Need Advice on open car hauler purchase
 

I am in the market for a new 18 ft open car hauler. Have been looking at several and would like to hear some opinions. What brands do you like and dislike? What about tilt bed car haulers? Any opinions?

Thanks
Steve

Look at the welding, the thickness of the material used and how many braces it has. There are some real cheapos out there. I prefer the ones with side rails; they are stronger.

I borrowed a tilt bed bed open trailer from a Friend a while ago. It was by far the fastest way to load and unload. One that I borrowed, had a crank and the other was spring loaded and would go down as I drove the car on to it. I liked the second one better.

If you go with a tilt bed that has a crank, they make a motor that will replace the crank.

One thing that I prefer is a wooden floor. I had one with a metal floor then sold it and bought one with a wooden floor.

The wood doesn't rust. As the paint starts to flake off of a metal floor, it makes spots of rust so I can't lay on the trailer (to strap down cars) in good clothes without getting rust on them.
If I pick up a car with an oil leak, the oil doesn't puddle and then migrate all over the trailer making it slick.
The wood just soaks up the oil.
If the trailer is wet, the metal floor gets slick.
I also like that if I'm hauling something odd, I can screw anything down to the floor. I hauled a couple of motorcycles on it a while back and I was able to screw some wooden wheel chocks around the tires.

Granted, I'll have to replace the floor in ten years or so but that's no big deal.

It's just a personal preference for me. Some people prefer the metal floors. I just thought I would mention it as something else to consider. :)

I would also think the wooden floor doesn't get as hot as a metal one. A hot metal floor is great to work on!
cm

I just sold my open bed 2007 Brimar 18'. It had a dove tail with long ramps and removable fenders. It had 4 wheel electric brakes and was very easy to pull nice and steady up to 85 mph a few times. I bought it new for $3000 out the door which is a good price here in California. The open bed was great for oil changes and working under the car in the pits and ease of tying the car down from underneath. Just drive up on it and got plenty of room under to do whatever. I do not like solid floor trailers cause you cant get under the car with em. Picture of it loaded with our 240z race car but you can see how the dove tail looks on it.

Don't want to hijack the thread but I am also interested in a purchase and what others have to say. I acknowledge Briann's comment about having the ease of an open floor but I have also heard that an open floor will allow all the crud to splash up when its raining, any experiences on that? I've also seen trailers with a wind/bug/rock shield in the front that would be very nice to have.

Oh yea, I don't know HOW I forgot about that. That metal floor trailer will get so hot at times that you literally can't touch it much less lay down on it to hook up a car. I've scorched more than a few back hairs on my old trailer. :eek:

Yes if its in the rain or dirty roads it will blow up under the car, but no worse than whats going under the tow vehicle also. My trailer was on loan to a couple Vette guys for the last year (I also have a Z06 so I let friends use it), and one of them made a front dam the width of the trailer to keep crap off the front of the car. It still went under though but in dry weather its no a big deal. I took a show car 750 miles round trip and didnt have a bug on it or under it afterwards cause the tow vehicle was our Expedition 4X4 and blocked a lot of air/crap.

It was always being used by someone at the track to get their car up on to pull a tranny, change oil and such between rounds also.

If your JUST going to haul cars the open floor is the way to go. If you haul other things the wood floor with siderails and tilt bed is the best of both worlds.

As previously stated, the open floor will pick up all the dirt that is onthe road, espesially if its raining. The wind shiels is nice too. Keeps anything that flys up from the tow vehilces tires from hitting your car. Ill bet theres some sort of stability from the wind with that but I dont know.

Trailers
 

My trailer is a metal floor and my friends was a wooden floor and your right! I really got to like that wooden floor a lot. Plus his had built in stake bed pockets in case you wanted to put sides on it for hauling other stuff besides cars. My trailer is a homemade red neck rig but tows great and is no where near as heavy or as wide as my friends was.
Take a good look at the tires on a trailer. My trailer has 14" tires and they don't last very long because they are working at max most of the time loaded. I've gone through three sets of tires to his one. :mad: My friends trailer has 16" "E" rated tires and they are bullet proof. A good trailer winch is also nice to have in case you ever have to haul a dead one. That's pretty much all I ever haul so I bought one that costs more than the trailer.

I have 3 trailer right now. Just because I found an enclosed trailer during the winter that I got a pretty good deal on. I have a flat wood 18' 2 axle that I have put 4' sides on to take parts to swap meets and I can still put a car in if I need to. (that one is goint to be sold.) I have a steel bed dove tale 18" that is my favorite of the 2 of them. I have had 3 wood deck trailers over the years. 1 was stolen when I lived in an apartment complex in a bad neighborhood. The other I just never did trust it for some reason. And I got the steel bed.

I do agree that you can nail blocks down to the wooden bed that you can not do and that does help a lot. I also have an electric wench and a hand cranker for emergency!

Once the snow is gone maybe July or August at the rate we are going I will sell off the one trailer and free up some space in my side yard again.

I have a Texas Bragg "Classic Car Hauler" 18', It has a full steel deck and I have welded in some extra tie downs as I use it for hauling 4 atvs as well. I have a lift so I have never had to do any work under it or on it. I keep an old towel in the truck though for when I have to lay on it to tie the back of the car down. Otherwise I have had zero problems with it. One nice thing I do like is the low fenders and dove tail back end.

http://www.texasbraggtrailers.com/tr...rs-classic.htm