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I first began going to NER's DE events at NHIS in '95 it was the rare Porsche
that arrived on or in a trailer. The SOP back then was to drive to the
event in the car that you were going to drive on the track. Many of the
cars that were trailered to DE events were Club Racing cars and there weren't
many of them as that venue was only three years old itself. So there were
very few non-racing cars that were trailered to DE events. It was a combination
of two factors that changed the situation, the go-go economy of the mid
to late '90s made the cost of a trailer less significant in the overall
cost of a year of track events, and the rightful concern about getting
your car home from Mont Tremblant or Watkins Glen (not to mention Road
America or Road Atlanta) if it could not get there under it's own power.
So allow me to relate my experiences with trailers in the hope that some of you thinking about taking that step will learn a few helpful things. We'd had an '85 F 150 that we used to trailer a 20' fishing boat so were not complete novices at the concept. That ol' 150 had big difficulty in towing the rig and it was not unusual to have to run the heater full blast to prevent the engine from overheating, so we knew that the first purchase would have to be a new tow vehicle. As the truck is used around the house and grounds for everything from hauling wood and mulch to taking the snow blower to be repaired there was no discussion required to know that another truck was necessary. A Suburban or Expedition simply would not suffice. After shopping long and hard, looking at GMC, Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford, another F 150 was ordered, complete with tow and snow plow package and the biggest V8 available. Now we get to my first mistake. This was right around the time when the truck makers were first coming out with the extended cabs and crew cabs in models not hereto fore with them. Sure, contractors had them for many years but they were few and far between and had previously not been available on the smaller pick up trucks. This strange appendage behind the normal cab just didn't seem to fit on a working truck, it didn't look like a working truck to me, and in addition it cost more. As easy as the decision was to buy a truck was the decision that it would be a regular cab without the extended or crew cab. This was fine around town and the yard but after several track trips it became apparent that an extended or crew cab would make the experience more convenient and comfortable. Next time! Concurrent with the truck shopping was trailer shopping. Again price was a big factor and we'd already ruled out an enclosed trailer thus enabling the purchase of the F 150, as any enclosed trailer would have necessitated a bigger truck with either the V 10 or diesel and of course, more money. One quickly learns how these things are all intertwined. One, there were others, of the factors considered when we were replacing our previous RS America last year was that if we went the SuperCup route it would have meant an enclosed trailer and that of course would have required a new tow vehicle. Just those two items were close in cost to the additional cost of a SuperCup over the RS America. Shopping for a trailer is a bit more than running down to Shaws and selecting a brand and configuration of pasta for dinner out of the many available. Most trailer retailers carry 1 or maybe 2 brands of steel trailers and will frequently have to order what you want. If you're thinking aluminum you usually have to deal directly with the manufacturer in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and elsewhere. I'd eventually decided upon steel as my Dively cost $1700 in '99 and can still be bought new for that price while a used Trailex aluminum would have been $3,000 more and a new one $5,000 more than the steel. After scurrying around between Manchester, NH and Springfield, MA, I finally found what I wanted in Rehoboth, MA and towed it home with me. There's another consideration for you future trailerites, should you get an open bottom trailer or a fully decked unit? I strongly advocate the open bottom because it's lighter, costs less and most importantly allows you to work under the car while at the track. Even if you don't know what you're looking at when you scootch under a car, there'll always be someone around who will know and can help you out. Well, I can't tell you how depressed I was when I went to load our track car for our first tow and found that the ramps were too wide for the track of the Porsche. This was the same trailer that many NER drivers had and the different widths of the trailer had never come up in conversation, and of course the dealer had never mentioned that it came in different widths as he was selling what he had on the lot. So I agonized over how to add flooring to narrow the ramp width and soon decided that I did not want to go that route. I called the dealer, explained my problem and while he was not very receptive towards exchanging it for the narrower model it was a moot point as he didn't have any on hand and I didn't want to wait for him to get one in. You all know how it is when you've spent months planning for new equipment for your first track event of the season and then something goes haywire and all that planning gets thrown out the window. It's devastating and we've all gone through it one time or another. My solution was that I found the same trailer but narrow model right in Sterling, MA, put an ad for the wider unit in the "Want Advertiser" and sold it for more than I paid even before I picked up the new one. So for several years we've towed our inexpensive steel trailer up and down the East Coast and out to Road America and its been wonderful to us. I've added a custom tire rack that will hold 8 wheels (Trailex will only hold 6-7 depending upon size), keep it well painted with a high quality rust preventative black paint and have no trouble traveling with the fastest tow groups going. So I still have to ask myself why I bought a used Trailex this winter and can only come up with two factors, it was very reasonably priced and there is a certain cache to pulling an aluminum trailer. After taking it out to our friends at Atlantic Trailer to have the brakes and bearings et.al checked out, I noticed towing it home that it was listing to one side. After a lot of crawling underneath in the wet and snow, and measuring different dimensions and heights and not finding an answer, one morning it was like that proverbial light bulb turning on in your head. I crawled underneath again and there was an obviously broken spring. Ordering one from Trailex, I towed the trailer down to Dave Maynard's facility for his invaluable help. I'd never have gotten that old spring off on my own. So, we've got the old spring off running out for some new bolts and FedEx brings the spring and it's the wrong @#*^!? size, Trailex sent the wrong spring. Fortunately it's early enough in the day that Trailex can get another out that same day and the following day Dave and I put the new spring in and off I go. Foregoing Sebring this year as I had no hope of getting down my driveway with the loaded trailer in the snow and ice I was anticipating the first long distance tow of the season to test out the new, used Trailex in the annual pilgrimage with other NER long distance towers to the Zone 2 VIR event in early April. To make an already too long report shorter, the Trailex did fine on the long trip as I only had reason to expect. However, isn't there always a "but" or "however" or "by the way", with the air shield on the trailer it towed no better than my steel trailer, the F 150 did not down shift on hills any less often, and my fuel consumption in the F 150 was the same. At the same time due to the compactness of the Trailex and the air shield, tire rack and toolbox, it was significantly more difficult (not impossible) to attach the tie downs than on the steel trailer. And, once I sold the steel, the Trailex would have cost an additional $3,000. Sooooo, neither Joyce not I were able to find any compelling reason to keep the Trailex rather than the steel Dively, and the Trailex is now happily pulling a 951 from NH. I'm very glad no one ponied up with the cash to buy the steel when I was trying to sell it. There is a big reason that one might want to consider a Trailex over a steel trailer and that is about 600-700 pounds that you save with the aluminum trailer. Many drivers tow a steel trailer with a Jeep or Explorer but the lighter, less powerful, and shorter the wheelbase is on your tow vehicle the bigger the difference you'll experience towing with a lighter trailer. Track Affairs
EVER WONDER... ...why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin> |
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