhere near my Hellcat would likely become a catastrophe of epic proportions because of what happened to my wife's new SUV years ago.

She used to keep bird seed and peanuts still in shells in our house garage. She had some big bags of this bird food leaning against the garage wall by her new SUV, which we'd gotten in the fall. After a few months she started getting a steady brake system caution light. The dealership's service department replaced all sorts of components over the next few months and after each attempt we'd get her car back with a hopeful "we think we found the problem", but very soon afterwards the brake system caution light would return. After the last "fix" that (somehow) got the light to go out they assured us the brakes would be reliable and safe even if the system caution light came back. By this time they had run out of ideas about how to fix the problem - had replaced pretty much the entire brake system (rotors, sensors, brake lines) - and acknowledged the next step was going to be some kind of "lemon law" replacement of the car if it came back again. My wife felt she could drive the car safely so she took it back, fingers crossed.

Later that winter we had an ice storm and hundreds and hundreds of cars slid off roads. On her way to work that dark and icy morning off she went sideways not far from our house, impacting a telephone pole on her right side. She was fine, but the car had $10,000 of repairs. I asked her if she'd noticed the brake system caution just before the accident and she didn't think so. They towed it to the dealership's body shop.

A month later when we went to pick it up the shop foreman opened up the engine hood and we heard a steady, many seconds long cascade of impact noises - much like one of those Australian Aboriginal rainsticks. He fished around inside her hood and plucked out an unopened peanut shell - the SUV's hood was hollow with lots of small triangular openings. He said they'd tried to shake all the peanut shells out - had gotten hundreds out - but there were probably many dozens more shells still in there he couldn't remove. He had alerted the service department and this time they looked behind her glove box and lo and behold the mice had made a nest and chewed into a wiring harness. They replaced that and she never again got another brake system caution light. Our dealership spent almost $4,000 trying to fix her recurring brake caution light, which, said the supportive service manager ruefully, was almost surely unnecessary. It all ended well from our point of view - no cost to us - but whose fault was it?

To avoid another losing battle of infestation she got a big cooler with a heavy lid and put all her seed and peanuts inside. She also prevailed on moving the cooler to our detached garage/shop, arguing that keeping the mice out of our house itself - and her daily driver car - was a bigger priority than anything at risk in the shop (at that time only a riding mower). I agreed, but I also threatened to move half our herd of cats into the shop if she spilled any peanuts and the mice mobilized another major assault. Today the shop is where RDEYE, our old rebuilt truck, REBLT, and our tractor Wile E. Kioti live. When RDEYE arrived there was a four post lift waiting for her. I in earnest set up the layered defensive perimeter with the snap traps and sticky sheets (I never knew so many bugs were roaming around out there - it must be like a 1950's horror movie when the lights are off!). I even bought some concentrated peppermint oil from Japan because according to internet lore that is supposed to be a mice repellent (a dubious claim based on my experience, but it makes the shop smell really nice!). Poison was not an option because of our dogs potentially eating a poisoned mouse, plus my wife the bird-lover says hawks have been known to snatch up a staggering around poisoned mouse - and then they too die. We are abiding by the Geneva Conventions - brute lethal force is fine, no chemical warfare, prisoners (should there be any) released far down the hillside.

Having a valued car up 2-3 feet on a trailer bed I'd think would be a helpful mice barrier, but the little buggers can jump and climb. It would be a great place to slide some snap traps under the car behind each wheel where a mouse would likely think about climbing up - away from inquiring dog noses. RDEYE is always 5 feet high up on her four post lift whenever not being driven. I open up the engine hoods on the truck and tractor. I read somewhere mice probably won't nest in an engine if the hood is open. The bird seed aroma, plus peanut butter on snap traps, must still entice mice in because every few weeks last winter I caught one. This winter, for the past month, I haven't caught a mouse. Maybe those ultrasonic devices are having some effect. Mice Wars!

 

[Jimmy N.]

I got a 'Cat. Took care of the mice, and other smallblocks. And then some.

 

[WidebodyCat]

 

[WidebodyCat]

ZL1 trailer strap points front & back 20 min install

 

[Hickster]

Take the cat with ya.

 

[DGatzby]

This for open trailering. Love the Vulcan tie-downs. Stuff is not moving. I also like the tilt trailer (Race Ramps make it simple). Check out my custom spare set of wheel/tire carriers! #797 Style!

 

[DGatzby]

@Finface no mods required for the trailer. Car drives right past the fenders. Not a great deal of room, but the car is wearing its 12” wide wheels all around with 325’s front and 345’s rear.

 

[Magnified]

Nicest trailer I've had mine on was the one it was delivered on. 24' power slide / tilt (like a tow truck) with a 4' air dam / shield in front. Just an awesome easy to use piece of machinery. You might have problems getting a Lamborghini or ridiculously lowered car on it, but nothing I'm ever likely to own would not go on. And with that full slide and tilt, it was pretty damn low nevertheless. The length would give plenty of room for wheels/tires, tools, etc.... to be mounted ahead of or behind the car if it was to be used for racing, but, again it was open to the elements.

lol, as it is, I'll just be envious of ya'lls trailers

 

[Jimmy N.]

You might have problems getting a Lamborghini or ridiculously lowered car on it, but nothing I'm ever likely to own would not go on.

C'mon, Magnified. Lambo has made 4-doors, and you know it.

 

[JP426]

@DGatzby What does your hitch setup look like with the Jeep and that trailer?