[Keith Seymore]

I also have this 24' Haulmark enclosed, which fits anything I've ever tried to put in there.

Also leaves a little room in the front for storage and a workbench.

K

[unclescratch]

Back when I was more active in a car club, some members would acquire old rv's, strip them down, and convert them to car haulers. They already had tongues and brakes, sold the scrap (aluminum), and went that way.

['ol Pinion head]

Trailer "need" all depends on what you're hauling. Recently, a good friend & I made a one shot 4hour trip for a small 50 year old travel trailer & LeMans parts car. Both were strapped down on his 36ft 5th wheel open trailer. Though ive hauled in multiple hundreds of partscars over the years, its been fairly rare occasion that I was buying more than one at a time from the same seller. With the concerns of storage space and having to keep good tires on such a rarely used 5th wheel trailer, personally, just don't need such a long tailer.

My own exp with open trailer hauling, I prefer an 18ft open dovetail trailer, one with mitered front corners & no more than 5 ft of tongue structure in front of the deck. Such design allows getting in & out of tight spots where longer trailers wont go. The best open frailer out of 4 that I've owned, I had it built with mitered front corners, a dovetail, and open pit the last 7 ft. Made it very easy to crawl up under the rear of a car & cutoff an errant exhaust pipe, remove a rearend, etc.

The big trailer company's ads for open trailers vary to a degree on features. Many of the cheaper ones are either Big Tex's or similar entry level clones. Some companys will call attention to their rectangular tubing frames & put down angle iron construction frames. Others will offer a steel tread plate deck with with wide spans between angle iron crossmembers. Such budget steel deck trailers sure look purty when new, but are typically poorly constructed for continual work use. Such treadplate steel deck will often have low spots within a few years of heavy use & will burn your arms & unprotected legs in the summer. They are also heavy, considering their poor frame construction. My preference for a working open style car trailer, has been a treated wood floor with a steel tread plate dovetail, mitered front corners with a lockable receiver slide in & pit pin attachment winch attachment. For a seldom used car show type usage trailer that's stored inside, most will never have a need for such a removable winch. Have just found there are times out in the sticks, that I need the ability to move the winch to slide into the HD receiver hitch on the back of my 3/4 ton truck. That need doesn't fit in well with the features of a prefabbed open trailer.

My previous open trailer held up extremely well for an angle iron frame open trailer. It's Wolmanized treated deck exhibited no rot in nearly 20 years of usage & outdoor storage. With 8 stake pockets down both sides, angle iron crossmembers every 14-16" along the front 11 feet wider spans further back, it made a very sturdy trailer. My current open car trailer was bought used after my previous car trailer was stolen. This Spring will bring a few updates, the squared off front corners have to go, as does the fixed winch mount & will be adding recessed LED lighting. Have loaded & unloaded quite a few loads on this latest trailer & it's just currently no where near as versatile as previous one.

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I also have this 24' Haulmark enclosed, which fits anything I've ever tried to put in there.

Also leaves a little room in the front for storage and a workbench.

K....

Have pulled a few 24' Hallmark's & Pace's as both are quite common amongst friends. Am currently watching for a clean used 22'- 26' enclosed car trailer with an alum tread plate floor, may even consider one with 5th wheel attachment. Prefer to buy once, finally have room inside so won't have to worry about hailstorms.

[Gastiresandoil]

Originally Posted by unclescratch

Back when I was more active in a car club, some members would acquire old rv's, strip them down, and convert them to car haulers. They already had tongues and brakes, sold the scrap (aluminum), and went that way.

I made mine out of an old U-Haul, 17-footer. Scrap the box, make a bed, drive in the fast lane with a piggybacked car.

[ERIC AULL]

Originally Posted by Old Man Taylor

I have an 18' open trailer that works fine. For an enclosed trailer I would go with a 24' minimum.

I agree 24 enclosed....room for "support' stuff...and to "balance the load over the axles and hitch weight. Don't forget the escape door..so you can get in and out of the car.